In this week’s roundup: the U.S. reports $33 billion in foreign sales; Indian council recommends the purchase of 83 more Tejas combat aircraft; Boeing wins electronic warfare upgrade contract; and Indonesia considers Gripen and F-16 fighters.
On Nov. 8, the U.S. elected Donald Trump its next president, as well as a Republican House and Senate. Aviation Week editors explain how they think those dynamics will shape the nation’s policy and spending choices in the short term and the long run.
UAS in the news: Flexrotor on ice; Vanilla’s 10-day target; DARPA’s drone hive; Vahana test plans; Flirtey in Silicon Valley; DJI’s Drone SAR app; Airbus bolsters counter-UAS.
A J-20 that performed at Zhuhai may have been a production aircraft, but it also had ill-fitting panels and other features that did not look very stealthy.
Probably the biggest industrial advantage in setting up 737 completion and delivery centers in China will be freeing up space at Renton and Boeing Field. These sites face a rise in production rates to 57 a month by 2019, compared with 42 now.
The newly revealed Avic Cloud Shadow appears to have a span of around 20 m (66 ft.), like the General Atomics Avenger used by the U.S. Air Force, though the Chinese aircraft is less bulky and probably lighter.
Readers weigh merits of Carbon Offset and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation and Aviation Week's coverage; some decry Lockheed Martin's timing of new tanker offering.
GE’s Advanced Turboprop will feature more additively manufactured parts than any previous engine, reducing 855 conventionally made components to just 12 3-D-printed parts.
DARPA program plans to field navigation-grade MEMS IMU by 2020 as a drop-in replacement for today’s tactical-grade sensors to extend the time for which precision weapons can fly without GPS.
From design tools to flexible electronics, advances that proliferate sensing and communications throughout aircraft, engines and the factories where they are made will result in profound design and engineering changes.
