Aviation News

The NBAA has called on the FAA to abandon trying to define “gateway operators” in a way that would include many Part 91 operations in an expanded electronic records-keeping program. In rebutting the FAA Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (whose comments closed yesterday), NBAA says that “The FAA’s proposed PRD [Pilot Records Database] would create substantial […]

The U.S. Navy has announced the completion of the first sea trials of the Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion heavy lift helicopter. According to the Navy, testing took place on the landing helicopter dock (LHD) amphibious assault ship USS Wasp. The two-week trials included launch and recovery operations, rotor start and shutdown, blade fold and shipboard […]

Airbus joined virtually every other aviation manufacturer in announcing job cuts to align with an expectedly long period of reduced air travel and, therefore, demand for aircraft. The company will cut 15,000 jobs between this fall and the summer of 2021. “The commercial aircraft business activity has dropped by close to 40% in recent months […]

Embraer has delivered the first of its upgraded Phenom 300E business jets to Texas law firm Dunham & Jones. The new 300E has a range of 2,010 NM and top speed of Mach 0.80 along with offering a quieter cabin and a new interior option. The model also got an avionics upgrade that includes a […]

Boeing completed the first of the three expected test flight sessions today on the road to lifting the 737 MAX’s grounding, in place for 15 months. Today’s three test flights, promised last week, took a 737 MAX from Boeing Field in Seattle to the company’s test facility in Moses Lake, Washington. The 1 hour, 21 […]

A glider pilot has updated a popular YouTube video on his channel with a cautionary tale of how a little flattery can turn into a seven-month certificate suspension and thousands of dollars in legal fees. Bruno Vassel was showing off his ASW27 high-performance glider on the ramp at an air and car show at Spanish […]

American Airlines has announced it will run its flights at full capacity starting July 1. In the past few months American and most other airlines have blocked off all or some of the middle seats in Economy but that will stop on Wednesday. “As more people continue to travel, customers may notice that flights are […]

Transport Canada is proposing to allow drones weighing as much as a Cessna 152 to be operated beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) in what it classifies as “isolated areas” and to liberalize drone operations across the board. The proposals are being opposed by major aviation groups in Canada as a threat to manned aircraft […]

FAA and Boeing test pilots will start wringing out the updated version of the Boeing 737 MAX flight control software on Monday, according to a report by Reuters. Citing unnamed sources, the news agency said the pilots will spend three days in various flight configurations to test the effectiveness of the rewrite of software for […]

The FAA has signed off on significant changes to the Boeing 737 MAX’s flight control systems mandated by Canada and the European Union. The changes won’t delay the return to service but will cost Boeing money in the long term. According to the Seattle Times, the European Aviation Safety Administration (EASA) has demanded three changes […]