Aviation News

Terms like “blockbuster” are just about cliches in referring to consolidations involving the FBO industry. But the union of Atlantic Aviation with Ross Aviation qualifies. And in this case, it is also true that personal relationships play a role. Jeffrey Ross has assembled two other FBO chains—or “aviation infrastructure platforms” in press release-speak—that have been […]

John “Lites” Leenhouts, president and CEO of the Aerospace Center for Excellence (ACE) and the Sun ‘n Fun Aerospace Expo (SNF), has announced plans to retire after Sun ‘n Fun 2022. Leenhouts has held the position for more than a decade and is credited with having “created a world-class event venue attracting dozens of multiday […]

When Genesah Duffy, chief pilot and senior director of flight operations for Icon Aircraft, took off for a return-to-service shakedown flight in one of the company’s A5 amphibians, she wasn’t expecting it to turn into an air-sea-rescue mission. With the little two-place seaplane just out of a 100-hour inspection, Duffy took off from the company’s […]

There are seemingly shortages of everything these days and Airbus says it’s now effectively sold out of A321neo airliners. U.S. private equity fund Indigo Partners placed an order for 255 of the aircraft on the opening day of the Dubai Airshow on Sunday. At the announcement, Airbus CCO and head of international sales Christian Scherer […]

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers were in the right place at the right time to potentially save a pilot’s life off the coast of Florida on Friday. The federal agents were conducting a “maritime operation” when they came upon a sinking aircraft. “As agents and deputies approached the sinking plane, an individual was spotted […]

The actuators that move the elevators of a privately operated MD-87 that crashed at Houston Executive Airport Oct. 19 were jammed in the trailing edge down position and that made it impossible for the aircraft to take off. The NTSB preliminary report says the elevator actuators were both bent enough that they prevented the elevators […]

The FAA will start vetting the engineers Boeing designates as safety inspectors after the agency found many didn’t have the qualifications or experience needed to be effective in the job. In a letter of complaint to Boeing obtained by the Seattle Times, the agency said it came across inspectors, who are designated to sign off […]

Medidata Solutions co-founder Glen de Vries and flight instructor Thomas Fischer were killed in the crash of a Cessna 172 on Thursday. A private pilot with an instrument rating, de Vries, 49, travelled to space alongside actor William Shatner onboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard spacecraft last month. Fischer, 54, owned Fischer Aviation, a flight school […]

The National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) is preparing for the 50th broadcast of its monthly MentorLIVE livestreaming program. The program, which launched in June 2017, is designed to provide specialized safety messages and educational content for flight instructors and general aviation pilots. MentorLIVE has logged more than 116,000 unique viewers to date. “This important […]

Airbus has kicked off a new sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) test campaign with the flight of a twin-engine H225 helicopter powered by an engine operating on 100 percent SAF. The test, which Airbus noted was the first of its kind for a helicopter, took place at the company’s headquarters in Marignane, France. The campaign is […]