Aviation News

GE Aviation announced Thursday it had successfully test run its partially 3-D printed Advanced Turboprop engine, which is set to power the Textron Denali single turboprop. Details of the test were scant in the GE press release but “early indications show that we will meet or exceed all the performance numbers we have quoted for […]

Santa Monica Airport has reopened after a 10-day closure, with its sole runway shortened to 3,500 feet, a loss of 1,500 feet. The change is the latest effort by the city to reduce traffic at the urban airport, an effort that has long been opposed by the aviation community. “This is a great day for […]

The restored B-29 ‘Doc,’ which made its debut at Oshkosh this summer, will be back at the show in 2018, Doc’s Friends have announced. The partial tour schedule, released last week, also includes stops in Pennsylvania, Kansas and Missouri. Meanwhile, volunteers are about 60 percent through the planned winter maintenance program that began in early […]

An unidentified banner pilot starred in what could become an instructional video on how to ditch an airplane when his Piper Pawnee had engine trouble in the Bay of Biscayne near Miami last Friday. The video, shot from a boat full of people who didn’t seem to realize the gravity of the situation until the […]

I can recall almost to the day when I first became aware of the great breaking Chinese general aviation wave—or takeover, if you prefer. It was mid-June 2005 and I was riding with Michael Feinig, then Diamond Aircraft’s managing director, at breakneck speed down the autobahn to the company’s factory at Wiener Neustadt, Austria. Diamond […]

Austrian-based Diamond Aircraft Group has been acquired by the Chinese company that purchased Diamond’s North American operations last year. Almost a year to the day that Wanfeng Aviation Industry Co. Ltd. bought Diamond’s London, Ontario, plant, the Chinese firm bought the Austrian holdings of sole shareholder Christian Dries, who founded Diamond 25 years ago. Wanfeng […]

Boeing and Embraer confirmed on Thursday they are “engaged in discussions regarding a potential combination, the basis of which remains under discussion.” The brief statement was released after the Wall Street Journal reported that Boeing was in takeover talks with the Brazilian company. A merger would expand Boeing’s presence in the regional jet market and […]

The development of the CityAirbus VTOL demonstrator is moving forward, Airbus said in a news release this week. The first structural parts are complete and will soon be assembled. The ground-test facility in Germany is also complete, which will enable Airbus engineers to verify the electric propulsion system. The facility can test the system’s components, […]

The new federal tax regulations that will take effect on Jan. 1 are mainly good news for aviation, according to AOPA and NBAA. The legislation passed this week will “directly lead to growth for the general aviation industry,” said NBAA President Ed Bolen. For example, the new rules allow for “immediate expensing,” Bolen said, which […]

Boeing Phantom Works took the cover off its refueling-drone project on Tuesday, revealing for the first time its entry in the U.S. Navy’s competition. The MQ-25 drone is designed to extend the combat range of fighter jets such as the Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornet, Boeing EA-18G Growler and Lockheed Martin F-35C, which are deployed from […]