Making repairs to composite parts that restore their aesthetic appearance as well as their mechanical performance is difficult. Concerns about undetected contaminants weakening bonded joints mean most repairs involve bolted-on patches. But techniques are emerging to enable aesthetic bonded repairs to aircraft in service and parts during manufacture. Aerostructures manufacturer GKN Aerospace is using laser ablation to cut the time and skill needed to prepare composite parts for repair.

The FAA's NextGen air traffic control modernization effort is a top priority, and 2013 will be a crucial year for its en-route automation modernization and automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast programs. Deployment of both is to be largely completed by the end of the year. If that does not occur, there could be serious headaches for other NextGen initiatives.

The Persian Gulf area carriers have been among the winners of the seismic shift in global air transport. As they continue to grow, upgrading infrastructure will be key to sustaining the pace.

Variable-area fan nozzles on the latest high-bypass engines could increase fuel efficiency and reduce airport noise. Pratt & Whitney is introducing the concept on its PW1100G for the Airbus A320NEO. but not on smaller versions of the geared turbofan. Current engines have fixed-area fan nozzles, designed as a compromise between climb and cruise. But the exit area needs to be larger for takeoff and smaller for cruise, so a variable nozzle optimizes the fan flow for each flight condition.

A Pinnacle Airlines contract with its pilots, if ratified in mid-January, will provide Delta Air Lines with its path to reducing the number of 50-seat jets operated by its regional airline partners to 125 or fewer. Doing so could reduce its maintenance costs.

One day in the distant future, air traffic will certainly stop growing. The current annual growth rate of 5% per year cannot be sustained forever. If it were, the world's population would eventually spend more time in the air than on the ground.

Primes find they must share intellectual property with suppliers.

The final report on the May 9, 2012, crash of a Sukhoi Superjet 100 prototype on a demonstration flight near Jakarta, Indonesia, highlights a growing trend in fatal airline accidents: the reemergence of controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) as a major contributor to airline fatalities. “[The Superjet accident] is in keeping with the rising trend in CFIT accidents over the past two years,” says Jim Burin, director of technical programs at the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF). “We had hoped we were getting rid of them.”