briefs

Congratulations and an AVweb hat go out to Daniel Blythe, 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.

_______COLUMNS CEO of the Cockpit #24: Air TVPicture it: An airliner dodging thunderheads, with the pilots jamming to rock music in their headphones. It’s the opening sequence of a new TV sitcom about airline pilots. Think it can’t happen — that real pilots doing real flying isn’t funny to the public? Neither does AVweb’s CEO […]

Every October, Albuquerque, N.M., hosts its biggest event of the year — the International Balloon Fiesta, which this year almost lost its “international” element, thanks to a recent ruling by the FAA that would have grounded many foreign pilots. On Thursday, Fiesta officials said they had secured a waiver from the FAA from a regulation, […]

It seemed a dubious dream from the start — to assemble a fleet of vintage aircraft and fly them along a 4,000-mile route to re-create a chapter from the Golden Age of Aviation. But last Wednesday, the spunky airplanes of the National Air Tour buzzed out of the sky right on schedule, to land in […]

It’s a long way from strapping a couple of nifty little rocket engines onto a Long-EZ and wowing the crowds at Oshkosh to developing new space technology for the U.S. military, but that’s what the upstarts at XCOR are working on these days and what they have always intended to do (along with space-tourism development). […]

Pilots of long-haul flights into Sydney, Australia, last week were met with the news that not enough jet fuel was available to fill their aircraft. Fuel at the major port was rationed for several days, and at least 18 flights were diverted to other airports for fuel, adding hours to already-long intercontinental routes. The shortage […]

The Angel Aircraft Corp., a little company based in Orange City, Iowa, last week received a Production Certificate from the FAA for its twin-engine, pusher-prop, STOL, eight-seat Model 44. “We have six aircraft in the production line now, and we have a demonstrator model flying,” sales rep Jerry Waddell told AVweb on Saturday. The special […]

The French engine-builder SMA received Supplementary Type Certificates this month from the French aviation agency, DGAC, that OK its Jet A-burning diesel SR305-230 piston engine for installation on the C-182 and the F182 (produced by French aircraft manufacturer Reims Aviation Industries). FAA validation is expected to follow shortly, according to SMA. A flight demonstration tour […]

___________SKYWRITINGS The 2003 National Air Tour: A Travelog (Part 1)As previously reported in AVweb, the National Air Tour is being re-created, 75 years after the first time. Dozens of antique airplanes are barnstorming the country, and getting warm welcomes everywhere they go. AVweb’s Brent Blue is helping out and sends this first report.

_____________________________ AVweb’s AVscoop Award… Congratulations and an AVweb hat go out to Pete Connors 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.