Aviation News

Garmin has announced that it intends to certify the GFC 600H helicopter flight control system on the Bell 505 Jet Ranger X. The company expects to have the Supplemental Type Certification (STC) for the Bell 505 by the first half of 2020 and plans to make it available through the Bell production line and Garmin […]

The FAA published an InFO (Information For Operators) sheet last week detailing its concerns about human damage to angle-of-attack sensors. “It is imperative that all operators are aware of the criticality of AOA sensors,” the notice says.  “Based on continued airworthiness activity on multiple foreign and domestic products, including large transport aircraft and small general […]

After a difficult season for Part 135 operators in Alaska, the National Transportation Safety Board is scheduled to hold a public roundtable on Sept. 6. NTSB Chairman Robert Sumwalt will host the event at the University of Alaska, Anchorage. “The number of Part 135 fatal accidents in Alaska is troubling,” he said in concert with […]

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) opened registration for next year’s Aviation Design Challenge on Monday. The annual competition, which is designed to promote Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in U.S. high schools, was held for the first time in 2016. Participating high school teams will follow GAMA’s six-week “Fly to Learn” curriculum […]

Brazil-based aircraft manufacturer Embraer held a ceremony to celebrate its 50th anniversary at the company’s headquarters, in São José dos Campos, Brazil, on Monday. Embraer was founded on Aug. 19, 1969, by the Brazilian government as the state-owned Empresa Brasileira de Aeronáutica S.A. The company was privatized in 1994 and employs approximately 18,000 people worldwide. […]

The FAA has published an Airworthiness Concern Sheet for early Piper Cherokee and Arrow aircraft. According to the FAA, the Pipers’ fuel selector arrangement, which has no provision to keep the pilot from inadvertently selecting either of the two OFF positions, remains a safety issue. The FAA had previously issued warnings in 2014 to pilots […]

Two people were killed, one on the airplane, one on the ground, when a Cessna 303 Crusader crashed into a house in LaGrangeville, New York. There were three people in the airplane and three in the house when the aircraft, a relatively rare six-place twin made in the early 1980s, came down on a flight […]

The Air Force has flown a Cessna 206 with a robotic pilot it says can essentially turn an aircraft into a drone and then get turned back into a manned aircraft. The ROBOpilot flew a two-hour autonomous test flight at Utah’s Dugway Proving Ground Aug. 9 handling the takeoff, flight maneuvers and landing without human […]

Canadian authorities have launched investigations, including a criminal negligence probe, after a skydiver was injured when both her main and reserve parachutes failed to deploy properly. The 30-year-old woman suffered broken bones and other non-life-threatening injuries after falling about 5,000 feet during a solo jump near Trois Rivieres, Quebec. It was described by local media […]

A couple of commercial space launch companies are steering clear of bringing their boosters back to Earth under their own power and are instead borrowing a technique from the dawn of space exploitation. Wired says United Launch Alliance and small-launch provider Rocket Lab plan to grab their boosters out of the air with helicopters as […]