Air Shows & Events

If your company already has what it claims as the world’s fastest single-engine turboprop, what do you do to improve it and keep it competitive? New paint; new interior; drop the price? If you’re EADS Socata, and the airplane is the faster-than-your-propeller-airplane TBM 850, the correct answer is “none of the above.” Instead, you upgrade […]

Epic Aircraft has called an unscheduled news conference for Wednesday at the National Business Aviation Association convention in which it is expected to announce a major funding infusion from an Indian businessman — but Airbus is also sharing the podium, and that might lend some credence to rumors that its parent company EADS was considering […]

It was only a year ago, at NBAA 2006, that Piper announced its entrant into the personal jet market, a growth version of its venerable Malibu/Meridian platform powered by a single Williams FJ44-3AP turbofan. This year, Piper updated attendees on the PiperJet’s certification flight testing program and — to no one’s great surprise — announced […]

Brazilian airframer Embraer once again made the trek to NBAA from Sao Paulo this year, bringing with it updates on its forthcoming Phenom 100 and 300 bizjets at the low end along with plans to plug the gap between them and the company’s top-of-the-line Lineage 1000 and Legacy 600. During a pre-show press conference Monday […]

Click for a Larger Image As business aircraft interiors grow ever more plush and connected — broadband internet, telephone, fax and high-def video — customers are demanding the same kind of operating ease they expect from home and office information systems. That’s the driver behind Rockwell Collins’ latest cabin information and entertainment product called Venue. […]

In a press conference Monday at Atlanta’s Georgia World Congress Center in preparation for this year’s National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Annual Meeting and Convention, Adam Aircraft’s new management team vowed “we’ll make our numbers” as its members touted to-be-certified Adam A700 very light jet as the price/performance leader in the VLJ market. Company Chairman […]

Click for a Larger Image Although sales of piston singles have been brisk for the last three years, older aircraft still dominate the fleet, leaving many owners lusting for state-of-the-art EFIS systems that just havent been available for retrofit. But this week, Avidyne is addressing that in announcing that the Envison system-basically a second-generation Entegra […]

Columbia Aircraft confirmed on Monday that it is entertaining an offer from Cessna for the company, but few details are being released. Columbia issued news releases late Monday confirming the deal and also announcing that Columbia has applied for bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11. Cessna CEO Jack Pelton declined to confirm the rampant rumors of […]

Eclipse Aviation says it’s setting the standard for environmental impact with its Eclipse 500. CEO Vern Raburn told a news conference at the National Business Aviation Association convention that on (his) scale of 30, his company’s jet is a perfect 30 in environmental impact. He said he invites comparisons on key indicators of environmental responsibility […]

Click for a Larger Image Embraer announced two new jets (and possibly a new jet category) in its pre-NBAA news conference Monday. The Brazilian company said it is considering building a mid-sized jet (MSJ) and a “mid-light jet” (MLJ). It’s unveiling a mockup of the MSJ today on the convention floor. Embraer has launched aggressively […]