Aviation News

The Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA) closed the books on 2020’s numbers and, while they’re not good, they’re actually a little better than feared. With total sales of more than $2.2 billion through 2020, the avionics sector, including new installations and retrofits, was down some 26 percent from 2019, which was a record year, posting more […]

Continued VFR-into-IMC followed by spatial disorientation caused the crash of a Sikorsky S-76 helicopter that killed basketball star Kobe Bryant and eight others in January 2020, according to NTSB findings revealed at the probable cause hearing on Tuesday. Contributing to the crash were the pilot’s self-induced pressure to complete the flight and the charter company’s […]

Aerion Supersonic has announced that it will be partnering with NASA to study technology that would support the development of “high-Mach” passenger aircraft capable of cruising in the Mach 3 to Mach 5 range. According to the company, teams from NASA’s Langley Research Center and Aerion will focus their research on the suitability of a […]

A cockpit camera with 4K resolution is a new option for Robinson’s R22 and R44 piston helicopters and is standard equipment on the turbine R66. According to Robinson, the camera system “records video, intercom audio, radio communications, and GPS position to a removable 128 GB USB flash drive. Recording starts automatically when the helicopter is […]

Textron Aviation has dramatically updated the interior of its CJ4 business jet and rechristened it the Gen2. New seating allows several configurations for up to 10 passengers and allows installed seats to be converted to storage areas, according to Cessna. Described as being a “home away from home,” the CJ4 Gen2 also has a new […]

The FAA is installing 23 weather-camera sites in Hawaii in an extension of a program started in Alaska and expanded to Colorado last year. Each site can carry four cameras and will provide “near-real-time” weather imagery to go with automated weather reports. The cameras will be on the FAA’s weather cam site by June of […]

The FAA has announced it will investigate last week’s spectacular crash landing of SpaceX’s SN9 Starship prototype in Texas. The silo-like rocket performed flawlessly through launch to 50,000 feet, where it hovered briefly before doing its “belly flop” maneuver to descend. One of the engines needed to brake the rocket in its final descent didn’t […]

The pilot killed in the crash of a Cessna 560 in Oregon in early January had just flunked the type rating course and was likely on his first solo flight in the aircraft, according to the NTSB’s preliminary report. The aircraft spiraled from 31,000 feet to a mountainous area on the Warm Springs Reservation on […]

The Air Force has ordered a review of security at all its facilities after an unarmed man was able get on the ramp at Joint Base Andrews and board a C-40, a military conversion of a Boeing 737-700 used to transport senior government officials. The Air Force isn’t releasing any details on the man’s identity […]

As President Joe Biden enjoys a weekend at home in Wilmington, Delaware, general aviation is continuing to operate, even within the high-security 12-NM ring of the 30-NM TFR that follows him when he travels. AOPA is reporting that the TFR in place until Monday is a big improvement over the draft version rolled out in […]