Aviation News

A brief strike by unionized workers who build Bombardier business jets in Canada ended Saturday when the 1500 members of Unifor voted to ratify a new three-year agreement. The deal included wage increases and increased pension benefits. The strike started at Bombardier’s Downsview plant in Toronto earlier last week. That factory builds the company’s new […]

King Schools introduced a new Part 121 airline operations course this week at AirVenture 2021 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Created in partnership with 1StepPrep President Joseph Munoz, the online course focuses on preparing newly hired pilots for their first job at a Part 121 organization. It covers topics such as operational control, dispatch releases, amendments and […]

The FAA wants to hire 4,300 air traffic controllers in the next five years and those interested have until the end of the day Aug. 2 to get an application in. Every year the agency accepts ATC applications for just a few days. The agency now has more than 14,000 controllers but many are nearing […]

FAA Administrator Steve Dickson says it will take about four years to rewrite regulations governing flight instruction in aircraft other than those in the standard category and until that’s done instructors will need extra paperwork. Speaking at the annual Meet the Administrator event at EAA AirVenture last Thursday, Dickson told the generally disappointed crowd that […]

John Deakin, a founding contributor to AVweb and a highly regarded pilot, author and aviation educator, died Wednesday. Deakin was an Air America pilot, flying throughout Southeast Asia before landing a job with Japan Airlines. He flew 747s for the airline and retired as one of its most experienced pilots. “He had more Pacific crossings […]

George Bye of Bye Aerospace delivered an update at EAA AirVenture 2021 on the company’s three ongoing eFlyer electric aircraft projects: the two-place eFlyer 2, four-place eFlyer 4 and the very ambitious eight-seat eFlyer 800 twin. The eFlyer 2 has been flying for four years and has gone through multiple motor, battery and software iterations, […]

Congress has ordered the Department of Defense to fix an issue with the F-35 breathing system that has pilots alternately gasping for air or awash in pure oxygen. As part of the 2022 appropriations for the military, the House Armed Services Committee has told the military to take action on a NASA study that found […]

The National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) will have a new chair as of year-end. After eight years at the helm, during which NAFI membership has doubled, Bob Meder is passing the baton to Karen Kalishek of De Pere, Wisconsin. Kalishek heads up KAL Consulting and Training as an independent, full-time flight instructor. She holds […]

With all the buzz over unleaded avgas, Swift Fuels wanted to remind the crowd at EAA AirVenture that has been marketing its 94UL product for six years. In 2015, the FAA certified UL94 unleaded avgas for two-thirds of the aircraft in the general aviation fleet. Certain high-performance engines are not eligible to use 94UL, but […]

While electric airplanes seem to be making gains recently, AirVenture 2009—yes—12 years ago, was actually the first year of the electric airplane. If we were to believe our eyes then, great things were coming soon. Except they weren’t. That was the year the Chinese company Yuneec International showed up with what looked like a well […]