FAA and Regs

After a two-week investigation, the FAA has apparently decided that all is well with the SpaceX Starship interplanetary rocket test program even though its last two rockets blew to smithereens while attempting to land at the company’s Boca Chica, Texas, test facility. “The SN9 vehicle failed within the bounds of the FAA safety analysis,” the […]

The FAA will issue an emergency AD for requiring stepped up inspections of the fan blades on Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines following the uncontained failure of an engine on a United Airlines Boeing 777 near Denver on Saturday. FAA Administrator Steve Dickson issued a statement saying the engines have a unique hollow fan blade […]

Piper Cherokee owners who proactively checked the potentially problematic spars on their aircraft may not be in compliance with the AD that was finally approved last month. The FAA has asked aviation groups to spread the word that owners of affected PA-28s and PA-32s who had their spars checked before the AD became final on […]

The FAA has announced it will investigate last week’s spectacular crash landing of SpaceX’s SN9 Starship prototype in Texas. The silo-like rocket performed flawlessly through launch to 50,000 feet, where it hovered briefly before doing its “belly flop” maneuver to descend. One of the engines needed to brake the rocket in its final descent didn’t […]

As President Joe Biden enjoys a weekend at home in Wilmington, Delaware, general aviation is continuing to operate, even within the high-security 12-NM ring of the 30-NM TFR that follows him when he travels. AOPA is reporting that the TFR in place until Monday is a big improvement over the draft version rolled out in […]

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has gone to war with the FAA after the agency denied the company permission to launch its SN9 prototype deep space rocket as scheduled on Jan. 28. The agency issued a last-minute notice about five hours before the scheduled launch and said it was rescheduled until the following day. The delay […]

The Aviation Safety Reporting System has been inundated with hundreds of reports from pilots, flight attendants and support personnel on flight safety issues directly related to COVID-19. NASA runs the program as a consequence-free method for aviation personnel to describe safety miscues that didn’t result in incidents. Acting on a request, NASA culled out all […]

The FAA has allowed a Massachusetts company to conduct the first truly autonomous beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) drone operation in the National Airspace System (NAS), opening the door to a wide range of commercial applications. American Robotics is now allowed to fly drones weighing up to 20 pounds in rural areas without a […]

Flight attendants are applauding a new zero-tolerance stance by the FAA for bad behavior by passengers. The agency has announced that misbehaving passengers will no longer get a warning before they face significant punishment. The action, which is in force until the end of March, stems from a rash of airborne confrontations between unruly passengers […]

The FAA will allow supersonic flights over the U.S. to make it easier for testing of the next crop of proposed supersonic business aircraft. “The renewed interest in development of supersonic airplanes caused FAA to review its application procedures that allow for flight tests of these aircraft,” the agency said in its final rule. “This final […]