Aviation News

Vik Kachoria, CEO of Spike Aerospace, said last week he expects to have a commercial supersonic aircraft design flying by the end of 2023. “There’s a lot pieces that have to come together,” Kachoria told Bloomberg’s Caroline Hyde in an online interview. “You’ve got to be able to fly at a reasonable cost, and you’ve […]

Bell’s V-280 Valor tiltrotor aircraft hit its full cruise configuration for the first time May 11 and is expected to be flying farther and faster through the rest of the summer. The aircraft achieved 190 knots with its rotors fully forward and has a design cruise speed of 290 knots. The aircraft is being developed […]

The Albuquerque Journal is reporting that One Aviation has attracted new investors, wants to resume building airplanes and is offering to pay most of its back rent to the City of Albuquerque as part of its restructuring process. In a May 17 letter to the city obtained by the Journal, Mike Wyse, the new chairman […]

The Heritage Air Museum tours with a nicely restored C-123 Provider, an airplane most people have never seen or even heard of. In this AVweb video shot at AirVenture, the Museum’s Jack McMahon tells us all about the airplane. view on YouTube

A new study from Helicopter Association International (HAI) and the University of North Dakota (UND) is projecting a significant shortage of rotorcraft pilots and mechanics between now and 2036. According to the UND-HAI Rotorcraft Pilot and Mechanic Supply Forecast, “more helicopter pilots are projected to retire or leave than are incoming over the next 12 […]

SpaceX successfully completed the first flight of its upgraded Falcon 9 Block 5 rocket, carrying the Bangladesh telecommunications satellite Bangabandhu-1 into orbit last Friday. According to SpaceX, the Block 5 is “the final substantial upgrade” to the Falcon 9 rocket, which the company hopes to use to transport people into space in the not-too-distant future. […]

The FAA’s rules currently prohibit civil aircraft from exceeding speeds in excess of Mach 1 over U.S. land areas, and the FAA says that’s not going to change. However, the agency said this week it wants to support the development of civil supersonic aircraft, and will propose two new rules that suggest a move in […]

Pilatus has reported that 2017 was an “exceptionally successful” year. The company, based in Switzerland, delivered 115 aircraft and grew to more than 2,000 full-time employees, the highest number ever for the workforce, according to the annual report, recently released. Most of the new airplanes were the PC-12 NG single-engine turboprop, with 85 delivered. The […]