Aviation News

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 […]

Retirement came this week for what is believed to be the last flying Lockheed JetStar. An unnamed Florida family, which has been using it for the last three decades, has donated the four-engined bizjet to the Marietta Aviation History and Technology Center. Built in 1966, this JetStar has just short of 11,000 hours’ total time […]

Lockheed Martin delivered 47 percent more F-35 fighters this year than last, beating its goal for delivering 131 F-35 fighters in by three aircraft. That number is double its production from 2016. The fleet size is now 490 aircraft, with another 141 planned to be active by the end of 2020. “This achievement is a […]

Kitmaker Sonex Aircraft has reclaimed ownership of the Sonerai design. Penned by Sonex creator John Monnett in the early 1970s, the Sonerai was developed to compete in Formula Vee racing—and is said to be capable of 170 MPH with a converted Volkswagen four-cylinder engine on the nose. The Sonerai has been supported by SoneraiWorks, but […]

Flying on a wing and a prayer had some extra meaning for the parishioners of St. Anne Parish in Cow Island, Louisiana, just before Christmas as a cropduster delivered a blessing from above. The aircraft sprayed about 100 gallons of holy water over the church, a school and much of the farming community’s land and […]

The NTSB has released its factual report on a 2018 incident that ended with the pilot of a Cessna 172 coaxing the aircraft ten miles to a safe landing missing four feet of the left wing and most of the trailing edge. The pilot was uninjured. The aircraft was on a pipeline patrol south of […]