Aviation News

Billionaire Jeff Bezos, backed by the team at his company Blue Origin, achieved a life dream with today’s space flight. Accompanied by his brother Mark, teenager Oliver Daemen and early space pioneer Wally Funk (aged 82), the Amazon founder descended safely by parachute after the 10-minute, 10-second excursion outside the Earth’s atmosphere. The capsule launched […]

One of hot air ballooning’s most respected pilots died in a bizarre incident that also sent three of his passengers on a free flight over rural Vermont and into New Hampshire. Brian Boland, 72, took off from Silver Maple Lodge in Fairlee, Vermont, on Thursday with four passengers who had purchased the flight through the […]

AOPA is warning flight instructors they can’t provide instruction for free in limited, experimental and primary category aircraft without risking sanctions from the FAA. AOPA says the agency has gone after CFIs who have given instruction as volunteers, citing regs that say money doesn’t have to change hands for them to have received “compensation.” According […]

British investigators say mechanics put a locking pin in the wrong hole and that allowed a British Airways Boeing 787 to drop on its nose on the ramp at Heathrow Airport last month. A crew member was slightly injured and millions of dollars in damage was done to the Dreamliner as the flight crew worked […]

Pratt & Whitney Canada will partner with De Havilland Canada to develop a hybrid-electric propulsion system for regional airliners. The government of Canada has invested about $130 million USD in the project, which will involve De Havilland modifying a legacy Dash-8-100 turboprop regional airliner for the hybrid system. A turbine engine will be mounted in […]

Reuters is reporting the FAA has grounded Rhoades Aviation, whose Boeing 737-200 ditched off Honolulu July 2, and has also revealed that action against the operator has been in the works since last fall. The company, which operated the 737 cargo flight under the Trans Air name, was notified on June 13 that it was […]

NASA announced that it successfully switched the Hubble Space Telescope over to backup hardware on Friday, starting the process of bringing the telescope back online after a payload computer failure last month. The issue, which resulted in the suspension of Hubble’s data collection, is believed to have stemmed from the telescope’s power control unit. With […]

The first production Flight Design F2-LSA in the U.S. has been issued a special light-sport aircraft (SLSA) certificate of airworthiness by the FAA. The company plans to display the aircraft later this month at AirVenture 2021 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, before delivering it to a Milwaukee-based customer. Flight Design unveiled the two-seat F2, along with plans […]

In partnership with Breakthrough Energy Ventures (BEV) and Mesa Airlines, United Airlines Ventures (UAV) has signed a conditional agreement to acquire 100 ES-19 all-electric airliners from Sweden-based electric aircraft startup Heart Aerospace. The agreement is contingent on the aircraft, which is still in the early stages of development, meeting United’s “safety, business and operating requirements.” […]

Diamond Aircraft successfully ferried its first single-engine, retractable-gear DA50 RG across the North Atlantic last week. Flown by Diamond test pilot Thomas Wimmer, the aircraft made the 4,410-NM trip from Wiener Neustadt, Austria to London, Ontario, Canada in three days. The flight was completed in 10 legs, the longest of which was 670 NM, with […]