Aviation News

Together the more than 375 V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft in service have logged in excess of 500,000 flight hours, according to maker Bell Boeing. The V-22 was begun in 1983, first flew in 1989, and was finally entered into service with the U.S. Marine Corp in 2007 as the MV-22B. The U.S. Air Force got […]

There are lots of ways for customers to rank airlines but few are as rapid and unsparing as social media. Just ask Spirit Airlines, which was noted as having nearly 75 percent of its mentions on Twitter containing “negative” sentiment, compared to Southwest, which saw the same percentage of positive comments. These conclusions are the […]

The FAA has launched an investigation into whether a Las Vegas helicopter charter company violated safety regulations by dropping $10,000 in cash on a soccer field during halftime promotion for the local pro team. The Skyline Helicopter Tours aircraft circled the field in the packed stadium a half-dozen times before dropping the cash over 200 […]

The FAA has formally requested the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to address the issue of declining manual flight skills among airline pilots. In a brief submitted to ICAO, the agency says pilots have become too dependent on aircraft systems and either haven’t adequately learned or have not maintained their ability to manually control their […]

Kitty Hawk’s latest entry into the incipient urban mobility market is missing something important and it might be its biggest selling point. The new Heaviside (named for Oliver Heaviside, a controversial early 20th century physicist and electrical engineer) is virtually silent in flight with a noise level of about 38 decibels at 1,500 feet. Helicopters […]

The entire fleet of Boeing 737NG aircraft must be checked for potentially serious structural cracks but the inspections are easy to accomplish and will only add an hour to routine maintenance, unless cracks are found. As we reported last week, Boeing found cracks in the “pickle fork” assembly on a relatively low-time NG that it […]

Textron subsidiary Bell introduced the new Bell 360 Invictus military rotorcraft as its entry for the U.S. Army’s Future Attack Reconnaissance Aircraft (FARA) Competitive Prototype program this week. The aircraft will feature lift-sharing wings to reduce rotor lift demand in forward flight, a fly-by-wire flight control system, supplemental power unit, and articulated main rotor with […]

AVweb’s weekly news roundup uncovered reports on a new position for former Flying magazine editor-in-chief Stephen Pope, a trip to the SAFE Symposium for an engineered woven fabrics company, a line of resistance welding supplies and a company offering precision displacement sensors and systems. Former Flying magazine editor-in-chief Stephen Pope has accepted a position with […]

A Coast Guard helicopter plucked two survivors from a Florida swamp Thursday following a bizarre dual crash of a sheriff’s helicopter dispatched to investigate an earlier downing of a gyrocopter. Both pilots were muddy and wet, but uninjured. The incidents occurred near Fort Meade, Florida, about 24 miles south of Lakeland. The gyrocopter made a […]

United Airlines announced the launch of a new pilot recruitment program on Thursday. Called Aviate, the program offers “structured career pathways” for pilots and promises “the fastest path within the industry to a major airline” with a regional partner minimum requirement of 24 months and 2,000 hours. According to United, Aviate is open to “pilots […]