Aviation News

Two companies, Linear Air and Hopscotch Air, are hoping to spread awareness of, assess demand for, and then build on their new air taxi service launched Oct. 1, that operates the Cirrus SR-22 between White Plains, New York, and Boston. Both companies are involved in other sustaining ventures, so neither depends directly on the success […]

American Airlines said this week it will begin hiring again for the first time in over a decade, seeking to acquire 1,500 pilots over the next five years. The carrier is not yet out of bankruptcy, and has been involved in restructuring for nearly two years now, but began recalling pilots late last year. It […]

NASA, working with the Lindbergh Foundation, will show off early research that it believes could lead to “potentially revolutionary aviation concepts and technologies” during a three-day virtual seminar held Oct. 22-24. Subjects include ceramic matrix and hybrid composites for next generation aircraft, cooperative gust sensing and suppression for aircraft formation flight, sense and avoid radar […]

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is seeking to build a “reusable hypersonic aircraft” capable of speeds beyond Mach 10 to deliver payloads of up to 5,000 pounds into low earth orbit for less than $5 million per launch. DARPA will more fully explain the project in October, but for now is seeking to […]

Newly installed AOPA President Mark Baker said Wednesday that the key to pilot recruitment and retention is protecting access to airports. All things in aviation start with an airport. Weve got to make that accessible and fun, Baker told AVweb in an extended interview on Wednesday, which is available in todays podcast. He added that […]

In this exclusive AVweb podcast, AOPA’s newly installed president, Mark Baker, says the association will adopt an airport-centric means of promoting aviation and will concentrate on a regional strategy to reach the membership. Baker also told AVweb that all of the association’s activities – from fund raising to member support to starting new business lines […]

Lufthansa and two leasing companies have placed orders at a combined total of roughly $19 billion (not including discounts) for large jets that don’t yet exist in Boeing’s line-up, the 787-10 and the 777-9X. The jets currently exist only as computer designs. Planned production of the 787-10, which will be the largest of the Dreamliner […]

China is expecting to lead the region’s demand for new commercial pilots as it takes delivery of more than 5,500 aircraft over the next two decades, and its current pilot population may already be stretching work hours to meet demand, so changes are likely coming. China’s civil aviation had a shortfall of 10,000 pilots in […]

The Air Force, through Chief of Staff General Mark Welsh, has publicized an account (perhaps the first) involving the engagement of an F-22 Raptor and Iranian F-4s flying within 16 miles of an MQ-1 Predator drone as the UAV flew over international waters off the coast of Iran. Welsh delivered the account Tuesday, saying the […]

The stretched version of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner, the 787-9, can carry 290 passengers (40 more than the 787-8) over a greater distance and took its first flight, Tuesday, at Boeing’s Paine Field in Everett, Wash. The jet landed with no significant squawks and is ready to continue flight testing this week without the need to […]