Gulf carriers expected to place large 777X orders at Dubai Airshow

Airlines, training providers have five years to upgrade simulators

The rapid rise of air travel to and from China is an increasingly important dynamic for the airline industry. Overseas carriers and tourist agencies are looking for new ways to tap into the flow of Chinese tourists, while at the same time, the international growth of Chinese airlines is prompting them to consider how they can attract more foreign passengers.

YouTube goes a long way in highlighting the creativity and delight some of today's university students take in being . . . well, a nerd. Whether at Purdue University creating an over-engineered automated soft-drink dispensing system or at the University of Michigan putting a fresh take on dance-a-thon turned hack-a-thon, present-day engineering students add to the tradition of poking fun at who they are while reveling in what they do.

Airbus is pulling the plug on its MRO (maintenance, repair, and overhaul) Network, concluding that the effort has outlived its usefulness. The 17 surviving network members (an 18th, Canada's Aveos, closed last year) has received word from Airbus that the network will disband in early 2014, says Tom Anderson, Airbus senior vice president for customer services and support.

At $10 billion, the Defense Department and National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) planned life-extension and upgrade program for the B-61 nuclear warhead was bound to draw attention on Capitol Hill. During a recent hearing, the NNSA deputy administrator for defense programs, Donald Cook, and the U.S. Strategic Command chief, USAF Gen. Robert Kehler, defended the B-61-12 against Democratic members concerned with spending on any new nuclear warhead, particularly when the B-83, an alternative to the B-61, will not need refurbishment for a decade (see page 48).

The Defense Department's most secret projects, known as Special Access Programs (SAP), will be protected from automatic declassification for 40 years or more, according to a Pentagon manual for the handling of materials for the military's most sensitive programs. SAP files prior to Jan. 1, 1982, will be protected until Dec. 31, 2021, regardless of their age, the new rule states. Later files will be protected for four decades, “unless they are reviewed and submitted for another extension,” according to the guide published Oct.

Since he was appointed CEO of Thales earlier this year, Jean-Bernard Levy has repeatedly proclaimed that there is nothing wrong with the company's business portfolio, because all of its operational units are profitable, if only marginally. Unfortunately, this view is symptomatic of the way most European aerospace and defense (A&D) players fail to understand the value of dynamic business portfolio management.