Features

Years ago when it was one of those typical Midwest spring days where the turbulence was ferocious down low, but the headwinds seemingly doubled for every thousand feet of altitude. We were south of Chicago in a Warrior westbound at 4000 feet, talking to South Bend Approach, when our passengers started turning green. Reluctantly, I […]

AVweb’s General Aviation Accident Bulletin is taken from the pages of our sister publication, Aviation Safety magazine. All the reports listed here are preliminary and include only initial factual findings about crashes. You can learn more about the final probable cause on the NTSB’s website at www.ntsb.gov. Final reports appear about a year after the […]

Hybrid-Electric Utility Aircraft Gathers Support People have to stop thinking about electric and hybrid electric propulsion as an evolution of piston, turbine, or jet propulsion. Our current crop of aircraft are designed around the operating characteristics of piston or turbine powerplants, including their fuel, combustion air, cooling, operating speed, maintenance, fire protection, and other requirements. […]

In the April issue of Aviation Safety, we explored the theories of generating lift from Bernoulli and Newton, and how neither of them alone fully explains how airfoils work. Bernoulli’s basic understanding of low pressure above an airfoil is correct, but the math is wrong and his assumptions are faulty. He also doesn’t explain inverted […]

Anyone who has seen the Cygnet SF-2A will remember the two-seat, side-by-side taildragger because it looks like no other. Contrary to the high- or low-wing choices favored by designers of Amateur-Built and certified aircraft, the Cygnet extends its wings from the shoulder like outstretched arms. Even more unusual, the wingtips are 14 inches ahead of […]

A bit of nostalgia: Do you know how many stooges of the Three Stooges fame there were? You can find CURLI (Curly Howard) on an intersection on the LOC RWY 35 approach to Norwood Memorial airport near Boston on a NoPT leg from Providence, Rhode Island VOR. Adding to nostalgia, as you proceed further along […]

AVweb’s General Aviation Accident Bulletin is taken from the pages of our sister publication, Aviation Safety magazine. All the reports listed here are preliminary and include only initial factual findings about crashes. You can learn more about the final probable cause on the NTSB’s website at www.ntsb.gov. Final reports appear about a year after the […]

SpaceX’s Joyous Blowing Up of Rockets While Mars does seem much further away than 2024, I think it’s often overlooked how powerful Musk’s vision for reshaping the near-Earth infrastructure is. A fully *rapidly* reusable launch system, truly land-load-and-go like an airliner, could legitimately reshape how humans live on (and near) Earth. Who needs Mars when […]

Correspondence from the FAA is enough to elevate a pilot’s heart rate well into triple digits. A letter from the FAA stating that the pilot’s competence has been called into question and requesting that the pilot take a reexamination checkride with an FAA inspector will make even the toughest pilot go weak in the knees. […]

This story originally appeared in KITPLANES. By Lisa Turner “Do you think I could win an award?” Karen looked up from the backpack she was rustling through next to the airplane and told Stan, “I don’t see why not; it looks great to me. Why don’t you go ahead and put a ‘judge me’ card […]