Aviation News

Transport Canada is set to allow the commercial return of the Boeing 737 MAX this week. The agency published an Airworthiness Directive today outlining the changes required to reestablish airworthiness, saying that it has “spent well over 15,000 review hours on the Boeing 737 MAX. This review has seen Canada take a significant leadership role […]

Virgin Orbit joined the commercial space race Sunday with the successful air launch of a rocket that boosted a payload of small satellites to low earth orbit. The 70-foot rocket, nicknamed LauncherOne, rode under the wing of a modified Boeing 747 to altitude over the Pacific where it was released. All the engines and systems […]

Cadillac appears to be taking its current marketing slogan (“Rise Above”) literally as it jumps into the eVTOL market with a quadrotor. The automaker’s parent company General Motors unveiled a video for the Consumer Electronics Show featuring a prototype single-seat design with a novel two-level arrangement for the rotors. It will be badged with the […]

A planned eight-minute burn of NASA’s Artemis program rocket boosters on Saturday was cut short after little more than a minute but NASA officials are still upbeat about the test. “This is not a failure,” said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine. “This is a test, and we tested today in a way that is meaningful where […]

The FAA has issued a safety notice telling pilots something many have already found out the hard way. It’s warning that air traffic control facilities can suddenly close for cleaning after the discovery of COVID-19 infection in staff members. In some cases that means crews have to fend for themselves in maintaining separation in some […]

Flight attendants are applauding a new zero-tolerance stance by the FAA for bad behavior by passengers. The agency has announced that misbehaving passengers will no longer get a warning before they face significant punishment. The action, which is in force until the end of March, stems from a rash of airborne confrontations between unruly passengers […]

An  FAA air traffic controller has been recognized for preventing the crash of a CV-22 Osprey by noticing a maintenance snag from the tower. The student crew was taking off on a challenging night brownout landing training mission at Kirtland Air Force Base/Sunport International Airport in Albuquerque when Wendy Smith, who’s been watching Ospreys take […]

This week, AVweb’s news roundup has uncovered reports on a propeller STC, the introduction of a cabin pressure control and monitoring system, a flight deck upgrade for the Hawker 800XP and a flight school welcoming a new class. Air Plains Services has gained a Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) that will allow the Kansas-based company to […]

German air taxi startup Volocopter announced on Friday that the FAA has accepted its application for concurrent type certificate validation for its VoloCity electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. The company is currently pursuing certification of the VoloCity under EASA’s SC-VTOL rule, which was published in July 2019. Volocopter hopes to receive that certification […]

A new report published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine Transportation Research Board says multiple mitigation strategies are necessary to reduce lead emissions from piston aircraft. The study, “Options for Reducing Lead Emissions from Piston-Engine Aircraft,” was conducted by a ten-person committee in response to a congressional request laid out in the […]