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Hawker Beechcraft Systems has an in-house program to upgrade Bonanza aircraft with new avionics, new engines and new ergonomics as part of its Xtra program. Upgrades range in cost from the tens of thousands to roughly $100,000 and offer improvements in comfort, speed, range and style. Upgrading the air conditioning alone can add knots to […]

Director of Lockheed Martin Flight Services, Jim Derr, spoke with AVweb Thursday to discuss new tools rolled out this week to aid pilots in their flight planning and flight plan filing through AFSS.com. The web portal offers pilots the ability to create profiles based on the aircraft they fly, routes of flight and frequent destinations. […]

AVweb publisher Tom Bliss Thursday gathered representatives from major engine and avionics manufacturers, mod-shops and more to discuss a plan to modernize the general aviation fleet and offer like-new aircraft at lower-than-new cost. Bliss’ concept would seek to create standardized programs for updating popular existing airframes with new engines, avionics, interiors and paint. The end […]

Despite the economy, specialty aircraft continue to enjoy strong sales and a Canadian company is celebrating the FAA certification of its “next generation” line of bush planes. Found Aviation has a Bigfoot model on display at AOPA Summit. It’s the conventional-gear version of the Expedition introduced a few years ago and spokesman Drew Hamblin said […]

An Idaho company says it has come up with a way to allow virtually any aircraft to benefit from winglets without affecting the certified load limits of its wings. Tamarack Aerospace President Nick Guida said the patented “active winglets” the company has developed will allow the installation of winglets on hundreds of aircraft types whose […]

There is a trend in education that Think Global Flight hopes to reverse, using aviation as the messenger. The organization intends to launch a circumnavigation flight in a Cirrus SR20 G3 in September of 2013 in a bid to encourage students all over the world to take the “STEM” subjects in school and keep science […]

A wide range of aviation companies will be represented in AVweb‘s launch of its Three Rs Affordable Aircraft Initiative to boost the refurbishing and remanufacturing sector of the industry. “We expect about 15 participants for [today’s] round table discussion [at AOPA Summit] in Palm Springs,” said AVweb Publisher Tom Bliss. The discussion will be held […]

New aircraft sales continue to be on the soft side, but some specialty refurbishing and modification companies can’t keep up. “I can’t build them fast enough,” said Todd Peterson, owner of Peterson’s Performance Plus, creator of the King Katmai modification of the Cessna 182. On setup day Wednesday at AOPA Summit in Palm Springs he […]

Each week, we run a sampling of the letters received to our editorial inbox here in AVmail. One letter that’s particularly relevant, informative, or otherwise compelling will headline this section as our “Letter of the Week,” and we’ll send the author an official AVweb baseball cap as a “thank you” for interacting with us (and […]

Among the first things pilots learn is what to do if something goes wrong. Instrument pilots get to learn what to do when instruments or the systems powering them fail and how to get back on the ground with what’s left. Back in the days when each instrument was a separate, physical thing instead of […]