Category: Aerospace

Talent Solutions Coalition, a new nonprofit, connects aviation employers and partner colleges with academic programs that could send graduates across state lines for well-paying jobs.   Like many sectors of the economy, the $70 billion aviation manufacturing and maintenance industry has a work force problem, with three-quarters of companies reporting a substantial shortage of skilled workers. Colleges aren’t producing enough graduates who have the right certification and training, aviation companies say, or who are willing to move across state lines for a job, assuming they even know about openings outside their region. “Everybody is trying to find people,” said Crystal Maguire, executive director...

More than a century ago, the first aviation pioneers figured out a way to use rigid wings with flaps to generate enough force to lift a heavy craft into the sky. It was one of the great advances in human history and also the beginning of a new era in transportation. Airplanes, and the airline industry that depends on them, are now among the world’s largest businesses, with air travel producing over US $700 billion in annual revenues. However, commercial airlines spend more than 25 percent of their operating expenses on fuel, earning the industry a reputation for razor-thin margins that will eke...