Getting on With It: Building, Deploying and Learning with 21st Century Aircraft

05/28/2012
5/28/12: by Robbin Laird During my recent visits in Spain and France as part of the Trade Media event held by Airbus Military, I had a chance to reflect on two key elements shaping the future of military aviation. The first is that no platform fights alone. Whether it is…

Understanding the Basic F-35: What is in the Baseline Aircraft? (Updated)

05/13/2012
The F-35 represents a new approach to the development, production, system and sustainment of a fleet of combat aircraft.  Additionally, the F-35 takes an innovative approach to collaborative upgrades over the airframe and global fleet’s life cycle. Too often an understanding of the basic aircraft rolling out of production right…

The Baseline F-35 Special Report

05/06/2012
The F-35 represents a new approach to the development, production, system and sustainment of a fleet of combat aircraft. Additionally, the F-35 takes an innovative approach to collaborative upgrades over the airframe and global fleet’s life cycle. Too often an understanding of the basic aircraft rolling out of production right…

A Grand Strategy To Revive Manufacturing

03/18/2012
by Richard McCormack Manufacturing News http://www.manufacturingnews.com/ March 16, 2012 The United States has no strategy for revitalizing U.S. manufacturing, but representatives from 18 organizations have put forth a set of proposals that could be the foundation of such a policy. Organized by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the…

A380 Manufacturability: Putting Concurrency in Its Place

02/18/2012
by Robbin Laird Inside the Beltway is sometimes like an ancient tribal festival.  The high priests come out chanting a phrase of wisdom and knowledge, which connects the Volk with the ancestors in a rite of bonding. Such a phrase is “concurrency.”  To show that you are an insider, you…

An Update on F-35 Manufacturability

01/30/2012
[caption id="attachment_32648" align="alignleft" width="300"] Frank Dougherty During the SLD Interview (Credit: SLD)[/caption] 01/30/2012 - During Second Line of Defense’s annual visit to the F-35 manufacturing facility, Frank Dougherty, Vice President, F-35 Production Operations provided an update on F-35 manufacturability.  Dougherty has extensive experience with both the F-22 and the F-16,…

The USCG Gets It Right: The 13th Ocean Sentry Aircraft Arrives Ahead of Schedule

01/30/2012
The USCG C-130 and Ocean Sentry fleet provide significant and crucial coverage for the maritime air arm for the USCG. As we have argued: The maritime patrol aircraft, the C-130s and the helos form together the surveillance, lift and action team, which provide significant capabilities to extend the reach of…