Aviation News

A pilot was killed on Monday in the crash of a helicopter involved in firefighting operations over Oregon’s Mt. Hood National Forest. According to the U.S. Forest Service, the helicopter was a Type 1 Kaman K-MAX conducting bucket drops on the White River Fire, approximately 20 miles west of Wamic, Oregon. The identity of the […]

COVID-19-related federal payroll grants are set to expire on Oct. 1, and without an extension in sight, many airlines are set to reduce staff and reduce the number flights this fall. Notably, American Airlines has announced it will reduce its workforce by 40,000—almost half of those involuntarily—including 1,600 pilots, more than 8,000 flight attendants and […]

Gulfstream Aerospace announced the opening of a new company-owned service center at Florida’s Palm Beach International Airport (KPBI) on Monday. The center, which is an FAA- and EASA-certified repair station, will offer services including major inspections, structural modifications and repairs and major avionics installations and system upgrades. According to Gulfstream, the facility has room for […]

Labeled a “disruptive” design, Hill Helicopters announced its HX50, which features a decidedly sleek exterior, three-blade composite main rotor and Fenestron-style ducted tail rotor. The five-seat helo uses an undisclosed turbine engine capable of 500 SHP but limited to 440 SHP for takeoff and 400 SHP maximum continuous. The company says that the HX50 is […]

Texas Aircraft Manufacturing’s Colt LSA already has an avionics upgrade early it its lifespan, with the G3X Touch EFIS and GTN 650 becoming newly available. The Colt’s standard avionics package is built around a Dynon display, but the company says that flight schools intending to use the Colt for primary flight training have requested the […]

The FAA is apparently resisting moving a localizer at Detroit Metro Airport whose signals are sometimes blocked by taxiing aircraft. According to WXYZ, an air traffic controller at the airport filed a whistleblower complaint after he and fellow controllers, as well as pilots who suddenly lost the signal on final, were ignored by the agency. […]

The FAA has announced it is looking at technologies to clear “rogue drones” from the airspace near airports after a few collisions and some close calls, including one that might have involved Air Force One. The agency will evaluate at least 10 systems designed to disable or neutralize drones in trials that will initially be […]

Transport Canada will become the first foreign aviation agency to flight test the changes to the Boeing 737 MAX with a few hops that will originate in Canada but be conducted over Washington State. In late June, the FAA did its flight evaluation of changes to the flight control software that will change the way […]

An artificial intelligence algorithm beat an “experienced” F-16 pilot in five straight simulated dogfights in a project designed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency on Aug. 20. The pilot was up against an AI system named Heron and the two duked it out in a Second World War-style forward firing gun battle. The human […]

A California company is taking a novel approach to autonomous aviation by making human pilots an integral part of its development. While many of the more advanced drone hopefuls have created elaborate clean-sheet designs, San Francisco startup Xwing is heaping new technology into a proven design with room for a human to act as pilot […]