Business Aviation

Boeing announced on Thursday it plans to acquire Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation, a technology company that specializes in autonomous systems and robotic aircraft. “The combined strength and innovation of our teams will advance the development of autonomy for our commercial and military systems,” saidGreg Hyslop, chief technology officer and senior vice president of Boeing Engineering, […]

Zunum Aero, a startup based in Seattle that plans to build a family of hybrid-to-electric regional aircraft, released details of its initial design on Thursday. The aircraft, the company said, will seat up to 12 passengers, and will be ready for flight tests in 2019 and first deliveries in 2022. The company also announced the […]

The other night, I was watching one of the Bond films, The Spy Who Loved Me, and, true to form, fell into my usual annoying habit of obtuseness. How do the bad guys get all the money to pay for their fabulous technological infrastructure? I mean, they’re spending millions on color-coordinated jump suits alone. I […]

Elon Musk says his SpaceX company is developing a new booster system that will launch a cargo mission to Mars by 2022, followed by manned missions in 2024. Moreover, the new system, which he calls the BFR, will be capable of re-entry and reuse, making hypersonic passenger service between cities on earth practical and affordable. […]

Cirrus has begun shipping its long-awaited SF50 VisionJet and as part of a two-video series, AVweb recently flew the jet from the company’s Duluth, Minnesota, factory to the East Coast. In this long-form video, AVweb takes a deep dive into how the airplane performs and how it compares to other small jets. view on YouTube

Responding to a complaint by Boeing, the U.S. Department of Commerce says it will levy a 219.63 percent tariff on every Bombardier CSeries airliner imported into the U.S. The tariff ruling is considered preliminary and is yet to be approved by the U.S. International Trade Commission in early 2018. Following a sale of 75 CSeries […]

The great test to unravel the globalized nature of modern economies was going to happen sooner or later. The just-announced U.S. tariff against Bombardier’s CSeries airliner may not be the first shot nor even the biggest, but it’s illustrative of how difficult placing U.S. trade interests above all else will be. The modern aerospace industry […]

Dubai took another step toward providing autonomous flying taxi service, when an unmanned Volocopter took off and flew a demo flight above the city on Monday. It was the “first-ever public flight of an autonomous urban air taxi,” according to Volocopter. “This establishes the feasibility and safety of airborne taxis as a means of public […]

Tecnam and Cape Air said this week they have agreed on a delivery schedule for the 11-seat twin commuter that was designed to replace the Cessna 402s in Cape Air’s fleet. Cape Air has agreed to buy 100 of the P2012 Traveller airplanes, and Tecnam now says the first 20 will start deliveries in January […]

Airbus has flown a test aircraft for the first time with its new transonic laminar wing that it hopes will reduce wing friction by up to 50 percent. The gain in aerodynamic efficiency would lower carbon-dioxide emissions by 5 percent, the company said. The Flight Lab test aircraft, an A340, flew for about three and […]