Aviation News

Last week, the Department of Transportation (DOT) submitted its third review related to the FAA’s certification of Boeing’s 737 Max airliners and the agency’s safety oversight in light of the two high-profile accidents that grounded the fleet worldwide. The DOT concluded that, while the process of returning the Max series to service is complete and […]

Capua, Italy-based Tecnam has announced a partnership with Flyvbird, a global company that describes itself as a “shared airline for …currently underserved markets.” Tecnam describes Flyvbird’s “Flyvirtual” airline brand as “focused on decentralized regional markets that have the potential to significantly impact the future of sustainable air travel, where the greatest customer value is in […]

Though placed on hiatus during the COVID pandemic, the Airbus-sponsored Perlan Mission II will attempt later this year to set a world altitude record for manned, level flight—in an unpowered glider. The target is 90,000 feet, where, the project leadership says, the Earth’s atmosphere is more akin to that of Mars. Airbus contributed to the […]

Australia-based airline Qantas has announced that Vanessa Hudson will be taking over as CEO and managing director. She will succeed outgoing CEO Alan Joyce, who will be retiring in November 2023. Hudson currently serves as the company’s chief financial officer. “A lot of thought has gone into this succession and the Board had a number […]

The FAA is asking the public for comments as it launches a review of its civil aviation noise policy, which “sets forth how the FAA analyzes, explains, and publicly presents changes in noise exposure from aviation activity.” According to the agency, key items covered will include reviewing research on the effects of exposure to aviation […]

The Pilatus PC-12 single-engine utility turboprop has now logged more than ten million flight hours since the first examples of the model were delivered in 1994. According to Pilatus, 71 PC-12s have flown for more than 20,000 hours each with the fleet leader logging over 35,000 hours. The company says it has delivered almost 2,000 […]

Army pilots are fighting mad after being told they will have to serve three years longer than they thought they’d signed up to stay in. According to CNN the Army says about 600 officers, many of them pilots and many of them West Point grads, are affected by an “error” in the administration of a […]

California startup Magpie Aviation is proposing an in-flight tow system to increase the range of electric aircraft. Unless and until battery technology makes some major advances, electric aircraft useful load is limited by the need to load up with batteries to fly any distance. Magpie is testing a system that will allow a plane full […]

So-far-unnamed senior FAA officials overruled their own engineers who called for the immediate grounding of Boeing 737 MAX after the second fatal crash in five months in Ethiopia in March of 2019. The Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General issued its report on the decision chain within the agency on Friday. It said the engineers […]

The commander of the Army has ceased all non-essential aviation operations after the second midair collision of Army helicopters within a month. Two Apaches collided near Fort Wainwright, Alaska, on Thursday, killing three soldiers and injuring one. It came after a collision between two Blackhawks on a night training mission near Fort Campbell, Kentucky, in […]