Aviation News

Elbit Systems, based in Haifa, Israel, has completed the acquisition of Universal Avionics Systems Corp., of Tucson, Arizona, for a price of about $120 million, the companies announced on Wednesday. Universal develops and manufactures commercial avionics for a wide range of aircraft, including flight management systems, displays, communication systems and complete cockpit solutions. These products […]

Sun ‘n Fun welcomed more than100 returning World War II, Korea and Vietnam war veterans back to the warbird area last night after a whirlwind day of visiting war memorials in Washington, D.C. The Flight to Honor continues a tradition of chartering day flights to the nation’s capital so aging veterans can see the monuments […]

A developer in Miami has added a skyport to his high-rise luxury apartment building, anticipating a demand for VTOL flying taxis, according to The Miami Herald. Dan Kodsi, who is building the 60-story, 530-unit Paramount Miami Worldcenter, is designing the rooftop to accommodate a 5,000-square-foot skyport. Kodsi said he got the idea after hearing about […]

Pipistrel has sold 15 Alpha trainer aircraft to a flight school in California, the company’s largest-ever U.S. order. The flight school, WorldWide Wings, operates facilities in California and Florida that train pilots from all over the world, especially India. WWW director Naushad Imam said his flight school had been looking for a “suitable LSA ab-initio […]

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo,VSS Unity, has completed its first supersonic, rocket-powered flight, the company announced last week. The aircraft was carried to a launch altitude of about 46,500 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains by the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, then released. After a few seconds of glide, Unity’srocket motor was engaged, and the pilots placed the spaceship […]

Terrafugia, the Massachusetts-based “flying-car” company, said on Tuesday it has created 75 new jobs in the last year and plans to add 50 more by December. The company was recently acquired by Zhejiang Geely, a Chinese conglomerate, which provided the resources for the company to expand its operations and hire new workers. “The recent jump […]

Boeing’s HorizonX division, which supports new business ventures, is now a partner at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Research Park, ERAU has announced. HorizonX will join the John Mica Engineering and Aerospace Innovation Complex, located next to the Daytona Beach campus, which aims to help new businesses bring new enterprises to market. “We are proud to partner […]

As important as batteries are, the brushless DC motors that power electric airplanes are just as critical. In this brief AVweb video, Siemen’s Frank Anton explains how they work. view on YouTube

Ellen Stofan has been named director of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. Stofan begins her tenure April 30. She brings more than 25 years’ experience in space-related organizations and a deep research background in planetary geology. She is the first woman to hold this position. Stofan was chief scientist at NASA (2013-2016), serving […]

Fresh from showing its M600 turboprop for the first time at Chile’s FIDAE exposition, Piper is touring the airplane throughout South America and seeing signs that the aircraft market is waking up. Piper’s Latin American sales executive, Dan Lewis, told AVweb that the company has tripled its sales forecast for Brazil and demand in the […]