Business Aviation

Alaska Air, based in Seattle, has agreed to acquire San Francisco-based Virgin America for $2.6 billion, the companies announced this week. “With Alaska Airlines’ strong foundation in the Pacific Northwest, and Virgin America’s California hubs … [the combined airline will offer] more than 1,200 daily departures to destinations across North and Central America,” Alaska Airlines […]

Assembly of the unique Airlander lighter-than-air transport vehicle is now complete, Hybrid Air Vehicles announced today. The ship was shown off to visitors, fully inflated and hovering, inside the hangar in Bedfordshire, U.K. The next step will be a ground-testing phase, then it will roll out of the hangar to start an extensive flight-test program. […]

According to GAMA statistics, there are 611,000 active pilots in the United States and only 223,000 registered general aviation aircraft. Even allowing for air taxi airplanes, clubs and partnerships, this means that lots of us are flying airplanes that we don’t own. Some of us rent from local flight schools, some borrow from friends. Few […]

Textron Aviation has confirmed that all its U.S. sales are being handled by factory representatives. That would appear to be the end of the extensive dealer network that sold Cessna aircraft for decades. Nikki Riemen, Textron’s media and public relations manager for the piston and defense division, said the company is “focused on developing and […]

Heli-Expo, the annual event hosted by Helicopter Association International, opened in Louisville, Kentucky, this week, with about 700 exhibitors and 60 helicopters on display. Two aircraft being shown for the first time are Bell’s flight-test vehicles for the 525 Relentless and the 505 Jet Ranger X programs. Bell officials said they have nearly 80 letters […]

As part of AVweb’s Features, we’re starting an occasional series on innovators who are making a difference in general aviation—the young guns of GA, so to speak. We’ll be doing interviews with them where they can talk about what they’ve done and their vision for the future of the area of general aviation where they […]

The other day, I was floating along in the Cub listening to the radio chatter when it occurred to me that I hadn’t heard a native English speaker for several minutes. I listened for several more and determined that, sure enough, there were no native English speakers on the frequency. Judging by the accents, there […]

Efforts to bring Uber-like flight sharing to private aircraft, such as FlyteNow and Airpooler, have been derailed by the FAA, but similar efforts that use the power of apps and easy online reservations to fill empty seats on commercial charter aircraft are booming. Blade has done so well selling helicopter service from Manhattan to the […]

If it seems that airline seats are getting narrower, while the average size of passengers gets wider, Airbus has an idea that could reverse that trend — replace at least some of those seat rows with benches. Airbus has filed a patent (PDF) for bench seats, which could accommodate not only larger-than-average passengers but also […]

Viking, a Canadian company that has been building brand-new Twin Otters for a few years now, this week introduced a new variation, the 400S Seaplane, at the Singapore Airshow. While the twin was previously available with optional floats, the 400S is optimized for water-based operations, with corrosion-resistant packages for the airframe, powerplant and fuel system. […]