Young Aviation Professionals and Emerging Technology

Where has 2017 gone? This year certainly was a busy one. As I reflect back on the past 11 months a few highlights come to mind. This year we actively continued our push into more international markets and covered more maintenance and manufacturing topics from abroad. AMT was present at many European tradeshows and events, and we visited European companies like AFI KLM E&M, Textron Aviation Düsseldorf, Airbus, Liebherr-Aerospace, and Daher to name a few. For the second year our editorial was mentioned at the Aerospace Media Awards Dinner in Paris, and I just returned from speaking on maintenance safety topics at the Flight Safety Foundation’s International Air Safety Summit in Ireland. AMT is truly engaged in our wonderful and global industry! I want to personally thank you – our readers and advertisers – for choosing Aircraft Maintenance Technology and AviationPros.com.

This issue is always a special one as we highlight the 40 young men and women selected to receive this year’s 40 Under 40 Next Generation Maintenance Professionals Awards. These young professionals come from around the world, from all segments of aviation, and different roles that support aircraft maintenance. Reading through the profiles words such as aviation passion, education, volunteerism, integrity, and hard-working come to mind. Congratulations to not only the 40 of you selected, but to all of you who were nominated, and those of you who understand the importance of recognizing the next generation of aircraft maintenance professionals by nominating someone.    

With the future of these young aviators in mind, this is the perfect issue to talk about a technology that is, and certainly will impact aviation’s future – electrification. In this issue we introduce you to the subject of electrification of aircraft and some of the different aspects and considerations. This introduction will be followed by several more articles beginning next year, each diving deeper into topics like energy storage, electric and hybrid propulsion, and electric aircraft design, and more. This is exciting new technology that has already touched many of us in the industry.

Thanks for a great 2017 and again, welcome to the future!

Ron