Aviation News

The pilot shortage is making itself felt in rising orders for new trainers, GAMA reported on Monday, in its shipments and billings report for the second quarter. Overall, the quarter’s results are mixed, said GAMA President Pete Bunce, but demand for training aircraft is driving up sales in both the piston and rotorcraft segments. Piston […]

Luminati Aerospace, an engineering and research firm based on Long Island, New York, says it has created technology inspired by flocks of geese that can achieve “perpetual stratospheric flight.” Luminati says groups of four solar-powered drones flying in a diamond formation can “overcome the limitations of current battery technology” by taking advantage of the vortices […]

Military rescue aircraft were orbiting the site of a plane crash on a remote Alaska mountain ridge Sunday, unable to reach the downed sightseeing aircraft and its five occupants because of bad weather. The pilot of a de Havilland Beaver operated by K2 Aviation reported the crash Saturday about 6 p.m. on his satellite phone […]

The Air Force is hoping to ease its pilot shortage by speeding up the training of new pilots using virtual reality simulators. The first class of 20 Pilot Training Next (PTN) candidates, 15 officers and five enlisted personnel, finished their course on Friday and 13 of the officers passed. Two officers washed out and were […]

Twenty people died Saturday when one of the seven remaining airworthy Ju-52 airliners crashed while on a sightseeing trip in the Swiss Alps. The aircraft is reported to be HB-HOT, the same aircraft that visited AirVenture in 2012. There were 17 passengers and three crew onboard when the aircraft went down on a flight from […]

AVweb’s weekly news roundup found reports on the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals’ Annual Convention and Career Expo, new scholarships for female helicopter pilots, a warranty extension on Superior Air Parts Millennium Cylinders and a service center network expansion for RAJAY Turbo Products. The Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals (OBAP) will be holding its 42nd […]

The Delta Air Lines Foundation has awarded $350,000 in grant money to nine aviation maintenance training programs across the U.S., joining a growing list of major aviation companies that have recently taken steps to address predicted shortages of qualified pilots, crew and aviation maintenance personnel. According to Delta, the grant money will help with curriculum […]

Airbus announced the launch of its ab initio Pilot Cadet Training Program last week. The company says the program is designed to “help meet global demand for pilots over the next 20 years.” Airbus’ partner for the program is Escuela de Aviacion Mexico (EAM), which is located close to the Airbus Mexico Training Center in […]

Boeing has announced plans to open a research and development facility at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) new mixed-use district in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The Boeing Aerospace & Autonomy Center will provide space for Boeing subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences, along with Boeing employees. According to Boeing, the work at the facility “will focus on designing, […]