Aviation News

At an annual fly-in in Connecticut, pilots who design and build their own hot-air balloons gather to fly their aircraft, learn from each other, and try out new ideas. view on YouTube

The FAA Thursday released its UAS Roadmap and Comprehensive Plan to integrate unmanned aerial systems, or UAS (also known as UAVs or drones) in the national airspace. The release addresses current and future policies, regulations, technologies and procedures that will allow operation of unmanned aerial vehicles in the nations airspace with emphasis on extensive integration. […]

Lighthawk, a non-profit group based in Wyoming, recently won a grant from the AOPA Foundation to help them expand their outreach efforts across the country. At AOPA Summit in Fort Worth, Texas, Lighthawk outreach manager Greg Bedinger and program officer Ryan Boggs spoke with AVweb’s Mary Grady to explain how general aviation pilots can help […]

The FAAs processes combined with financial constraints have created a bottleneck that has held up roughly 1,000 certifications, industry representatives told a House aviation subcommittee last month – and it could get worse, they said. In the past year alone, the certification office lost resources due to the sequester, instituted a hiring freeze, and had […]

Letter of the Week:Undetected Crashes Noting the incident at Nashville Airport, I, too, once had an undetected crash on what is now Runway 20C — it was runway 20L at the time — in the early 1970s. I was the non-flying pilot in a Cessna 195 during the attempted landing. During the rollout, the FP […]

A nine-foot statue of Korean War ace and Vietnam veteran Brig. Gen. James Robinson Robbie Risner still stands at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, but the man himself was lost to the world with his passing at his home, Oct. 22. Throughout his career, Risner earned three Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Silver Stars, […]

Russias fifth flying Sukhoi PAK FA T-50, has flown this month in Russia as part of a test program expected to include roughly 2,000 test flights culminating with the jets entry into service (perhaps as early as 2016), according to Russian news sources. The flight lasted 50 minutes and tested the aircrafts engines, stability and […]

AVweb’s Tim Cole recently completed a trip to China and the China General Aviation Congress at Xi’an. Here are some closing observations. view on YouTube

With its advanced systems, modern ergonomics and luxurious-yet sporty-cabin design, it may be easy to sell pilots on the Cirrus SR22s capabilities. But it might also be an easy aircraft to sell to paying passengers. You might assume that commercial travelers accustomed to larger jet aircraft might view the Cirrus as another one of those […]

I went off to the multiplex over the weekend to see Gravity, fully expecting to be underwhelmed by a film thats been exceptionally hyped. I walked out of the theatre dumbstruck, wondering how director Alfonso Cuarn pulled this thing off and impressed with how, a day later, I was still in its grip. If no […]