Aviation News

AOPAs surprise announcement that its abandoning the annual fall Summit show came as quite a surprise, although anyone whos been paying attention could have seen it coming eventually. From my point of view, its a welcome development and newly installed AOPA president Mark Baker deserves some props for making a decisive move barely days into […]

Virgin Galactic tested its SpaceShipTwo, space-tourist-carrying vehicle Thursday over the Mojave Desert, exceeding Mach 1 and achieving an altitude of nearly 70,000 feet while demonstrating less than rock-solid stability. The vehicle was dropped at 46,000 feet and climbed under rocket power for 20 seconds, reaching 69,000 feet and 1.43 Mach (nearly 1,100 mph) with two […]

British pilot Ken Wallis took his first solo flight in 1937, flew as a stunt pilot and doubled for Sean Connery in 1967, and passed away Sunday at the age of 97, after “a long and successful life doing what he wanted,” his daughter told BBC.co.uk. Wallis flew Wellington bombers for his country in World […]

Founded in 2012, Titan Aerospace of New Mexico aims to create solar-powered unmanned aircraft to act as satellites with years-long flight durations. The company has two models in the works: the Solara 50 and the Solara 60, with the numbers referring to each vehicle’s wingspan in meters. Both are being designed to fly autonomously at […]

The California National Guard has deployed an MQ-1 Predator remotely piloted aircraft to support firefighters in their effort to control the Rim Fire threatening Yosemite National Park. Based out of Victorville, Calif., the aircraft is expected to identify key locations of fire activity, where the fire has been controlled, how it moves, and avenues of […]

Loosely based on comments made by the former commander-in-chief of the Russian air force, Army General Pyotr Deynekin, rumors have emerged that Russia’s next long-range assault jet will likely be unmanned, but it’s not coming very soon. The General said that a sixth-generation program is in the works and told RIA news agency it “most […]

Rick Mathews, the president of AAP (Aviation Access Project) thinks that common sense is one of the key ingredients needed to reduce the 80 percent dropout rate in general aviation flight training. His goal is to reduce it to 25 percent or less while also doubling the pilot population to one million or more. Thats […]

Paul Poberezny, who founded EAA in 1953 and served as the organization’s leader for many years, died on Thursday morning, EAA has announced. He was 91 and living in a retirement village in Oshkosh, Wis. The Poberezny family released a statement: “We deeply appreciate all the support shown to Paul and Audrey over the past […]

When I heard that Mark Baker was tapped as the new AOPA president, my first thought was…could he be the son of that other Baker, the one whose name almost always appeared appended to the word colorful? But no, no apparent relation. By now, you will have perused Bakers resume and formed your own opinions. […]

Ive always figured there were two theories of aircraft ownership: the magic carpet school and the ticking time bomb philosophy. The former gets tangled up in the romance and passion of airplanes as a means of justifying virtually any aircraft-related expense, no matter how irrational or how large. The time bomb view, which is what […]