Aviation Week & Space Technology

Aviation Week flies with Tom Schnell, director of the University of Iowa's Operator Performance Lab, in Schnell's Mi-2 Hoplite avionics testbed to sample the Lab's degraded visual environment research

Australian carrier confirms aircraft purchases after reporting dramatic earnings turnaround.

New connectivity software could help with everything from pilot flight planning to flight crew inventory control.

Japanese missile engineers aim to shorten engagement times and deal with stealthy aircraft by working out where maneuvers will take the targets

Working on a shoestring budget, NASA Armstrong’s “model lab” is testing potentially game-changing aerodynamic innovations as well as designs that could one day be the first aircraft to fly over Mars

Transonic buffet mitigation; sensor helps pierce brownout environments; airport noise reduction via steeper approaches trialed; "skycar" proposed to handle rescue missions

What if commercial pilots never had to learn to fly IFR? The distinction between instrument flight rules and visual flight rules (VFR) may go away in the not-too-distant future. What if the Black Hawk successor offered military pilots a 360-degree, all-weather view on a touch screen that could easily be reconfigured? These are the sort of things we might see in next-gen cockpits. Join Aviation Week editors Jim Asker, John Croft and Graham Warwick in peering into the future.

Outside-the-box refueling concept; decrying Pentagon's refueler aircraft choice; exasperation over some airline safety mechanisms; remembrances of our late comrade, Pierre Sparaco

NASA’s Learn-To-Fly project holds out the prospect of a radically different approach to flight testing new aircraft, particularly future unconventional and unfamiliar configurations

If a provocation led to unplanned violence between Japan and China, leaders may struggle to control nationalist pressure for escalation. Technical factors, especially the vulnerability of ISR systems, would also be destabilizing.

Cold War-era workhorse enables the next generation of helicopter situational awareness.

The money is part of Madrid’s broader purchase plan calling for a €171-million investment in medium-altitude, long-endurance unmanned aerial system technology through 2020, though the first UAS is not expected to be operational before 2017.

If the FAA can’t keep UAVs away from airports, maybe Congress can. The Pentagon plans more UAV patrols. Air Line pilots prepare for a decision on open skies, and Democrats plead for budget talks.

British investigators call for more testing of lithium battery-powered aircraft equipment.

British safety regulator aims to simplify unmanned aircraft operating rules after near-misses close to major airports.

Carrier looks to new service to give it a leg up in transcontinental market.

Japan probably has the third or fourth largest sigint establishment in the world, ranking behind the U.S. and Britain but possibly ahead of Russia and China, say Australian researchers.

Lockheed’s plan builds on the foundation of the constantly upgraded U-2 platform to fill perceived gap in Air Force ISR capability.

If Chinese economic expansion slows down, it will only add to the general slide in growth of international air passenger traffic.

Human missions to Mars could prove difficult without artificial gravity. Why has the space community not moved forward on this basic principle?

Airlines in Latin America’s largest economy are having to deal with a massive drop in demand.

With ADS-B In and a new route-planning application, pilots can take part in saving airlines fuel, time—and money.

Tokyo’s defense focus shifts, but budget pressures and a pacific population stand in the way of new needs

Japanese islands stand between China and free access to the Pacific. So Tokyo is concentrating on defending them.

Team developing V-280 Valor advanced tiltrotor for U.S. Army’s mid-2030s Future Vertical Lift rotorcraft is using a full-scale cockpit mock-up to define concepts for an advanced cockpit.