Business Aviation

A retired Air Force Lt. Colonel and a former NASA space shuttle commander have been hired to fly space tourists in Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, the company has announced. Michael “Sooch” Masucci has 30 years of civilian and military operational and test flying, according to the company, has served as a U-2 pilot with the Air […]

A new law that will require first officers in regional jets to hold at least an ATP certificate is not yet official, but it’s already affecting aviation careers, Kent Lovelace, chair of the aviation department at the University of North Dakota, told AVweb this week. The law will take effect this August, whether or not […]

Two pilots sat in the cockpit of 16-seat BAE Jetstream 31 and did nothing as it flew for 500 miles from England to Scotland in civil airspace, controlled by an operator on the ground, according to news reports this week. The flight reportedly took place sometime last month. The on-board pilots handled the takeoff and […]

A DC-9-32 owned by the U.S. Department of State is up for auction May 15, with a starting bid of $50,000 and, according to the seller, the aircraft was “part of Air Force Two” and “may have acted as Air Force One.” According to auction documents provided by the government, “In the thirty years this […]

The 149 federal contract air traffic control towers previously targeted for closure beginning June 15 will remain open through Sept. 30 the FAA said Friday, as other programs also found funding. The Department of Transportation said Friday it would fund air traffic technology and maintenance programs with $21 million by moving funds within its budget. […]

Honda Aircraft Co. confirmed this week it will delay until late 2014 its certification effort for the HondaJet light business jet to accommodate more testing for the aircraft’s GE Honda Aero engines. The company announced last October that it was aiming for full FAA certification in the first half of 2013 with deliveries to customers […]

United Airlines will start using the Boeing 787 on domestic routes on May 20, USA Today reported on Wednesday. A flight from Houston to Chicago will be the airline’s first flight for the jet since it was grounded by the FAA in mid-January, after two incidents when the airplane’s lithium-ion batteries overheated. It’s also the […]

The FAA already has approved a fix to allow operators to re-launch the 787 fleet within weeks, but meanwhile the NTSB is still searching for the root cause of the battery problem. In a solicitation notice posted online Friday, the board said it is planning to conduct “teardown examinations as soon as possible of several […]

Don’t see a video screen?Try disabling ad blockers and refreshing this page.If that doesn’t work, click here to watch on YouTube. Harvard University researchers have demonstrated a fly-sized UAV that actually mimics insect flight. The researchers spent 12 years developing the robo-fly, which uses piezoelectric devices that contract and release when power is switched on […]

It appears the three crew members lost in the overseas loss of a KC-135 tanker were from Spokane, Wash., but the aircraft was based in Kansas. Two of the three bodies have been recovered after the loaded tanker apparently exploded in flight and crashed in Kyrgyzstan. The aircraft was on its way to support the […]