Aviation News

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 […]

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 […]

Murray Smith, the founder and publisher of Professional Pilot Magazine, died Christmas Day at the age of 89. Smith launched the magazine in 1966 and focused on issues that mattered to pilots, managers and dispatchers. It regularly surveyed its readership on issues affecting the broad range of commercial aviation. Smith had stepped back from day-to-day […]

Five people were killed and four injured in the crash of a Cheyenne II in Lafayette, Louisiana, Saturday morning. The deceased and one of the injured were on the plane, which came down shortly after takeoff from the Lafayette Regional Airport. One of the injured was a woman driving a van that was hit by […]