By Keith Button
May 1, 2024
Despite the brushes with aircraft collisions at U.S. airports, FAA has no plans to expand its most elaborate and expensive ground collision alert technology beyond the 20 airports that already have it. Keith Button spoke to FAA-funded researchers who believe they might have a lower-cost solution.
By Cat Hofacker
April 1, 2024
Amy Edmondson, organizational psychologist and professor at Harvard Business School
By Paul Marks
July 1, 2023
Richard Champion de Crespigny
July 1, 2023
The air transportation industry has for years toyed with radical new designs but in the end has always stuck with the familiar tube-and-wing approach in the face of FAA’s safety standards. Mislav Tolusic of the venture capital firm Marlinspike argues that accepting more risk will spark needed innovation.
By Keith Button
April 1, 2023
In recent months, airline passengers have been injured by encounters with clear air turbulence that, at the moment, crews have no way to detect. A solution could be at hand through a collaboration between NASA and the National Research Council Canada. Keith Button tells the story.
By Karen Kwon
July 1, 2022
Hydrogen-powered aircraft could prove to be the best way for the air travel industry to meet its bold commitment to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. For that to happen, hydrogen must be stored safely on these next-generation aircraft, and the question is the best way to do it. Karen Kwon tells the story.
By Keith Button
June 1, 2022
Today, earning type certification for a new kind of passenger jet culminates with months of expensive test flights, some of them harrowing. Keith Button spoke to aerospace engineers who aspire to change this with a bold idea: certification by analysis.
By Cat Hofacker
May 1, 2021
Dana Schulze
By Cat Hofacker
May 1, 2020
PETER DEFAZIO
By Jan Tegler
July 1, 2019
No one knows with certainty what mix of factors brought down two of the world’s most sophisticated passenger jets. The final accident reports from the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes are still being drafted. Jan Tegler looks at how the crews might have been able to save their aircraft from all that was working against them.
By Keith Button
January 2, 2019
Modern airliners do a good job of flying automatically until something unexpected happens. At that point, a pilot takes control and typically resolves the problem with no drama or fanfare. Very rarely, though, a pilot must save the day or die trying. For passenger planes to fly autonomously, software would have to be capable of handling these edge cases.
By Joshua Hatch
August 31, 2018
Cybersecurity attacks on airlines and their partners are neither a matter of if nor when. They are already happening with serious consequences. Joshua Hatch spoke to independent security experts and aviation executives about the greatest threats ahead.
By Keith Button
July 1, 2018
NASA has long been working with the FAA and the aviation industry to improve technologies for containing broken fan blades and preventing damage like that which killed a Southwest Airlines passenger. Keith Button looks at a research project that could help prevent future tragedies.
By Joe Stumpe
May 31, 2018
As powerful as computational fluid dynamics and supercomputing are, they have not come close to relegating wind tunnels to history. In fact, in the U.S., a new tunnel is going up at MIT, and NASA is deliberating whether it should close a historic tunnel at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia four years from now as planned.
By Keith Button
March 2, 2018
Mathematicians are exploring an entirely new approach to making aircraft safer
By Debra Werner
February 28, 2018
Meteorologists might have a way to wave pilots around dangerous pockets of cold air
By Tom Risen
January 2, 2018
Nancy Graham
By Joe Stumpe
October 31, 2017
Airline industry embraces drones as cost-saver
By Tom Risen
October 30, 2017
MARY SCHIAVO
By Ben Iannotta
October 30, 2017
By Ben Iannotta
August 31, 2017
By Keith Button
August 31, 2017
One hurdle has been the inability to accurately model partially melted ice crystals
By Tom Risen
June 27, 2017
Chihoon Shin, 32, aviation engineering investigator for helicopters, Office of Aviation Safety, National Transportation Safety Board
By Keith Button
June 27, 2017
Making it easier for helicopters to land in harsh conditions
By Tom Risen
June 27, 2017
VINCENT CAPEZZUTO
June 27, 2017
A weather-data transformation is playing out in cockpits
By Keith Button
May 31, 2017
Examining the aerospace industry’s next-generation software
By Debra Werner
May 1, 2017
May 1, 2017
A look at the payoffs and challenges of removing wires from airlines
By Debra Werner
March 6, 2017
March 6, 2017
Businesses are racing to meet an FAA mandate for training
By Joe Stumpe
January 27, 2017
Industry experts are enthusiastic about changes to FAA rules
