In Brief

The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds celebrated their golden anniversary in style. The celebration was part of this year’s Aviation Nation 2003 air show, held Nov. 15-16 at the Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nev. World of Wings, the event’s promoter, worked with the military to put on a one-of-kind event. AVweb’s partner AirsideTV.com […]

Christie’s Concorde auction helped raise $3.8 million for The Air France Foundation for children. A speed indicator was auctioned for $94,000 and a nose cone for $500,000. While the children benefit from the cash, they will — unlike the generation before them — grow up in a world devoid of supersonic commercial flight, at least […]

Jay Stokes, 47, a skydiving instructor, on Tuesday (unofficially) broke the record of 500 parachute jumps in a 24-hour period. He made 534 jumps in Lake Elsinore, California, and raised money for the Special Olympics and Special Operations Warrior Foundation… A Learjet crashed shortly after takeoff from St. Louis Downtown Airport yesterday morning. All four […]

About 1,000 people turned out to see the last landing of a Concorde at Seattle’s Boeing Field. Rumor has it the jet was allowed supersonic passage by Transport Canada, facilitating a record-setting New York-to-Seattle run of less than 3 hours, 56 minutes. The British Airways plane will become part of the Museum of Flight collection. […]

A pilot was killed when his Korean War-era jet, a 1953 T-33 Silver Star, crashed and burned in a trailer park in Santa Clarita, Calif., on Sunday… Carter Aviation Technologies has been awarded its first contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, to support development of Carter’s next-generation propeller and rotor… The 2004 Asian […]

More box-cutters were found on U.S. airliners last week. Authorities are investigating whether the tools were smuggled onto US Airways planes in Boston and Philadelphia or whether some strikingly forgetful maintenance staff left them on board… There’s no trick to being hauled off an airliner for questioning. Just ask the guy who packed his suitcase […]

Several TFRs are expected to sprout in Texas this week, as President Bush visits the Lone Star State. Bush is hanging his boots in Texas from Oct. 29 through Nov. 3. He is scheduled to be at his ranch in Crawford through the period, except for a trip to San Antonio on Oct. 30. As […]

Single-Pilot IFR,” a free online course, is now available from the AOPA Air Safety Foundation. The 45-minute course qualifies for the FAA Wings Proficiency Awards Program…Cessna Twins Spar Corporation, a new group formed by twin Cessna owners to address AD issues, is hosting an Open Meeting at AOPA Expo on Saturday…Raytheon Aircraft’s third-quarter report showed […]

The Cessna Twins Spar Corporation (CTSc) was recently formed to address issues related to the pending Cessna Wing Spar ADs and similar ones to follow.Express Aircraft Company LLC has been sold after the death of its president Larry Olson in a plane crash on his way to EAA AirVenture last summer. New owners are husband-and-wife […]

The definitive exhibit of the Wright Brothers’ contribution to aviation opened last week at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. “The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Aerial Age” includes 170 artifacts, including the actual aircraft that flew for the first time on Dec. 17, 1903. The Wright Flyer will be displayed at […]