Military Aviation

More than 400 large U.S. military drones have crashed in major accidents around the world since 2001, a record of calamity that exposes the potential dangers of throwing open American skies to drone traffic, according to a yearlong Washington Post investigation. Since the outbreak of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, military drones have malfunctioned […]

This week has seen two seen two military jet crashes, fortunately with no serious injuries. The first, a Marine AV-8B Harrier, impacted in a residential neighborhood in Imperial, Calif., at 4:20 PDT on Wednesday, destroying three homes and leading to the evacuation of eight others. The pilot ejected safely and was hospitalized for evaluation. The […]

The last plane to undergo maintenance inside Boeing Wichitas facility, an E-4B, started its engines and took off Thursday. It flew to the south, then gracefully turned back north for a final goodbye pass before disappearing from sight. A fixture in Wichita, Kan., since 1927, Boeing once employed as many as 40,000 people there. It […]

Federal border security agents have sharply reduced intercepts of general aviation aircraft, following complaints by pilots that excessive police action at small airports is restricting the freedom to fly and a meeting with AOPA President Mark Baker according to a report by National Public Radio. An official with U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of […]

A U.S. District Judge in Denver, Colo., has approved a $6.15 million settlementof a lawsuit between United Airlines and 1,160 United pilots who served in the military from 2000 to 2010-resulting in one of the largest reported payments to resolve a claim brought under the federal veterans reemployment rights law, known as the Uniformed Services […]

A Beechcraft MC-12 Liberty reconnaissance aircraft began flying missions earlier this week over northeastern Nigeria in the search for more than 250 schoolgirls kidnapped by Boko Haram. It has been joined by unmanned surveillance aircraft, a Global Hawk, as well, reflecting a growing U.S. participation in the search efforts for the girls, though Pentagon officials […]

Sikorsky Aircraft has been awarded an initial $1.24 billion contract to develop and build six new U.S. presidential helicopters based on the model S-92, the first step toward a fleet of 21 new aircraft by 2023, the Pentagon announced on Wednesday. The award capped years of efforts by the U.S. Navy to replace the current […]

Our weekly review of news revealed an announcement for the annual conference of the Air Care Alliance, the umbrella organization for all volunteer pilot groups; a newly approved ADS-B In/Out Universal Access Transceiver; the first rebates paid to flying clubs by Sportys; and word that AnywhereEducation has stepped up to help out subscribers of some […]

Ten out of every 100 Army helicopter pilots are women – but they account for only three out of every 100 accidents. Thats the bottom line in an Army report that, in an effort to study the impact of women on the front lines, compares accident rates of men and women flying U.S. Army helicopters […]

The Air Force says it wants surveillance aircraft to be built on business jet platforms as a way to cut acquisition and long-term operations costs. According to Defense News, the first candidate for a bizjet conversion is the E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (JSTARS), which is based on a Boeing 707-300. The Air […]