Aviation News

The failure of a Soyuz-FG launch vehicle on Oct. 11 was caused by abnormal separation of one of the rocket’s boosters, according to Russian space agency Roscosmos. The committee investigating the incident says the malfunctioning booster hit the vehicle’s core stage in the fuel tank area, resulting in its decompression and a loss of attitude […]

Seventy years after it was lost during World War II, amateur divers found the wreckage of a B-24 Liberator bomber in the Adriatic Sea, off the coast of Italy. The U.S. Air Force airplane was badly damaged during an aerial engagement with the Luftwaffe in 1944, and the crew was forced to ditch. Several of […]

The Government Accountability Office has bitten on AOPA’s two-year-long campaign to end what it says is gouging by FBOs at some airports. At the request of House Transportation Chairman Bill Shuster and aviation subcommittee chairman Frank LoBiondo the GAO is specifically looking at whether the FAA is doing its job ensuring airports that receive federal […]

Virgin Orbit has rolled out its solution for making space more accessible to those who want to put small payloads into orbit. The company has modified a Boeing 747-400 to take a 57,000-pound, 70-foot rocket on a launcher between the inboard left engine and the fuselage. The rocket, called LauncherOne, was lifted into place and […]

When a crime is committed within a mile of the Chula Vista Police Department in southern California, chances are the first on the scene will be a drone. The police in the community near San Diego are the first to get an FAA waiver to fly over buildings and people to help officers assess a […]

The FAA has proposed a regulatory change that would allow flight training in experimental light sport aircraft (E-LSA) to be conducted for compensation or hire under a letter of deviation authority (LODA). Aviation organizations including the Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association (LAMA) and United States Ultralight Association (USUA) have been working toward […]

Volocopter announced that it will be performing urban flight tests with its Volocopter 2X eVTOL in Singapore in the second half of 2019. The company says the tests are designed to validate the aircraft’s ability to operate in an urban environment and that it is looking to enable air taxi service in Singapore. Volocopter will […]

An Embry-Riddle research study found that remotely operated consumer drones exceeded 400 feet AGL in 6.8 percent of flights tracked and that one flew as close as 0.25 NM from Daytona Beach International’s approach path. The study sought to evaluate “potential aviation interference and safety hazards” caused by small unmanned aircraft system (sUAS/drone) flights. To […]

As if it wasn’t enough to be planning to fly a fleet of vintage C-47s above Normandy next June, to commemorate the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the project also includes about 300 parachute jumpers from a variety of historic-recreation groups who aim to honor the veterans of WWII. This week, they flew their first practice […]