Business Aviation

The remotely piloted Ikhana drone could be flying unescorted in the National Airspace System as early as fall 2018, NASA said last week. Testing in the NAS is planned to take place from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California. During the test, Ikhana would fly alone in the NAS for the first time, without […]

General Electric, whose DNA extends back to Thomas Edison, started its life as a builder of generators and electrical equipment. It’s more than an electric technology company now, but shoving around electrons is still a core interest. I thought of that earlier this week during GE’s press briefing at NBAA when a company exec mentioned, […]

Airbus will be ready to fly its full-scale electric VTOL technology demonstrator by the end of next year, the company said last week. The project, which is being built by the company’s helicopter division, is designed to carry up to four passengers from crowded city centers to nearby destinations such as airports or train stations. […]

Just two years ago, GE’s Business and General Aviation unit announced a new, clean-sheet turboprop and the company said at NBAA-BACE Monday that it will soon run a conforming prototype. The engine is called the ATP for advanced turboprop and although it’s not based on the H-series engines GE bought from the Czech Republic-based Walter […]

NBAA-BACE opens Tuesday with delegates in a fighting mood as they collectively tackle what President Ed Bolen says is the biggest challenge to ever face business aviation. He’s of course talking about a bill, now treading water in Congress, that would turn the air traffic control system over to an unelected board of directors with […]

Gulfstream’s latest aircraft, the G500 and G600, are performing well in certification flight testing. At a news conference at NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas on Monday President Mark Burns said the simultaneous development of two new airframes is an example of the company’s maturity after 50 years of business jet manufacturing in Savannah. “It’s part of […]

While it’s an established fact that a longer wingspan aids in aerodynamic efficiency, the other side of that coin is weight and structural complexity to support worst-case flight loads. A company called Tamarack Aerospace Group solves that problem with active winglets for business jets and at NBAA-BACE this week in Las Vegas, they announced they’re […]

Pilatus is finishing up certification work on its PC-24, which it calls the “Super Versatile” jet and claims it will deliver the first customer aircraft before the end of the year. At an NBAA-BACE press conference in Las Vegas on Monday, Pilatus CEO Markus Bucher said EASA is completing its final reviews on the aircraft […]

Having proven the idea of subscription-based on-demand charter, Wheels Up continues to expand the Textron King Air fleet on which the service is based, according to CEO Kenny Dichter. At NBAA-BACE on Monday, Dichter said the company has 78 King Air 350i aircraft, most of which have been purchased new. The fleet also has Citation […]

With eight aircraft already in final assembly, Bombardier showed off a cabin mock-up and test article for its new long-range business jet, the Global 7000, at the NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas on Monday. The test article is the fourth aircraft in the test fleet and is dubbed “The Architect” for its intended purpose of proving […]