briefs

What do Oracle CEO Larry Ellison and the San Jose SaberCats have in common? They are combatants in the ongoing battle against San Jose’s airport curfew. Ellison won his battle, but Horta LLC, which owns the Boeing 727 used to shuttle the arena football team, is just starting its fight. It has filed a lawsuit […]

The wildfire season is upon us and small aircraft are playing a more prominent role in putting them out. Because of the rash of accidents involving heavier firefighting aircraft last year, this season will see more use of smaller, single-engine airplanes fighting the blazes. This is mainly due to the U.S. Forest Service’s and the […]

State governments seem hell-bent on adding a hefty price to the cost of flying and AOPA has recently stepped up its fight against such measures. For starters, the Ohio House has inserted a previously deleted measure into its version of the state budget that would hike the registration fee for general aviation aircraft a whopping […]

The skies above Lakeland, Fla., will be filled with tumbling airplanes this week, as some of the world’s best pilots gather to compete in the World Aerobatic Championships. The 10-day event, starting Wednesday, is an intense affair. It opens with a night air show and closes with fireworks, but otherwise the schedule is focused on […]

It’s a well-worn debate, but it’s getting yet another run — if a pilot drinks, is that a medical problem to be addressed, or a violation to be punished? The rules were changed after Newsday reported last year that 22 commercial airline pilots had tested positive for alcohol use, up from nine the year before. […]

The teenager who flew a stolen Cessna 172 into a Tampa office building last year sought out detailed information about MacDill Air Force base shortly before the fatal flight, according to a new FBI report quoted in the Tampa Tribune last week. A week before he committed suicide, Charles Bishop, 15, emailed a classmate to […]

The world’s first flight-weight, hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet engine has achieved 4.5 Mach ground testing, Pratt & Whitney” announced last week at the Paris Air Show. Ground testing at 6.5 Mach is expected to be completed later this month. The project is working with Air Force researchers under the Hypersonic Technology (HyTech) Program. “We are on track […]

Cellphones are seen everywhere now — restaurants, supermarkets, cars, sidewalks — but if you’re in an airplane, since the dawn of cellphone time, talking aloft has been forbidden. The reasons behind the ban have been unclear, sometimes citing possible interference with avionics, other times blaming cell-network issues. Now an official panel has been asked by […]

How to make money in the airplane biz has challenged generations, but one young entrepreneur in Boston has come up with a new take. The Boston Globe reports that an 18-year-old business student at Babson College started his own airline, complete with a Web site, called Mainline Airways, offering leather seats with personal TVs, affordable […]

The FAA last week issued an amendment to an existing Airworthiness Directive for McCauley Propeller Systems 1A103/TCM series propellers, which calls for inspections of the propeller hub with a dye-penetrant procedure to check for cracks. The amendment clarifies some details of the inspection procedure and relaxes the replacement requirements. The original AD was intended to […]