In Brief

A Boeing 777 with wheel pants? NASA recently fitted an All Nippon Airways 777 with a “toboggan-shaped fairing” aimed at reducing wind noise when the plane is landing. Along with devices added to engine nacelles and nozzles, the researchers were able to measurably reduce the interior and “community” noise of the stock airliner… A pilot […]

An ELT that activated while being shipped sparked a search in Ohio last week. First a pilot reported hearing a radio distress call and then, coincidentally, in the same area, the ELT went off. Civil Air Patrol searchers found the squawking ELT in the back of a delivery truck… A news crew caught the belly […]

Over $100,000 was raised for Katrina victims during the recent National Business Aviation Association annual meeting in Orlando. The meeting was originally scheduled for New Orleans… The FAA issued an NPRM on Monday that would require more than 3,200 large passenger jets to reduce flammability levels of fuel tank vapors…. Investigators have posted an update […]

An Indiana inventor on Nov. 1 received a U.S. patent for his design of an antigravity space vehicle, which would theoretically be powered by a superconductor shield that changes the space-time continuum to defy gravity, Nature reported last week. Engineers and physicists have objected to the patent for what they say is an impossible design… […]

A pilot was hurt when his twin-engine cargo aircraft crashed into a Wal-Mart garden center in Manchester, N.H., on Tuesday morning. The airplane apparently had just taken off and was trying to return to the airport. The pilot was able to walk away from the crash… A V-22 Osprey being delivered to Edwards Air Force […]

Maintenance of a Cessna Citation 500 that crashed Saturday just before 10 a.m. is a key subject of a lawsuit currently pending in State District Court, according to the Houston Chronicle. The 33-year-old jet was on a maintenance check ride, but crashed on takeoff, killing two… A reader has sent in-flight photos of the Airbus […]

A P-51 Mustang allegedly flew low across Washington-Grizzly Stadium before Montana’s football game with Cal Poly on Oct. 22. The FAA is looking for witnesses… Got a bunch of extra dollars to spend? A company is offering hot-air balloon tours of Europe — just $81,000 for 52 days and seven countries… The U.S. Air Force […]

They normally race the clock but organizers of the Marion Jayne Air Race and the Carolinas 300 Air Races had to outrun Hurricane Rita last month. The original routes had to be modified to account for the storm… The NTSB will release its report today on the takeoff crash of a Challenger bizjet at Teterboro […]

Pennsylvania officials say the state will have full ADS-B coverage within four years. It will start with four ground stations covering most of the eastern part of the state… Anheuser-Busch has apologized for a Bud Light commercial poking fun at low-cost airlines it admits was in poor taste. The ad was supposed to be a […]

A Nigerian 737 with 116 people aboard crashed after taking off from Lagos Saturday night in a heavy thunderstorm, no sign of survivors… Chalmers “Slick” Goodlin, former X-1 test pilot, died last week at age 82, in West Palm Beach, Fla…. Due to concerns about avian flu, aviators involved in a bird strike are advised […]