Integration has been the key target for Airbus over the past five years. But as the aircraft manufacturer has found out, this has slowed down decisions. Now the challenge is to speed up again, and new CEO Fabrice Bregier already has a plan.

The potential merger of BAE Systems with the EADS consortium could put an end to competing medium-altitude, long-endurance (MALE) UAV projects here.

It wasn't easy to kill Lockheed Martin's F-22, but resurrecting the Raptor could be just as difficult. Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney put the issue in play during a Sept. 8 interview with a Virginia television station near the Air Combat Command at Langley AFB, saying if he were elected president, he would add more of the fifth-generation fighters. But it's not clear whether the pledge aimed squarely at the local audience would fly even if Romney wins in November.

Deputy NASA Administrator Lori Garver raised some eyebrows last week with a provocative sound bite: “We're going back to the Moon.” A prime mover in the Obama administration decision to kill the “Moon, Mars and Beyond” Constellation program, Garver explained that she was talking about cislunar space, with a mission as early as 2017. That would be the planned first flight of the Orion multi-purpose crew vehicle atop the planned heavy-lift Space Launch System.

Experts foresee airline use in 2014, but hurdles remain

Southwest's playbook to merge smaller carrier into operations

If circumstances dictate outcomes, Ethiopian Airlines should be a small carrier. It is based in one of the world's poorest countries that has an economy still largely dependent on agriculture. And yet, the airline's management is building a regional powerhouse.

A high-profile ATM blunder in Washington underscores the growing demand for high-fidelity surveillance data of aircraft on the ground. On July 31, miscommunication between remotely located approach controllers in Virginia and tower controllers at Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA) led to a loss of separation as the tower cleared aircraft to depart northbound while terminal area controllers were lining up arrivals for landing in the opposite direction.