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Over the past decade or so and through the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of airlines have risen to global prominence in Asia (especially China), the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, and elsewhere. As each develops, many industry observers are questioning the extent to which these airlines will rival current industry heavyweights around the world. This paper aims to provide a basis for assessing what constitutes a major global carrier in the airline industry, including the likelihood of being so in the foreseeable future. Three key metrics are employed to gauge the global reach of an airline and its corresponding major global carrier status and rank: wide-bodied fleet size, the number of international destinations flown to, and continents served (squared for adequate amplification). Data are sourced from the Centre for Aviation (CAPA) airline database. The paper concludes that major global carrier status for an airline is best viewed in relation to key competitors including the ranking location of those directly above and below any given airline. This ranking approach is therefore about insights generated and is not premised on precise locations on a leader board.

Commercialization of inventions urges university spin-off firms to develop networks abroad, particularly if they are active in a small national economy. While it is recognized that young spin-offs are vulnerable due to lack of various resources and capabilities, support in internationalization from the university is rare. We investigate university spin-offs' internationalization using a sample of 105 of such firms in Northwest European countries. In early years, 62 per cent employ international networks, enhanced by capabilities gained in PhD education, participation in market training and innovation experience at practical level, but also (and strongly) by diversity among partners in domestic networks. Subsequent growth leads to a stronger internationalization, mainly derived from early patterns of internationalization, but a good 30 per cent of the spin-offs tend to face problematic situations, namely a shrinking pattern or persistent lack of internationalization. The paper concludes with some challenges for improvement., Economics of Technology and Innovation

Internationally the railway industry is facing a severe shortage of engineers with high level, relevant, profession and technical knowledge and abilities, in particular amongst engineers involved in the design, construction and maintenance of railway infrastructure. A unique graduate level program has been created to meet that global need via a fully online, distance education format. The development and operation of this Master of Engineering degree is proposed as a model of the process needed for the industry-relevance, flexible delivery, international networking, and professional development required for a successful graduate engineering program in the 21st century. In particular, the paper demonstrates how a mix of new and more familiar technologies are utilised through a variety of tasks to overcome the huge distances and multiple time zones that separate the participants across a growing number of countries, successfully achieving close and sustained interaction amongst the participants and railway experts.

On 12 September 2007, the Air University commander tasked the Air Force Research Institute to provide an "outside-the-beltway" look at what the U.S. Air Force (USAF) should look like 10-15 years from now, roughly 2018-2023. The goal of this study is to identify the enduring attributes of the nation's air, space, and cyberspace force in the context of major transitions. The study attempts to understand the value of the service's contribution to national security and, where appropriate, offer considerations for change. It is not meant to be all encompassing, but rather provides insight into the most pressing issues facing the USAF in the post-Cold War era. Binding the strategy together is a redefinition of Global Vigilance, Global Reach, and Global Power; not in a weapons systems-specific context, but rather as a framework through which the USAF serves the nation. An underlying assumption is that while major combat operations, also known as conventional campaigns, are the most dangerous to America's national interest, the conduct of irregular warfare (IW) is the most likely. Accordingly, beyond recasting Global Vigilance, Reach, and Power, the study focuses on how the USAF can contribute to winning the current fight while simultaneously maintaining the technological superiority necessary for prevailing in the future fight. In relation to the current fight, the study discusses winning IW, air mobility, air-ground integration and the planning cycle, intelligence reform, the transformation of air power thought -- including integration of unmanned aerial systems, the Total Force, and air base disaster contingency planning. In maintaining USAF technological superiority, the study focuses on acquisition reform, nuclear surety and deterrence, intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and bomber modernization, space defense in depth, and operationally responsive space and cyberspace operations., ISBN 978-1-58566-189-3

In 2007, Congress asked the Air Force to explain its strategy for organizing, training, and equipping its forces. The question is important. The Air Force spends a great deal of effort programming its forces but surprisingly little explaining how the forces it builds support the nation's needs. We say in our mission statement that we deliver sovereign options for the defense of the country and its global interests, but we have not made as much of an effort as we could to explain what sovereign options are or to link our mission to the particular mix of forces we have requested from Congress. We do our contingency planning and write our strategy memos for internal consumption, but we often neglect to share our thinking with the nation. Stated briefly, as the Air Force builds its forces, its central goal is to offer the nation a flexible mix of capabilities that allow it to act in a world of growing strategic uncertainty. We program our forces to allow policy makers to act across the spectrum of violence, from strikes against individual terrorists to major-power wars. We construct our forces to provide presidents and combatant commanders the widest possible range of options to assure friends and dissuade and deter those who seek to use violence to pursue their ends. We assemble our forces so that, when we must fight, our air, space, and cyber forces provide the nation with capabilities that maximize the chances that we will be able to pit our asymmetric advantages against our opponents' vulnerabilities. The Air Force provides the United States with powerful advantages that it does not obtain from land or maritime services. We currently possess unparalleled advantages in air and space -- domains that cover the entire surface of the earth. So long as our air and space superiority forces allow us to dominate these domains, we will be able to observe any part of the planet, communicate that information to where it will do the most good, and project force to that location., Published in Strategic Studies Quarterly, v2 n1, p6-17, Spring 2008.

