Aviation Week & Space Technology

The expansion of Tianjin Airlines, Airbus’s commitment to set up an A330 completion center in China, and the country’s bulk orders for the Airbus widebody aircraft are connected. The common element is the Tianjin city government.

HNA is the parent of Hainan Airlines and several other carriers in China. It is also the largest private airline group in what many believe will soon be the world’s largest single air transport market. Therefore any HNA acquisitions need to be taken seriously.

With the MALE UAV and A330 MRTTs assured, Netherlands has an early reason to celebrate the holidays.

Russia’s positioning of a S-400 air defense system creates headache for air planners fighting the Islamic State group.

The FireSat system will result in revisit times about every 15 min., which begins to approach the warning an experienced firewatcher in a tower can provide firefighters by scanning forest treetops for smoke.

A look at the space business shows the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Aerospace suppliers would be wise to tune into the “Delta Effect” and the other factors currently impeding aftermarket growth.

In November, ESA handed NASA the first tangible evidence of its contribution to the Orion development, a structural test article of the European Service Module (ESM) that in the coming months will undergo rigorous environmental trials.

The airline is finalizing a 10-year blueprint that will include either 787s or A350s, but may defer some other orders.

Anything that can catch fire will catch fire in the hands-on testing facilities within the FAA’s Fire Safety Branch.

While the Chinese air transportation industry wonders whether the government will merge major carriers, China Eastern’s rivals keep building up at Shanghai.

Engineers and scientists are beginning to plan a program of robotic exploration over the next two decades to look for life on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Europa, the large icy moon of Jupiter, is first on the list.

Indra’s unmanned Tecnam P2006T; open-access FMS; ULA offers cubesat rides; renewable diesel leader backs Boeing; Arevo’s robot prints in true 3-D.

Acquisition reform requires speed, resources, commercial pricing—and a little “plain English.”

A typical Boeing 787 user is LAN Airlines of Chile, which experienced early service issues but is now using the twin jet on a wide range of routes and enjoying improved dispatch reliability.

Approval of certification plan takes Lockheed Martin a step closer to launching development of a commercial hybrid airship for cargo transport to remote locations.

Task force set up to make recommendations for registration of small unmanned aircraft sets minimum size at 0.55 lb., potentially bringing toy drones under the FAA’s new rule.

Given the huge number of lithium-ion batteries being shipped by air, some will eventually short-circuit and go into thermal runaway. Industry and regulators are considering some box-level solutions.

Carriers may be left to their own devices to fight lithium-ion battery fires as ICAO contemplates pseudo-solutions.

Shape-adaptive morphing structures could follow the adoption path that have made winglets the rule, rather than the exception, on new aircraft

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) may add language to appropriations bill that would help ULA use the Atlas V to compete for future launches.

Despite the founder’s indictment, Russian ownership and potential Chinese competition, Epic Aircraft’s E1000 single-turboprop advances towards FAR23 certification.

The planned ramp-up will see more than 250 C Series in service by 2020, when the program is expected to begin generating positive cash flow, and is “balanced, manageable and achievable,” says Bombardier Commercial Aircraft President Fred Cromer.

From no-fly zones in Syria to the potential return of F-22 production, presidential candidates are talking tougher about defense.

Ashton Carter’s Defense Innovation Unit, Experimental, is quite small and has no budget to speak of.