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The last doughboy is but a memory and it’s estimated that we’re losing our World War II veterans at the rate of 1,000 a day. For those of us who grew up sitting at the knee of fathers, grandfathers, or uncles who fought “The Big One,” it’s inconceivable that we’ll someday live in a world […]

Let’s all stand up on our respective virtual sofas and offer a loud cheer for Tadeusz Wrona. But not for the reason you think. Wrona was the skipper of that LOT 767ER that landed Tuesday in a shower of sparks in Warsaw with the wheels tucked into the wells. Evidently, after a hydraulic failure, he […]

Infrastructure has been getting a lot of talk lately, as President Obama looks for a way to get a jobs bill funded — in fact, just last week he gave a speech about it in Washington. It’s not just our roads and bridges that are neglected. “Our air traffic congestion is the worst in the […]

Last week, I took a ride over to Ft. Lauderdale to visit with Premier Aircraft. The company’s been having good success selling Diamond aircraft (and Mooneys) and they have a premium upgrade package for the DA40 that includes a composite prop and a luxury interior.I’ve always liked the DA40. It’s got a terrific combination of […]

The French BEA (Bureau d’Enquetes et d’Analyses) is livid, over the leaking of the cockpit voice recorder transcript from Air France’s Flight 447, which crashed in the South Atlantic in June of 2009. After reading the transcript, which was revealed in unknown entirety in a book called Erreurs de Pilotage, by Jean-Pierre Otelli, it’s easy […]

If I were half as smart as Richard Branson and just half as rich-hell, a tenth as rich-I’d have a Gulfstream in my hangar instead of a J-3. Branson, whose Virgin Atlantic is one of the world’s high-profile airlines, has a flair for showmanship and perhaps a talent for greenwashing, too.At least that’s what I […]

The history of aviation is full of false starts, some of which, with the benefit of hindsight, look like mistakes. Piper’s likely decision to shelve the Altaire single-engine jet won’t be one of them. The sooner it ends its “review” of the project and puts a bullet in it the better.Although the Altaire is not […]

Last weeks ditching of a Cessna 310 13 miles off the coast of Hawaii’s big island, had the local press tittering about the pilot’s steely nerves and what an amazing thing it all was. Ho-hum. Wake me up when the movie is over. The fact is, ditchings happen all the time and the vast majority […]

I wonder if anyone at 800 Independence Avenue will make the connection with that phrase. I’ll get to it in a minute, but first, does the FAA really need to send agents to the little town of Yellville, Arkansas to arrest any pilot caught throwing live wild turkeys out of airplanes over the town square?Evidently, […]

Contradictions are a part of every aspect of life but rarely are they as ironic as those that appeared at NBAA’s annual gathering, this year in that somewhat sad symbol of excess, Las Vegas. The location is kind of an apt metaphor for the struggle of identity that wages mercilessly in business aviation. Millionaire superstars […]