The mission of the United States Air Force is to deliver sovereign options for the defense of the United States of America and its global interests to fly, fight, and win in Air, Space, and Cyberspace. Today the United States stands at a strategic crossroads. This junction is characterized by rapid growth of the global economy accompanied by diffusion of technology, new and increasingly complex economic and international relationships, and potential competition for resources and influence. This strategic context demands that we retain our position of international political and military leadership because security and economic health closely intertwine with international political stability and economic prosperity. We are the leader in a global system predicated on stable, peaceful relations among nations. We prosper in large measure because we are part of a system of mutually beneficial exchanges between states. Following World War II, the United States played the leading role in creating, preserving, and protecting this international system as the community of free democratic nations grew. This leadership led in large part to the fall of the Soviet regime and provided the stable backdrop against which countries like Japan, India, and China initiated their unprecedented economic growth. Absent the relative long-term stability of the global environment facilitated by American diplomacy and underwritten by the strength of our armed forces, neither the international system, nor the United States would enjoy its current level of security and prosperity. We cannot abdicate our position of political and military leadership without grave consequences.

In 2002, the forward-leaning Marines officially documented a need to transport "small numbers of combat Marines...at sufficient speed to ensure the relevance of global terrestrial force projection at the earliest stages of conflict." They have stated the desire to use space as the transport medium. With certain technological advances, the space domain may provide the solution, perhaps the only solution, for this USMC transportation requirement. Although achieving a viable, responsive troop space transportation option comes with significant challenges, the U.S. Air Force as the lead service for space should invest in capabilities that will both satisfy the stated Marine Corps need and make possible other missions that would benefit from fast, low-cost, reliable space transportation. The purpose of this paper is to examine technologies supporting worldwide point-to-point space transportation "and the implications of this for the U.S. Air Force between now and 2025." While this futuristic method of achieving rapid global mobility requires maturation of a wide range of technologies, this paper will focus on launch vehicle technologies here an appropriate Air Force contribution would reap substantial rewards for the United States and the Air Force. After exploring the background related to this problem, the paper delves into launch vehicle technologies and immerses the concept in 8 possible future scenarios. In 7 of the 8 alternative futures there is a definite utility in having access to a rapid, point-to-point space transport technology. The author concludes that the need for rapid, precision global mobility through space is valid. Technologies are maturing rapidly with the potential to deliver manned and unmanned responsive spacelift capabilities sooner than 2025, but they have not been adequately demonstrated in a single system. With the proper investments, disciplined planning, and the right partnerships, the nation will see the opening of the space superhighway., Blue Horizons Paper.

The ability of the U.S. Armed Forces to maintain a global presence and rapidly project military power anywhere in the world are key factors in preserving our freedom. To accomplish the demanding task of global reach support, Air Mobility Command (AMC) employs an en route support infrastructure. These en route locations provide varying levels of command, control, and communications (C3), logistics support, and aerial port functions. The goal of the en route is to minimize delays for AMC mission aircraft. However, these en route locations constitute a small percentage of the locations that AMC aircraft visit. Given the critical demand for rapid air mobility, potential impact of mission delays or cancellations, and the substantial investment of taxpayer dollars, AMC must provide logistical support to off-station aircraft in the most effective manner possible. This research examined a 5-year historical summary of AMC's logistical support process. The resulting data were used to perform a statistical analysis of AMC off-station aircraft logistic support records for AMC's six primary aircraft fleets (C-5, C-17, C-141, C-130, KC-10, and KC-135). The calculated average not mission capable (NMC) time was used to compare overseas en route and non en route locations to assess AMC's en route infrastructure's effectiveness in reducing mission delays due to aircraft maintenance problems. Effectiveness, in the context of this research, was measured in terms of a lower or shorter average NMC time, equating to reduced mission delays. The initial data analysis on OCONUS en route and non en route locations provided a macro-level assessment based on location only. A closer investigation of each of the six primary AMC aircraft fleets returned varying results in terms of reduced averaged NMC time. To determine if a significant difference existed between data groups, parametric and nonparametric statistical testing methods were used., The original document contains color images.

Air Force bombers have a legacy as old as the conceptual basis for airpower doctrine itself, but in a post-cold war world marked by uncertainty, changing threats, and declining defense spending, do they still have a role? The purpose of this paper is to consider the relevance of the long-range bomber force, B-52, B-1, and B-2, to national and theater requirements in the context of the changing security environment. The discussion that follows begins by reviewing the expected challenges of the multipolar world and its strategic requirements, examines contemplated missions for bombers, and arrives at a conclusion that these aircraft do offer unique value to future scenarios around the globe.