Aviation News

FAA officials will meet with local law enforcement reps from about a dozen counties in northeastern Colorado to discuss unexplained drone activity that has alarmed local residents and public officials. So far, no one has come forward to give even the slightest hint of why the drones, described as being up to eight feet long, […]

Passengers aboard an Air Canada Jazz flight from Montreal on Friday watched as one of the wheels fell off as it lifted off from Trudeau International Airport. At least one passenger caught the unusual event on his cellphone and it made for a good story on social media. Our friends at Flyer Magazine in the […]

The U.S. Air Force announced on Monday that the Fourteenth Air Force has officially been redesignated as Space Operations Command (SPOC). With the redesignation, all military and civilian personnel previously assigned to the Fourteenth Air Force are now assigned to SPOC. According to the Air Force, SPOC will support the United States Space Force’s (USSF) […]

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is starting the year by welcoming two new members, marking the first time the board has been at its full five-member complement since Feb. 15, 2019. Michael Graham is scheduled to be sworn in Friday followed by Thomas Chapman on Monday. “I am pleased to have our board back […]

Aspen Avionics introduced several new features for its Evolution E5 electronic flight instrument (EFI) on Thursday. New additions to the E5 include a “traditional” horizontal situation indicator (HSI), outside air temperature, true airspeed, wind direction and speed and WAAS GPS mode annunciations. The company says current E5 owners will be able to update their displays […]

With nearly 1200 experimental/amateur-built aircraft newly registered in 2019, the fleet has seen its largest growth in a decade. The 2019 figure is up from 888 the prior year, while last year 916 aircraft were removed or “de-registered,” for a net gain of 270 registrations. All told, the FAA shows 26,842 aircraft registered as experimental/amateur-built; […]

2019 saw a reduction in fatal aircraft accidents involving large passenger aircraft over the previous year, according to a worldwide civil aviation safety review conducted by Netherlands-based aviation consultancy To70. The review, which covers passenger-carrying commercial air transport operations in aircraft with a maximum takeoff mass of 5700 kg (about 12,566 pounds) and above, found […]

Authorities in Colorado and Nebraska continue to investigate reports of unexplained nighttime swarms of drones over eastern Colorado and western Nebraska. Dozens of residents have reported seeing drones at various altitudes with sizes estimated to be as large as six feet. Jennifer Rollins told the Denver Post this week that she saw what appeared to […]

Leonardo Helicopters announced that it successfully completed the first flight of an AW609 tiltrotor prototype “fully representative” of the aircraft’s final production configuration last week. The aircraft is the fourth AW609 prototype and, according to the company, represents the model’s entry into “the final program development and ground/flight testing stages.” The flight took place at […]

With sales of new airplanes holding their own, if at high prices, the used market is booming and Diamond Aircraft has found a niche for refurbishing all of its popular models. The program has proven a good opportunity to see how composite airframes are bearing up over time and so far, so good. In this […]