briefs

As for the future of the Symphony 160, “I don’t know, specifically,” Jeremy Keninger, the company’s former national sales director, told AVweb. “I don’t think it’s the end of the aircraft — it’s a great value at that price point [IFR-equipped for about $165,000],” Keninger said. “It’s too bad it didn’t work out in Canada,” […]

The eleventh-hour balk of a Symphony Aircraft Industries investor has forced the company, which shipped five aircraft in 2006 (all in the first two quarters), to lay off all employees and declare bankruptcy, according to a letter sent Tuesday to dealers by now former President Paul Costanzo. “It was a big shock for the dealers,” […]

The pilot who died while flying a Boeing 757 for Continental Airlines on Saturday afternoon “experienced a serious medical problem which required the aircraft to land immediately,” Continental spokeswoman Mary Clark told AVweb on Wednesday. The pilot’s name and age have not been released yet by the airline, and the company is not releasing additional […]

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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 AOPA’s Kathleen Vascouselos. And AVweb’s podcast index includes interviews with Maule Air’s Mikel Boorom; Professsional Aviation Maintenance Association president Brian Finnegan; aviation forecaster Richard Aboulafia; NORAD; Bill Lear, Jr.; NATA President Jim Coyne; […]

It turns out that the Boeing 727 might not be the true “Jurassic jet.” Just as human aviation pioneers started out flying biplanes, allowing for high lift at low speeds, the early ancestors of birds may have done the same. Researchers Sankar Chatterjee of Texas Tech University and R. Jack Templin of Ottawa, Canada, have […]

BRAINTEASERS INDEX Quiz #116: Along the AirwaysBefore you can truly appreciate the ease and convenience of the modern sat/nav world, the pilot should master the pre-Columbian world of federal airways. See what you know about these ancient routes between ground-based navaids.

Flight Service Stations in Alaska now have an extra tool they can use to help track some aircraft that request flight-following services. FAA personnel will have access to a Web site from a private vendor that tracks the airplanes via satellites and displays their track on a map of the region. Tony Wylie, manager of […]

The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) says rules for aviation self-fuel pumps need to be rewritten because some FBOs in Alabama have been sanctioned for violating rules that NATA says are not necessary for aviation operations. Current legal standards for weights and measures require that all self-fuel dispensers display the price per gallon and the […]