Aviation News

Efforts to save the embattled Santa Monica Airport suffered a setback this week when a court denied an NBAA petition claiming the FAA exceeded its authority when it agreed to allow the city to shorten the airport’s single runway last year. NBAA had petitioned the court to vacate the 2017 agreement, arguing that the FAA […]

The FAA’s Southern Region Airports Division has rejected an AOPA complaint claiming that Signature Flight Support at Asheville, North Carolina, charges pilots for “unnecessary and unwanted services,” and countered that the FBO is entitled to charge fees to earn a return on its investment.The association filed the Part 13 complaint last year against Signature FBOs […]

In a test it says moves drones closer to being integrated into the National Airspace System, NASA on Tuesday flew its Ikhana remotely piloted aircraft without a chase plane for the first time. The flight took place at the agency’s Armstrong Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base. ‘This is a huge milestone for […]

Building on the BR700 engine used in regional jets, Rolls-Royce has formally announced a new family of engines to be called Pearl. Rolls said the Pearl 15 will develop 15,125 pounds of thrust and will exclusively power Bombardier’s new Global 5500 and 6500 business aircraft. The engines were revealed conceptually a few years ago, but […]

Daher has developed a new configuration for its TBM 910 and TBM 930 single-engine turboprops to carry intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) equipment, which the company introduced at the Eurosatory 2018 Security and Defense Showin Paris this week. Nicolas Chabbert, director of Daher’s Airplane Business Unit, told AVweb the company’s main objective is to provide […]

Officials in Daytona Beach, Florida, say two occupants of a Piper Seminole that clipped two houses before crashing in a retention pond Saturday suffered only superficial injuries. The two were “alert” when first responders arrived. The aircraft was submerged except for one wheel. The duo apparently got caught in a hailstorm before the crash. Photos […]

The Air Force has temporarily grounded the entire B-1B fleet after an ejection seat mishap in May. A Lancer diverted to Midland, Texas, on May 1 and one of the ejection seat deployment hatches was missing when it landed. The seat did not fire, however, and all four crew used the belly stairway to leave […]

I have my own little axe to grind here and so let the sparks fly. Last month, as part of routine newsgathering duties, I tried to compile a how-goes-it on the FAA’s Piston Aviation Fuels Initiative, or PAFI. This yielded nothing but a waste of time and mounting frustration for me because everyone I spoke […]

This week, AVweb’s weekly news roundup found reports of pre-Oshkosh warbird displays, leadership changes at Sun ‘n Fun, new avionics update technology for business pilots and a fresh Boeing 777 for an aviation holding company. For anyone travelling to Oshkosh this year, the Commemorative Air Force will be returning to the Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport […]

The FAA is continuing to develop and expand its Offshore Precipitation Capability (OPC) system, which uses machine learning and image processing to estimate precipitation intensity and echo top heights in areas where Next Generation Radar (NEXRAD) is not available. While not as precise as radar in identifying the location and intensity of precipitation—although with greater […]