In no segment of the global industrial ecosystem has there been – perhaps, since the dawn of the 19^th century or more appropriately since the free availability of the World Wide Web in the late 1980’s – a much livelier exhibition of a closely-knit affinity with the affordances of innovations and technologies than in the aviation industry. Perhaps, it would also not be totally out of place to mention three other siblings of aviation – aerospace, aeronautics, and space.

Innovations in the realms of digitalisation, automation, virtualisation, and even cloud computing technologies are unleashing a barrage of technological affordances that are proving too tempting for aviation and aerospace alike. Take, for example, the Ethernet-based Time-Sensitive Networking (TSN) technology, which is the subject matter of this edition’s Technology Matters. The seminal technology targets the development of real-time Ethernet solutions and standards that would provide the level of reliability, predictability and time synchronisation required for real-time deterministic applications. It is a technology that is based on open standard interfaces and is also an Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model Layer 2 – Data Link Layer – technology. Although this technology’s traditional application terrains are the transportation, utilities, manufacturing and automotive industrial landscapes, aviation and aerospace are beginning to find increasing use cases for it especially in the realm of airborne Ethernet communications where time-criticality, traffic prioritisation, reliability and predictability are crucial performance factors.

There is no gainsaying the fact that the growing flirtation of the global aviation industry with innovations and technologies has actually been helping the industry to navigate the labyrinthine corridors of knotty challenges that threaten the regularity, efficiency, security, safety, and sustainability of international aviation operations. Satellite technologies, for example, have been used to provide aviation with cutting-edge solutions in communication, navigation, and surveillance (CNS). Over a couple of years ago, the Spanish air navigation service provider, ENAIRE, and leading ATM systems development company, Indra, announced a joint venture, Startical, for the development of a satellite-enabled air traffic management solution. The project is a satellite surveillance and VHF communication initiative that will deploy a constellation of over 200 small low-earth-orbit satellites that will enable surveillance and VHF communication services to be provided especially in remote and oceanic regions. This initiative is particularly innovative in the sense that it is allowing for a seamless mix of both space-based and VHF-based technologies for the provision of an innovative mix of communication and surveillance services.