briefs

When Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta made a veiled reference to user fees in a speech to the Aero Club of Washington last week, alarm bells went off at EAA headquarters in Oshkosh. “EAA has been loud and consistent on this point,” said Doug Macnair, EAA’s vice president of government relations. “We are categorically opposed to […]

Amid all the rancor between the controllers union and the FAA, NATCA will take a break tonight to remember what the mission is all about — helping pilots to fly safely, especially when the going gets tough. Ten controllers will be honored as the second annual Archie League Medal of Safety winners. NATCA developed the […]

It was a very good year for pistons, for jets, and for customer service, Cessna CEO Jack Pelton reported last Thursday. In 2005, Cessna delivered 249 Citation jets, 822 single-engine pistons, and 86 Caravan single-engine turboprops; won FAA certification for two new jets — the CJ1+ and CJ2+; and built its order book up to […]

If poking along at 170 knots in your Cirrus SR22 isn’t good enough, George Braly, founder of General Aviation Modifications Inc. , home to GAMIjectors, is working on a solution to retain that speed into the higher altitudes for even better true airspeeds. “We have a turbo-normalizer in flight test now that will make the […]

BRAINTEASERS Quiz #103: More Power To YaIf power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely, then many pilots strive for the ultimate in degradation by strapping on bigger engines to reach beyond our grasp of powerplant knowledge. Let’s see how power-hungry you absolutely are. __________AUDIO CLIPPaul Berge makes sure we’re all speaking the same language when […]

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NASA said on Tuesday it will loan an RS-88 rocket engine to Rocketplane Limited, of Oklahoma City, to be tested in the company’s Rocketplane XP vehicle for three years. The company will provide NASA with design, test and operational information. The Rocketplane XP is a four-seat, modified Lear executive jet aiming to reach about 300,000 […]

Two trikes are now certified as Special Light Sport Aircraft, just weeks after the FAA accepted the industry’s weight-shift-control consensus standards. The Air Creation Tanarg and GTE 912 were awarded their certificates on Jan. 20. The aircraft can be flown with any one of four wings: the iXess, iXess Training, KISS 450, and FUN 450. […]

The NTSB yesterday asked the FAA to impose stricter requirements on all emergency medical services (EMS) flights, based on a study of 55 EMS accidents between January 2002 and January 2005. “The very essence of the EMS mission is saving lives. Operating an EMS flight in an unsafe environment just makes no sense,” said NTSB […]