George Muellner, president of Boeing’s Advanced Systems unit, says the company has restructured over the past year to align with the defense market. “We had a good year,” he told reporters at a company briefing at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in Washington, D.C., “but the DOD market is shrinking.” His unit is now focused on generating new business by stretching out to new customers—Coast Guard, civil agencies, and international—and offering fast-turnaround demonstrations of what technologies the company can offer. “We are increasing our ability to rapidly prototype,” he said. “In the last years, we’ve lost the rapid” aspect of that approach.
An Air Force F-16 pilot designed a collapsible ladder that weighs just six pounds and folds into the unused cockpit map case.