briefs

So, is your pride and joy giving you a little less of each? From the dull spinner to the flaking paint on the rudder, has your airplane seen better days? Well, in keeping with the makeover craze that’s sweeping the cable channels these days, the producers of a television program that usually turns run-down cars […]

The FAA has shut down the Florida charter company whose Challenger bizjet ran off the runway at Teterboro Airport last month. The agency ordered Platinum Jet Management to “cease and desist” all operations on Thursday after allegedly discovering the company doesn’t have the necessary paperwork to provide the crew and airplane for hire. But the […]

It’ll undoubtedly be handy in a search, but the digital camera/computer combination now being tested on some Civil Air Patrol (CAP) aircraft can do a lot more than pinpoint wreckage. In fact, the hyperspectral enhanced reconnaissance system is the same basic hardware used by military patrol aircraft, but it’s been scaled down to fit in […]

It would make an interesting slogan: “BA, now flying on three of four engines — and perhaps getting you there.” A lot of people (including the FAA) are wondering if financial considerations have trumped safety, after flying long distances over the arctic and water in a Boeing 747-400 with a bad engine has apparently become […]

Garmin has issued an alert (PDF file) warning owners of recently delivered new and repaired GPS units not to use them for DME arc procedures. The main software (versions 5.03 and 4.03) installed in Garmin 500- and 400-series units shipped new or shipped after repair between Feb. 11 and March 2 apparently has glitches that […]

You could call it glass for the masses. Joining multiple modern manufacturers producing glass-paneled aircraft in similar price ranges, Cessna has won FAA certification of the Garmin G1000 in the 172S. Cessna previously had the glass panel certified on 206 and 182 models. It will be offered as an option on the 172S and Cessna […]

It’s not often that a community is willing to sacrifice a golf course for an airport development but Reno, perhaps better than most cities, appreciates the value of air travel. The airport authority announced last week that the popular Brookside Golf Course will make way for a new $25 million control tower sometime in the […]

Two months after it predicted the first delivery of one of its A500 push/pull twins, Adam Aircraft continues to have certification “challenges” on the design, according to the FAA. Agency spokesman Allen Kenitzer also made it clear that bureaucratic foot-dragging is not causing the slipped schedule. “We are responding to the company’s schedule,” Kenitzer told […]

So, we have to wonder what the Japan Airlines pilot told his passengers after he slammed on the Boeing 777’s thrust reversers and swerved onto a taxiway about 3,000 feet into his takeoff roll at New Chitose Airport on the Japanese island of Hokkaido last Jan. 22. The Mainichi daily news reported the takeoff was […]

When your head is above the clouds, it’s hard to remember your roots. The first A in NASA, which stands for Aeronautics, is rapidly becoming archaic as the organization throws more and more resources behind ambitious space projects. And while space stations, a trip to Mars and a replacement for the space shuttle are certainly […]