Export-Import Bank

The Export-Import Bank of our country is the official export credit agency of USA. They assist in financing the export of U.S. goods and services to the international markets.
(most of this information is from http://www.exim.gov/about/)
The Ex-Im Bank enables U.S. companies to turn exports into real sales that help to maintain and create jobs and contribute to our national economy. They do not compete with private sector lenders, but provide export financing products that fill gaps in trade financing. They assume credit and country risks that the private sector is unable or unwilling to accept. The Ex-Im Bank also helps to level the playing field for U.S. exporters by matching the financing that other governments provide to their exporters. They provide working capital guarantees; export credit insurance; and loan guarantees and direct loans. No transaction is too large or too small for the Ex-Im Bank. On average, more than 85% of their transactions directly benefit U.S. small businesses. The Ex-Im Bank has been around for around 80 years and has supported more than $600 billion of U.S. exports, primarily to developing markets worldwide.

Since the financial crisis in 2008, the Ex-Im Bank has played a major role in financing exports of Boeing aircraft. Since 2008, financing has approximated one-third of Boeing deliveries ($8-10 billion per year). In 2007, a new Aircraft Sector Understanding (ASU) was developed under the Economic Cooperation and Development group. This was a group of 34 democratic countries who promote their collective economic interest. The ASU established terms and conditions under which the countries and their manufacturers could provide aircraft financing to commercial aircraft, engines, components and other modifications. The 2007 ASU was designed to set pricing that is benchmarked off of competing commercial sources with periodic reviews to reset pricing to market. Financing terms such as term, exposure fees, and loan amortization were dependent of the strength of the underlying credit and the aircraft type involved.

Since the Ex-Im Bank is very much so involved in the Aviation Industry now; (since the Export-Import Bank Re-authorization Act of 2012) the Bank has gained much more power over the oversight of the industries financing. This takes more power away from the aviation companies, and it has started taking away jobs from the aviation industry. The Bank has been giving out many loans for the purchase of widebody aircraft. They have been loaning a lot of money to foreign airlines and companies - from the U.S. treasury. This may eventually have a very negative impact on the U.S. taxpayer, if they foreign companies default on their payments. I believe that there should be a greater government oversight on the Ex-Im Bank, to make sure that they do not step on the toes of the U.S. Aviation Industry - in order to hold our interests (the U.S. aviation workers/ U.S. taxpayers) above those of other countries.

http://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/2014-01-28/alpa-again-urges-end-exim-financing-widebodies explains the recent actions that the ALPA is taking to help secure U.S. Aviation Jobs.

UAVs

In searching for what UAVs are being used for in the civilian world, I found an interesting article by James Carroll of the Vision-Systems website - that he gathered from an issue of the National Geographic regarding the matter: http://www.vision-systems.com/articles/2013/06/five-ways-uavs-are-being-used-by-civilians.html

In summary of what James mentioned, UAVs are being used in the civilian world for:

-Hurricane Hunting by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Northrop Grumman team.

-3D Mapping by Pix4D (a Switzerland-based software company)

-Wildlife Protection by the U.S. Government

-Agriculture. In Japan they have been flying UAVs for 20 years to allow farmers to treat an acre of land in just five minutes.

-Search and Rescue. Canada uses these to find people using heat sensing equipment on their UAVs

From what I can understand, the NAS will definitely make use of the UAVs. Since the NAS already hold air traffic controllers under their 'wing', this may trigger a larger integration of unmanned aerial vehicles in the commercial and airline community. Using UAVs for this purpose is not available right now, but according to an article I found (http://www.providencejournal.com/breaking-news/content/20130922-ewave-future-of-drone-use-appears-to-be-wide-open.ece) this may be practiced in the decades to come. This means that even though a pilot will not be onboard the aircraft, there will still be a specific pilot controlling the airplane from the ground. The FAA is not allowing such a thing right now, saying that there is still too much risk involved with this procedure. In my opinion, I believe that the FAA is so far against integrating this right now in order to protect pilot jobs. There will come a time when UAVs will be the "main way to travel" and the FAA will allow this because of the push of just one airline to integrate such a program into their aircraft. Of course, if this goes well with one airline, and they end up saving even a little bit of money, the other airlines will be sure to follow suit. Maybe they could start this by having one pilot onboard "just in case" something happens, but even that probably will not happen for a few decades. 

Military integration of UAVs have been going on for a while now, and it seems this is definitely good procedure. From spying missions to bombing, UAVs are used as a great way to keep our soldiers from being in danger - since the UAVs are small enough to evade enemy radar, and can be controlled from home. Depending on the type of UAV, the price range costs from a few thousand dollars to tens of millions of dollars. This can be costly, but to protect potential loss of the lives of soldiers, it is well worth it.

I have found quite a few jobs available in UAV aviation. For example: Director of Domestic Growth (which integrates international plans into UAV strategy), UAV repair, UAV operator, Human Factors Engineer (which tests UAVs in terms of how the human factors aspect can be applied to the use of these programs), among many others. So, there are definitely opportunities to work with UAVs out there right now.