Aviation News

Virgin Galactic introduced the first of its SpaceShip III suborbital spaceplanes, named VSS Imagine, on Tuesday. The third generation SpaceShip features a modular design that will, the company says, “enable improved performance in terms of maintenance access and flight rate.” Virgin Galactic is also in the process of building the second member of the SpaceShip […]

The memory unit from Sriwijaya Air Flight 182’s cockpit voice recorder (CVR) was recovered from the Java Sea on Tuesday. Investigators have been searching for the unit since the Boeing 737-500 went down off the coast of Jakarta on Jan. 9, killing all 62 people onboard. The aircraft’s flight data recorder (FDR) was found shortly […]

SpaceX Wednesday revealed that it has had a large colony on Mars for more than a year and admitted that the serial explosions of its rockets at its Texas launch site have been intentional diversions. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said the rockets have been blown up to discourage demand for Mars trips and to keep […]

Textron Aviation celebrated the delivery of its 1000th Cessna Citation 560XL series midsize business jet on Wednesday. The aircraft, an XLS+ model, will be managed and operated by Florida-based Custom Jet Charters. The 560XL series, which has currently logged more than five million flight hours, includes the Cessna Citation Excel, Cessna Citation XLS and Cessna […]

As it continues development on hydrogen fuel cell technology in the U.K., ZeroAvia says it has secured investment for a large engine project, a smaller version of which the company says could be commercialized as soon as 2024. According to the company, the proposed powertrain would have a 2-megawatt capacity or roughly 2600 horsepower. The […]

Rolls-Royce announced on Monday that it has officially started building its UltraFan demonstrator engine at the company’s dedicated DemoWorks facility in Derby, U.K. According to Rolls-Royce, the completed UltraFan will be the largest aeronautical engine ever built with a fan diameter of 140 inches. The company says the UltraFan will deliver a 25 percent improvement […]

Elon Musk’s SpaceX continues to test its unmanned Starship, with SN11 launching from a foggy Texas tower this morning. As with other Starship launches, this one ended with the vehicle in pieces. Fog complicated visualizing the stream of events; the launch appeared to go off as planned, but the video feed from SpaceX froze at […]

Daher officially unveiled the newest version of the Kodiak 100 single-engine utility turboprop on Monday. The float-ready Kodiak 100 Series III features a fully integrated Garmin G1000 NXi flight deck, GFC 700 autopilot, SurfaceWatch runway monitoring technology, Synthetic Vision Technology (SVT) and optional GWX 75 Doppler-capable weather radar. Other options and upgrades on the Series […]

Cessna’s SkyCourier program has benefited from a third test aircraft joining the test fleet late in 2020. Among them, the SkyCourier has flown more than 700 hours and remains on track to gain certification and begin deliveries later this year, according to Cessna.  Among the areas recently tested with the addition of the third ship […]

Despite rumors indicating that Southwest Airlines was considering alternatives to the 737, the only aircraft type it operates, the Dallas-based airline has reaffirmed its commitment to the type with an order for 100 additional Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. The new order makes it possible that Boeing will deliver more than 600 MAX jets to Southwest […]