Aviation News

Diamond Aircraft says it’s now offering the least expensive certified aircraft with a class cockpit in the DA20. The company announced at AOPA Expo that it is now offering Aspen Avionics primary flight displays as an option in the DA20 two-place aircraft. The $8,000 option (a few thousand dollars more for the pro model) puts […]

For the past half decade, as aviation weather datalinked to the cockpit has become standard equipment for U.S. pilots, European pilots could only look on in envy. At AOPA in San Jose this week, Avidyne Corp. announced that weather envy is no more, with the introduction of what it calls its Entegra WX Series. This […]

After flirting with Canadian and Russian certification for its composite aircraft, Epic Aviation says it will certify its products in the U.S. CEO Rick Schrameck told a news conference at AOPA Expo on Thursday that it will certify its first aircraft, the turboprop Escape, in Bend, Ore., under the auspices of the Seattle FAA office. […]

Owners of Thielert diesel engine-powered Diamond aircraft have received some welcome relief in the cost of maintaining their aircraft and more is on the way. At a news conference on Thursday at AOPA Expo, Diamond Aircraft CEO Peter Maurer said the insolvency commissioner overseeing the restructuring of the engine maker now realizes that sale of […]

Cirrus Design marked the tenth anniversary of the certification of its SR20, which happened at the 1998 AOPA Expo, with the announcement that the aircraft is getting some SR22-like upgrades. The less powerful entry-level Cirrus has always been less popular since the SR22 was introduced and now accounts for less than 20 percent of sales. […]

The economy will, of course, dominate the discussions in Washington, D.C., over the next while and that means some pressing issues in the aviation world will have to wait their turn, a panel of D.C. insiders told delegates to AOPA Expo in San Jose, Calif., on Thursday. “I don’t think anyone gives a darn about […]

Six months after introducing the Perspective avionics package with integrated synthetic vision, Cirrus Design has added the Max Viz 600 infrared enhanced vision system to the package. The new system was announced at AOPA Expo in San Jose. The display is integrated into the 12-inch multi-function display and can be shown at full-screen size or […]

A dissident group of members of the National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI) will hold a meeting on Friday at AOPA Expo in a bid to force “sweeping changes” to the governance of the organization. The group, calling itself Take Back Our National Association of Flight Instructors Committee (TBO NAFI) claims in a news release […]

On the day before the start of AOPA Expo 2008 in San Jose, another manufacturer announced production curtailments. Mooney Airplane Company spokesman Dave Franson told AVweb that production is being scaled down to balance the current inventory of unsold airplanes. The company laid off 229 of its existing 320 employees, virtually all of them on […]

Avidyne says it now offers the most comprehensive onboard weather products package with the launch of the Entegra Wx Series. The company announced the further development in its weather products as AOPA Expo was getting under way in San Jose, Calif. The system will comprise “the newly-TSO’d MLX770 Two-way Datalink Transceiver and the MLB700 Broadcast […]