AVweb Insider

Memes are ideas, accepted wisdom and cultural touchpoints that get handed from one person to another via, well, who knows how? By e-mail, television, blogs, word of mouth. They take on a life of their own. When I ask myself how some in aviation get started, maybe I only need look in the mirror. In […]

Does general aviation need new piston engines? Well, sure, it always does, but thats not the same as saying it can sustain new engine designs. Nor does it stop companies from telling the R&D department to push around some ideas. In business in general, we call this progress, while in general aviation, its known as […]

In the admittedly dwindling universe of aircraft owners, there is some small percentage of people who are not ethically or morally qualified to own airplanes. Im probably deluding myself by saying it is a tiny fraction of owners, but it may very well be growing. Im referring to the deadbeats, the hustlers, the malcontents and […]

In 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse famously tapped out the first telegraph message, what hath God wrought? Were he an airline passenger today ruminating on the FCCs likely decision to lift the ban on cell phone use in airliners, he would text something along the lines of what fresh hell is this? None of this is […]

There are lots of ways for pilots to earn 30 seconds on the evening news, some good, but most not. The descriptors that begin or end with phrases like he was a good, careful pilot are the unfortunate ones, since the airman in question isnt likely to be breathing so he cant see himself on […]

If you woke up tomorrow and were suddenly King, to be challenged by no man or woman and could do as you please with, say, the FAA, what would you do? Sixty three percent of you would reform it from top to bottom if the results of last weeks pollquestion were accurate. Surmising that this […]

That faint humming sound you hear is the media-industrial complex gearing up for the first commercial space tourism flights, which Virgin Galactic seems likely to pull off next year, if not sooner. On NBC news Friday, I saw an advance story on Virgin Galactic with an interview with Richard Branson. Its pre-promo; NBC has signed […]

This weeks news that the Department of Justice has settled its opposition to a merger of American Airlines and USAirways raises some unanswerable questions but one certainty: The U.S. now has only three major carriers, Delta, United and the new American, once the merger is finalized. The USAirways name will be absorbed and will eventually […]

Last weekends midair collision between two Cessnas carrying skydivers wasnt the first midair caught on camera, but it may be the first impact filmed by a passenger from five feet away. Google gives the accident an entire page of search hits. That film will give the FAA and NTSB plenty to chew on in determining […]

I can think of only one word to describe an airline passenger who goes through the TSAs new streamlined security and feels vaguely grateful for having his rights somewhat restored. The word is pathetic, yet that was me last week when, entirely by random, I got shunted into the TSAs new TSA Pre security procedure. […]