San Francisco-based Lam Aviation completed another round of flight tests using a Lancair Columbia fitted with its Lam Aileron, confirming a number of performance improvements that range from 30% improved fuel consumption to a 50% increase in rate of climb over the in-production aircraft, the company says.

If an airline could mix the petabytes of performance data that aircraft generate with Big Data analysis—and control the weather—that could be operational nirvana. Then fuse that with maximizing the customer experience—and save millions or billions of dollars—and you have near-utopia.

The aim is to make it safe to fly unmanned aircraft in U.S. airspace.

Changes have been made to methodology and categories, and prior year results have been restated to reflect this. Scores represent the composite of six performance categories. The categories and their contributions to total score are: Liquidity (15%), scored from metrics measuring cash and equivalents; implicit borrowing capacity computed from a percentage estimate of unencumbered asset collateral to debt; and unrestricted cash reserves per available seat-mile.

Testing of second 900EP marks next phase for family's enhancement

Smaller carriers dominate highest spots in overall rankings for Top-Performing Airlines index.

Rank: 2nd, revenues of $250 million-$2 billion Sales (12 months through Dec. 2012): $275 million

Rank: 2nd, revenues of $2-6 billion 2012 sales: $3.4 billion