Aviation News

By about the fifth day of the big U.S. air/trade shows—AirVenture and Sun ‘n Fun—a certain hollow-eyed exhaustion sets in. Vendors at the show can be heard to wonder if the thing will ever end and for us pixel-addled wretches covering the spectacle, we feel as run down as the batteries in our cameras and […]

The world’s largest airplane took its first flight early Saturday. The Stratolaunch, a six-engine, twin-fuselage behemoth with a 385-foot wingspan, took off from Mojave after years in development. The aircraft was conceived by Paul Allen and Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan as an aerial launch platform for low Earth orbit satellites that will reduce launch […]

Multiple investigations into two accidents of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft will inevitably focus on a much misunderstood FAA program called ODA for organization designation authorization. And Pete Bunce, president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, says that may ultimately be a good thing for both the aerospace industry and general aviation manufacturing specifically. We […]

This week, AVweb’s news roundup uncovered reports on a message from the National Agricultural Aviation Association to drone operators, a training infrastructure expansion for Lufthansa Aviation Training, a new partnership for The DAES Group, an upcoming flight simulation expo and a convention attendance announcement from Click Aviation Network. As the growing season gets underway, the […]

Formula 1 racing is a popular event at the Reno Air Races, among other sites, and beginning late next year, it will evolve into something new: electric airplane racing. As AVweb covers Aero this year, Jeff Zaltman, CEO of AirRaceE, says airplanes are being designed and constructed for the first scheduled air race late next […]

With the current EPA administration seen as unlikely to issue a finding of endangerment against the tetraethyl lead used in aviation fuel, its eventual demise may have to come at the hands of consumers. That was one message from a 100LL briefing held at Aero in Friedrichshafen, Germany, this week. Conducted by Shell’s Tim Shea […]

Honeywell Aerospace has announced that it will be partnering with Volocopter to jointly develop and test navigation and automatic landing systems for Volocopter’s electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi. Honeywell says it will be bringing its autonomous sensing and flight technologies—including inertial measurement units and attitude heading reference solutions—to the table for the […]

The much-anticipated CS23 revision—or FAR 23 to U.S. aviators—not to mention some tweaking of microlight and ultralight rules in Europe has kicked off the predicted new model development. At Aero on Wednesday, Italian planemaker Tecnam drove home the point by announcing three new variants. The low-wing P2002 Sierra has been a popular choice for schools […]

Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force is confirming that one of its 13 F-35 fighter jets crashed into the Pacific during a training exercise. The pilot signaled that he was aborting the training exercise minutes after departing Misawa Air Base in northern Japan. His was part of a four-ship flight. Contact was lost with the aircraft and […]

Even as it announced new a new initiative into the piston training market last week, Piper reports that sales of its big-ticket M-Class airplanes continue to show growth, with strong interest coming from Europe. At a press conference on the opening day of the Aero exhibition in Friedrichshafen, Germany, Piper CEO Simon Caldecott said sales […]