The Avic MA700 turboprop, now due to go into service in 2018, is the aircraft program that more than a few people in China's aircraft industry believe should have launched early last decade. At that time, Avic had built the Antonov An-24 turboprop as the Y-7 and had updated it in partnership with Western suppliers to create the MA60. The next move, so the theory goes, should have been a new turboprop, also built with Western suppliers. “But everyone was impatient,” says a Chinese industry official. “We wanted to make a jet.”

Hampered by financial woes and other limitations; may be out of time

With wildfires forecast to increase this year, the long-running saga of efforts to modernize the U.S. fleet of large firefighting aircraft has taken another turn: The latest attempt to place more modern airtankers under contract has been hit by another protest from a losing bidder. This marks the second time that a contract protest has delayed modernization of the fleet, and lawmakers are pressuring the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) to override the protest and get new aircraft into service.

The company is already working to address other issues that were emerging before flying ceased in mid-January.

SkyWest Inc.'s arrangement to acquire as many as 200 new 76-seat Embraer 175s is the latest in a series of orders expected as the reshaped U.S. airline industry moves to larger regional jets (RJ) and sheds 50-seaters. But the deal—valued at more than $8 billion at list prices if all aircraft are ordered—might not be quite as big as it seems.

The opening of a large mill for aerospace aluminum is a rare event

Europe takes lead in renewed interest of private investment

African aviation has been on the verge of a breakthrough for years