Aviation News

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) today released the worldwide 2013 year-end aircraft billing and shipment numbers. GAMA Chairman Steve Taylor, President of Boeing Business Jets, reported that for the year, total worldwide general aviation airplane shipments rose 4.3 percent, from 2,164 shipments in 2012 to 2,256 shipments in 2013. Billings for GA airplanes worldwide […]

The Citation Latitude, the first in the line of new midsized business jets that Cessna hopes will challenge Embraer in that market, made its maiden flight on Tuesday and it went well according to Cessna. The aircraft, which was announced a little over two years agoat NBAA 2011, flew for 2.5 hours, climbed to 28,000 […]

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association is holding its annual luncheon today to announce the sales numbers of its members from last year but some companies just couldn’t wait to spread their good news. On Tuesday, Piper jumped the gun with a news release saying its sales and revenue increases were in double digits in 2013, […]

Business jet activity is showing a steady increase in Europe and the biggest jump is being recorded by the smallest aircraft. WingX Advance, a German research and consulting company, says very light jets recorded (PDF) a whopping 23 percent increase in flights in January of 2014 compared to January of 2013. The Cessna Citation Mustang […]

More used business jets (2303) were sold in 2013 than in any previous year and asking prices are on the way up according to the annual review of bizjet sales by JetNet. The amount of used inventory has also dropped by 0.9 percent to 12.5 percent of the worldwide fleet. “We hope this trend for […]

The FAA has formally retired its last DC-3 and the faithfully restored N34 has made its last flight to the Texas Air & Space Museum in Amarillo. The aircraft was acquired by the agency in 1958 and it flew around the U.S. as a navaid inspection platform. It retired from that duty in 1981 (King […]

It has beenreported that Santa Monica’s lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration seeking to clarify ownership of its municipal airport in order to close it was thrown out today by a federal court judge in downtown Los Angeles. U.S. District Judge John L. Walter dismissed the case, ruling that one of the lawsuit’s claims was […]

The organization Women of Aviation Worldwide is kicking off its fourth annual Women of Aviation Worldwide Week with opening ceremonies on March 3, 2014, at the College Park, Md., Aviation Museum. The event will include guest speakers and interactive airport activities aimed at awakening girls and women around the world to available vocations in professional […]

A review of press releases this week found one issued after Republic Airways Holdings announced that it would hire half the pilots it expected to because of a lack of candidates that meet new FAA experience rules. Craig Moffatt, President of Teamsters Local 357, which represents the more than 3000 pilots who fly for the […]

In the world of military aviation, the piston engine was left for dead sometime in the 1950s and it would still be thus if drones hadnt come along. But piston engines swinging old-school props give unmanned aircraft something that jet engines cant: unrivaled mid-altitude efficiency and endurance. So as unlikely as it seems, drone technology […]