briefs

U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Norman Y. Mineta will address the FAAs Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC) this morning. Mineta is expected to discuss the departments interest in the internationally competitive private commercial launch industry. FAA Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation Patricia G. Smith will also address the committee. The COMSTAC panel, […]

A conference committee of the House and Senate has agreed to strip language relating to the privatization of 69 FAA control towers from the long-delayed FAA Reauthorization Bill but privatization opponents say that’s not the end of the debate. The bill, which should have been passed in September, has been held up over the privatization […]

You’d think an airline pilot would know better … especially after a fellow employee had been brought up on charges in Queens, N.Y., for similar behavior in August … but an Air France crew member was detained Friday after he allegedly made remarks about the plane blowing up as his baggage was being screened at […]

Mother Nature can sure cause a lot of static when she wants to. In fact, static was the only thing heard on a few air-carrier-based communication systems on Monday, as a solar storm was blamed for interfering with high-frequency communications. While the storm could last up to two weeks, a powerful flare-up that hit earth […]

https://avweb.com/avmail/ Reader mail this week about unusual attitude training, the end of Concorde and more.

_______COLUMNS CEO of the Cockpit #25: CentennialIt’s a cliche to say the world of 1903 was very different than 2003. But it is instructive to look back at that year and see what kind of world powered flight entered; to see what it meant to the Wright Brothers and to the rest of humanity at […]

Congratulations and an AVweb hat go out to Bob Vila, this week’s AVscoop winner. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. Rules and information are at https://avweb.com/contact/newstips.html.

We can argue about its usefulness. We can gag at the overstuffed egos of celebrities who reveled in the supersonic cachet. We can shake our heads over the Ohio man who bought the last two tickets for $60,300 in a charity auction. We can even sympathize with the folks in Queens who are relieved to […]

OK, it was done already, 17 years ago in Voyager, with Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager in the cockpit. But Steve Fossett wants to be the first to fly *solo* around the world nonstop and without refueling in an airplane. Richard Branson is serving as backup pilot, and Burt Rutan is designing the jet-powered, pressurized […]

Just a week after telling a Congressional panel that maybe GA is not such a big security threat after all — remarks that elicited much glee from AOPA, as AVweb reported last Monday — TSA chief James Loy was nominated by President Bush to fill the No. 2 slot in the Department of Homeland Security. […]