Business Aviation

By about the fifth day of the big U.S. air/trade shows—AirVenture and Sun ‘n Fun—a certain hollow-eyed exhaustion sets in. Vendors at the show can be heard to wonder if the thing will ever end and for us pixel-addled wretches covering the spectacle, we feel as run down as the batteries in our cameras and […]

The world’s largest airplane took its first flight early Saturday. The Stratolaunch, a six-engine, twin-fuselage behemoth with a 385-foot wingspan, took off from Mojave after years in development. The aircraft was conceived by Paul Allen and Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan as an aerial launch platform for low Earth orbit satellites that will reduce launch […]

Multiple investigations into two accidents of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft will inevitably focus on a much misunderstood FAA program called ODA for organization designation authorization. And Pete Bunce, president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, says that may ultimately be a good thing for both the aerospace industry and general aviation manufacturing specifically. We […]

Formula 1 racing is a popular event at the Reno Air Races, among other sites, and beginning late next year, it will evolve into something new: electric airplane racing. As AVweb covers Aero this year, Jeff Zaltman, CEO of AirRaceE, says airplanes are being designed and constructed for the first scheduled air race late next […]

With the current EPA administration seen as unlikely to issue a finding of endangerment against the tetraethyl lead used in aviation fuel, its eventual demise may have to come at the hands of consumers. That was one message from a 100LL briefing held at Aero in Friedrichshafen, Germany, this week. Conducted by Shell’s Tim Shea […]

Even as it announced new a new initiative into the piston training market last week, Piper reports that sales of its big-ticket M-Class airplanes continue to show growth, with strong interest coming from Europe. At a press conference on the opening day of the Aero exhibition in Friedrichshafen, Germany, Piper CEO Simon Caldecott said sales […]

With urban mobility aircraft a hot topic in both the developmental and certification worlds, the 27th Aero exhibition in Friedrichshafen, Germany, opens today with a focus on electric aircraft. Several new electric concept aircraft are on display here and for the first time, the giant electrical equipment manufacturer, Siemens, has a major display touting its […]

China, the first country to ground the Boeing 737 MAX after the fatal crash of Ethiopian Flight 102 last month, is set to join the FAA’s review panel. Former NTSB chairman Christopher Hart is running the program, which is expected to run for about three months. The FAA agreed to create an international review board […]

Boeing released sales data for the 737 MAX line that reveal there were no new orders for the troubled jet in March, and simultaneously said that deliveries and orders for all 737 models fell in the first quarter. Overall orders were down by nearly half, to 95 from 180 in the first quarter of 2018. […]

Ehang flew its autonomous octocopter with two passengers for the first time in public in Austria on Saturday and the company said the aircraft is now ready for mass production. The Ehang 216 hovered briefly in a soccer stadium Apr. 4 in Vienna with a small contingent of press in attendance. “This is not a […]