PALMDALE, CA—Northrop Grumman entered full-rate production on the F-35 Lightning II’s centre fuselage in May to meet increasing order quantities from the Pentagon and international customers. According to FlightGlobal, Northrop hired 1,000 additional employees here between the beginning of 2017 and the end of the first quarter 2018 to accommodate the increased production.

If it rolls, floats or flies, lightweighting is one of the biggest challenges facing manufacturers today. The push for new materials is forcing engineers in a variety of industries to explore cost-effective alternatives and develop new assembly processes.

A new generation of supersonic aircraft could dramatically change commercial flight. While the basic technology has been around for decades, it's been plagued by noise issues. Due to sonic booms, supersonic jetliners are unable to fly over land.

TUCSON, AZ—Raytheon Missile Systems and its Norway-based partner will arm the U.S. Navy’s new littoral combat ships with a long-range surface attack missile, in a program that could be worth nearly $850 million, reports the Arizona Daily Star.

DAYTON, OH—Engineers at the Air Force Research Laboratory here recently developed a robot for aerospace manufacturing applications.

Sometime in 2020, the Solar Orbiter satellite will begin its several-year journey after being launched from the Cape Canav-eral Air Force Station in Florida with an Atlas V rocket.

PFINZTAL, Germany--As carbon fiber-reinforced plastics continue to become major components of aircraft, it’s increasing the need for sustainable recycling concepts.

SAN DIEGO--Boeing, through its subsidiary Tapestry Solutions, announced Monday that its Enterprise Sensor Integration (ESI) software platform has gone live at BAE Systems' Nashua, NH, facility. The rollout of Tapestry's ESI is part of BAE Systems' large-scale effort to standardize and automate the infrastructure for its manufacturing operations.