Business Aviation

As countries across Europe take climate change and pollution seriously, 16 countries in Europe have signed on to a project called Horizon 2020 which will make significant investments in making aviation and aerospace industries greener. For several years, the European Union’s Clean Sky project has sponsored aviation research projects to fund environmentally friendly aviation technology […]

At the ILA show in Berlin this week, a German company called Bauhaus Luftfahrt showed off an intriguing new aircraft engine that combines piston engines with a conventional turbofan design in what it calls a composite cycle engine. A long-term concept powerplant, the company estimates such an engine could be ready for introduction in 2050. […]

The FAA funding bill now under consideration in Congress includes allocations for research into single-piloted commercial aircraft, and several pilot advocacy groups are lobbying hard against it, citing safety and security concerns. “The desire by some in the industry to pursue single-piloted or autonomously piloted cargo aircraft seriously places the American public and the flight […]

DG Flugzeugbau, a sailplane manufacturer in Germany, said recently it got an order to “manufacture a large number of Volocopters from Volocopter GmbH,” but nobody is saying exactly how many a “large number” is. A Volocopter spokesperson told AVweb, “Unfortunately, I am not able to provide you with more details than this,” and Flugzeubau did […]

Elbit Systems, based in Haifa, Israel, has completed the acquisition of Universal Avionics Systems Corp., of Tucson, Arizona, for a price of about $120 million, the companies announced on Wednesday. Universal develops and manufactures commercial avionics for a wide range of aircraft, including flight management systems, displays, communication systems and complete cockpit solutions. These products […]

A developer in Miami has added a skyport to his high-rise luxury apartment building, anticipating a demand for VTOL flying taxis, according to The Miami Herald. Dan Kodsi, who is building the 60-story, 530-unit Paramount Miami Worldcenter, is designing the rooftop to accommodate a 5,000-square-foot skyport. Kodsi said he got the idea after hearing about […]

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo,VSS Unity, has completed its first supersonic, rocket-powered flight, the company announced last week. The aircraft was carried to a launch altitude of about 46,500 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains by the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, then released. After a few seconds of glide, Unity’srocket motor was engaged, and the pilots placed the spaceship […]

Terrafugia, the Massachusetts-based “flying-car” company, said on Tuesday it has created 75 new jobs in the last year and plans to add 50 more by December. The company was recently acquired by Zhejiang Geely, a Chinese conglomerate, which provided the resources for the company to expand its operations and hire new workers. “The recent jump […]

Boeing’s HorizonX division, which supports new business ventures, is now a partner at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Research Park, ERAU has announced. HorizonX will join the John Mica Engineering and Aerospace Innovation Complex, located next to the Daytona Beach campus, which aims to help new businesses bring new enterprises to market. “We are proud to partner […]

Fresh from showing its M600 turboprop for the first time at Chile’s FIDAE exposition, Piper is touring the airplane throughout South America and seeing signs that the aircraft market is waking up. Piper’s Latin American sales executive, Dan Lewis, told AVweb that the company has tripled its sales forecast for Brazil and demand in the […]