North American manufacturing needs engineers who can think differently than previous generations. So why is the U.S. struggling with skills for additive manufacturing? Three major factors are contributing to the ever-widening skills gap for AM in North America.

Orbital ATK’s Cygnus Spacecraft Named in Honor of Legendary Space Industry Executive J.R. Thompson

The Birmingham (AL) Business Journal (5/10, Van der Bilj) reports that GE Aviation has opened a new $200 million manufacturing facility in Huntsville, Alabama.

Chief Executive magazine has named Lockheed Martin’s chief, Marillyn Hewson, its CEO of the year.

Bloomberg News (5/8, Newcomer) reports that Uber and NASA have “announced a partnership to study urban manned aircraft.” Under the terms of the partnership, “Uber will share its data with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to move the world closer to developing air traffic management systems for a world with flying cars.”

The AP (5/4, Cooper) reported that, with a GDP of over $2.7 trillion, “California’s economy has surpassed that of the United Kingdom to become the world’s fifth largest.”

Eaton sees transformation using 3D metal printing as difficult but very worthwhile. The firm’s aerospace group is investing aggressively in additive manufacturing of both polymer and metal parts.

CHANDLER, Ariz. — A major aerospace and defense technology firm broke ground on its new campus Wednesday.

Manufacturing traditionally has been thought of as a process that turns raw materials into physical products, and the factory as the structure where manufacturing happens.

CNET News (4/17, Al-Heeti) reports that Lockheed Martin, Stratasys, and Phoenix Analysis & Design Technologies (PADT) announced Tuesday that they will manufacture and deploy 3D-printed parts for NASA’s Orion spacecraft, the first of the agency’s spacecraft to include such parts.