briefs

NASA needs to collect all the evidence it can to help in its analysis of what went wrong Feb. 1, and last week the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the FAA solicited help from both high- and low-tech sectors of the aviation world to help the Space Shuttle Columbia investigation. Seven powered parachutes have officially […]

One of the cities hardest hit by the slump in aviation business has been Wichita, Kan., where workers at Boeing, Bombardier, Cessna and Raytheon have suffered a blizzard of pink slips. Last Thursday, Wichita got some good news from the federal government: up to $4 million in grant money for job-training programs. The money is […]

“Can you raise your wings, please?” Transportation Security Administration staff are puzzling over a proposal to reinstate a marketing plan that Southwest Airlines used to feather the nests of SeaWorld Parks in San Antonio, San Diego and Orlando. Before 9/11, the airline would fly a pair of tame penguins owned by the parks to various […]

Hollywood has often portrayed flying machines the morphed into various shapes and sizes. In the not-too-distant future, some of that technology may move from the silver screen to the wild blue yonder. Lockheed Martin was recently awarded a multimillion-dollar U.S. Air Force contract to study technology that would allow the development of an aircraft that […]

While Boeing may think that it has the U.S. military market secured, Airbus seem to believe that there is opportunity for it to capture part of this coveted aircraft market. BusinessWeek magazine is reporting that Airbus might set up a plant to make U.S. military tankers in Wichita, Kan. The magazine’s article adds that up […]

Imagine the surprise, and the annoyance, of passengers and airport officials last week when an FAA error caused 33 flight delays and diversions and generally messed up operations at Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport in Virginia. It seems the FAA recently published an approach plate for an ILS there which had not yet been certified for […]

As AVweb reported Monday, Eclipse Aviation gathered some of its customers together last week to update them on the complications caused by abandoning the Williams EJ22 engine. The company issued a news release Monday detailing the facts and figures released during that meeting. The Eclipse 500 will cruise at 375 knots, an increase of 20 […]

Three Washington, D.C., area airports got news they expected, but didn’t necessarily want to hear, Tuesday from the Transportation Security Administration. The TSA will extend Special Federal Airspace Regulation 94 until February 2005. The regulation, which has banned most GA operations in the Washington area and severely curtailed operations at College Park, Washington Executive/Hyde Park […]