Business Aviation

Textron, the parent company of Cessna, is getting ready to fly the prototype of the Scorpion light attack jet it’s developing with a company called AirLand Enterprises LLC. The joint venture hopes to have the Scorpion flying by Dec. 5. AirLand has no operating website that we can find but LinkedIn names its CEO as […]

In 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse famously tapped out the first telegraph message, what hath God wrought? Were he an airline passenger today ruminating on the FCCs likely decision to lift the ban on cell phone use in airliners, he would text something along the lines of what fresh hell is this? None of this is […]

A handy app for those in the market for a helicopter has been released by a Russian publisher. Upcast has released Helibook, which is the third of its publications and provides interactive comparison data on 35 private, corporate and VIP helicopters, “starting from the tiny Robinson R22 and going up to the massive Mil Mi-38.” […]

Gulfstream has taken extraordinary measures to prevent speculation in the market for its flagship G650 long-range big cabin business jet. As we reported in October, an early position holder of the $65 million aircraft, Formula One luminary Bernie Ecclestone, sold his almost-new G650 at a $7 million premium to the owner of a soccer team. […]

This weeks news that the Department of Justice has settled its opposition to a merger of American Airlines and USAirways raises some unanswerable questions but one certainty: The U.S. now has only three major carriers, Delta, United and the new American, once the merger is finalized. The USAirways name will be absorbed and will eventually […]

With a cruise speed of around 270 knots and a price tag of nearly $5 million, the 2013 Pilatus PC-12NG isn’t the fastest or the least expensive single-engine turboprop on the market. It is, however, arguably in a class of its own. That’s because it has a cabin that can carry 1,200 lbs. of payload […]

The FAAs processes combined with financial constraints have created a bottleneck that has held up roughly 1,000 certifications, industry representatives told a House aviation subcommittee last month – and it could get worse, they said. In the past year alone, the certification office lost resources due to the sequester, instituted a hiring freeze, and had […]

Letter of the Week:Undetected Crashes Noting the incident at Nashville Airport, I, too, once had an undetected crash on what is now Runway 20C — it was runway 20L at the time — in the early 1970s. I was the non-flying pilot in a Cessna 195 during the attempted landing. During the rollout, the FP […]

AVweb’s Tim Cole recently completed a trip to China and the China General Aviation Congress at Xi’an. Here are some closing observations. view on YouTube

With its advanced systems, modern ergonomics and luxurious-yet sporty-cabin design, it may be easy to sell pilots on the Cirrus SR22s capabilities. But it might also be an easy aircraft to sell to paying passengers. You might assume that commercial travelers accustomed to larger jet aircraft might view the Cirrus as another one of those […]