Young people seem to be getting the message that engineering offers opportunity: 84,000 U.S. students graduated from universities in 2012 with engineering degrees. That is up 12% from 73,000 just six years ago, according to the National Academies. And despite the downturn in the economy and in federal spending, the aerospace and defense industry continues to provide at least some of that opportunity.

Mitsubishi Aircraft has again extended the development schedule for its MRJ regional jet, this time by about one-and-a-half years, with first delivery now due in the second quarter of 2017, nine years after the program was launched. The first flight, previously planned for the last quarter of this year, now is not expected until the second quarter of 2015.

It pays to be the new guy, according to data gathered for the 2013 Aviation Week Workforce Study. Pay for new college graduates rose by 3.4% between 2011 and 2012, according to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). In the aerospace and defense industry, the increase was slightly lower, at 3.2%. Companies with fewer employees worked to retain their workforces, awarding pay increases on average of 4.1%.

The recent rebranding of EADS into Airbus is a superb example of how to justify a top management decision with some strategic rationale that really does not exist. There was clearly an issue with the EADS brand. The name was poorly recognized internationally, but that problem had less to do with the brand itself than with the underlying dynamics within the group.

Atlantic Airways achieves greater operational reliability and regularity with more accurate RNP

Bombardier's first CSeries flight-test aircraft, FTV1, moved closer to first flight when it emerged from the paint shop at the Mirabel plant near Montreal on Aug. 22, having earlier begun low-speed taxi tests. These followed completion of thrust-reverser and stationary high-power runs of the Pratt & Whitney PW1500G geared turbofans. FTV1 has also completed aircraft-in-the-loop testing during which it was “flown” on the ground in a simulated flight environment to validate systems integration.

Airfreight is showing an uptick in demand, but the market remains weak

Airline mergers and acquisitions sense and nonsense