briefs

Even though you likely turn it on only to see if it still lights up, it might be premature to throw out that old Loran taking up space on your panel. Whats old is new again as Britain is considering revamping the venerable ground-based radio navigation system as a backup for GPS. And, according to […]

Starting at 2 a.m. Mountain Time on Sunday, Christmas Eve, visitors to NORAD’s Web site will be able to track Santa’s progress around the world online. NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, has been offering the Santa-tracking updates for over 50 years. Four high-tech systems are used to do the job — radar, satellites, […]

Lockheed Martin recently graduated 46 Flight Service Specialists from its Flight Service Academy in Prescott Valley, Ariz. The class includes U.S. Air Force veteran John Lockheed, great grandson of company founder Allan Loughead. Together with the group, Lockheed will have experienced 10 weeks of academic classes that present “pre-requisite core knowledge, including meteorology and basic […]

Lighter, more fuel-efficient gas-turbine engines are $1.5 billion closer to reality, or at least closer to creating some 1,500 jobs at Pratt & Whitney Canada’s facilities and its network of suppliers. The company is investing its own money (and the equivalent of $350 million from the Canadian government) in what company President Alain Bellemare told […]

Podcast Index |How to Listen |Subscribe Via RSS In the spirit of the holidays, AVweb got the skinny on the fat guy in the big red suit from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), which for the past 51 years has been tracking Santa on his ’round-the-world-trip on Christmas Eve. We talked with NORAD […]

COLUMNS The Savvy Aviator #39: Temperamental IgnitionThe multi-probe digital engine monitor indicated that something wasn’t right with the left engine of my Cessna Turbo 310, but it took some head scratching before I figured out exactly what the problem was.

AVweb posts audio news on Mondays, plus a new in-depth interview each Friday. In last Friday’s podcast, you’ll find an interview with Bill Lear Jr. on light jet progress. And AVweb’s podcast index includes interviews with NATA President Jim Coyne; Eclipse Aviation’s Vern Raburn; Honda Aircraft’s Jeffrey Smith; Cirrus Design cofounder and CEO Alan Klapmeier; […]

A story in TCPalm.com on Wednesday said local officials are concerned that New Piper Aircraft might be weighing offers to move out of Vero Beach, Fla. “We’ve all heard the rumors, and at this point it’s time to get a hold of [New Piper CEO Jim] Bass,” County Commission Chairman Gary Wheeler told TCPalm. New […]

Although Eclipse Aviation has yet to actually deliver an airplane, there are dozens of Eclipse 500s for sale as the secondary market picks up. And, according to analyst Michael Press, Eclipse itself is dabbling in the market, selling an unconfirmed number of early positions for $1.75 million, well above the $995,000 that Eclipse spokesman Andrew […]

When Jacksonville, Fla., passed a city ordinance in June banning the home-based construction of aircraft, it seemed so unfair that it was expected to fail under court scrutiny. But now an appeal to the courts to reverse the ban has been rejected. “Cities have the right to zone based on aesthetic (or noise) considerations,” Judge […]