Aviation News

Though the FAA maintains it won’t affect certification timelines, the agency announced yesterday (May 9) that it was revising its certification protocols for electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Rather than performance-driven requirements as mandated under Part 23 (small-aircraft) certification rules (as previously planned), now eVTOLs will be evaluated as “powered-lift” aircraft, a category […]

The National Transportation Safety Board has placed a substantial amount of blame on the FAA for a 2019 fatal air tour helicopter crash in Hawaii. In a statement released today (May 10), Board Chair Jennifer Homendy wrote, “The NTSB previously made 11 recommendations to the FAA to prevent accidents like this one, but our recommendations […]

Embraer has announced that regional aircraft leasing company Nordic Aviation Capital (NAC) will be the launch customer for its E-Jet passenger to freight (P2F) conversions. NAC will take up to 10 conversion slots for E190F and E195F conversions, which will come from its existing fleet of E190 and E195 passenger aircraft. Deliveries are expected to […]

The Aerospace Center for Excellence (ACE) has named Eric Crump as the organization’s new executive director. Crump, who will assume the position on June 1, is credited with opening the Polk State College Aerospace program in 2012 and has served as the program’s director since its launch. In addition to flying as a corporate pilot, […]

Textron Aviation announced on Monday that it has delivered the first Cessna SkyCourier twin-engine utility turboprop to launch customer FedEx Express. The aircraft is one of an order of 50 placed by FedEx in 2017. As previously reported by AVweb, the SkyCourier received its FAA type certificate in March 2022. “For nearly 50 years, FedEx […]

The world’s biggest pilots’ union says there’s no pilot shortage, just a shortage of management skills to deploy them. The Air Line Pilots Association has created a webpage in which it contends there is actually a surplus of pilots. “So, although we don’t have a pilot shortage, we do have a shortage of airline executives […]

Watch for new warning stickers on the emergency exits of airliners after a California man on a United flight opened an over-wing window, walked out on the wing and then jumped to the ramp as the plane taxied at O’Hare early Thursday. Randy Frank Davila, 57, was arrested but won’t face charges for the federal […]

An international manhunt for two alleged organized crime hitmen ended in the wreckage of a Cherokee 140 near a remote lake in Northern Ontario last week. Canadian authorities have confirmed that two of the four people killed in the crash were wanted on murder charges in Thailand and British Columbia. Gene Lahrkamp, 36, had been […]

Reuters is reporting the FAA met with airlines and cellular service providers last Wednesday to plan the eventual replacement of the 10 percent of radar altimeters considered susceptible to interference from 5G C-Band signals. The news agency got a look at a letter to those invited to the meeting and the agency isn’t interested in […]

Textron Aviation announced on Thursday that its Cessna Citation XLS Gen2 business jet has received its type certificate from the FAA. The Citation XLS Gen2 is the latest model in the Citation 560XL midsize business jet series, which was introduced in 1998 with the Citation Excel. According to Textron, it has delivered more than 1,000 […]