AVweb Insider

The smell of Varsol—a petroleum-based solvent that’s essentially paint thinner—all but makes me nostalgically woozy. It’s cheaper than drugs and probably healthier, too. It’s the smell I remember when I walked through the pressroom every morning at my first newspaper job. A decade later, when I became a magazine editor, the job changed but the […]

When President Eisenhower warned of the military industrial complex in his famous farewell speech of 1961, he knew of what he spoke. Even during World War II, the military and political considerations were so interwoven as to be sometimes indistinguishable. Signs of this are everywhere and one of the more obscure ones squats across the […]

The world is all agog over the news of Garmin’s Emergency Autoland. I’ll admit that any news from Garmin is usually impressive—and possibly discouraging to competitors—but when I first heard the radio commercial, I thought it was the name of a used car dealership in Oklahoma City. But was surprised to learn it had an […]

If Mooney was struggling to sell airplanes before its abrupt shutdown last week, it may need more luck and faith than exists in the known universe to find any buyers going forward. It baffles me why companies that get into money trouble decide the smartest thing to do is turn out the lights and stop […]

To your recent blog about news stories that promote women, I would add these comments: Yes, all-female flights or fake or minor women’s firsts have multiple negative aspects including the one you mentioned, “Imagine that. They could actually do it.” But also it gives an impression that women have just arrived in the industry as […]

Timed for the Veteran’s Day observance this week, Lionsgate and Centropolis released the pre-holiday blockbuster, Midway, a sweeping cinematic treatment of the historic Pacific war battle. The production itself may achieve history itself for being the first film to desperately, achingly cry out for a pull down menu that says Suspend CGI. But I’m getting […]

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all pilots should take their primary training in tailwheel airplanes, preferably without radios, and all should learn how to wheel land a taildragger, meaning touching on the main gear wheels before the tailwheel. By contrast, less flashy full-stall landings occur when all three wheels (mains and tailwheel) […]

We reported last month that in the wake of the fatal B-17 crash at Bradley Airport in Connecticut on Oct. 2, the Collings Foundation is seeking support for the renewal of its exemption to carry paying passengers in World War II aircraft. As aviation nerds, are we all supposed to line up here, click the […]

By now almost everyone in aviation has heard of Garmin’s Emergency Autoland. If you missed our flight trial video, here it is again. Generally jaded by new avionics, you’ll tell by my expressions in the footage that Garmin’s Emergency Autoland is a remarkably well-executed third layer of automated backstop in what’s called Autonomi. More than […]

The just-released Indonesian accident report on the 737 MAX crash in October 2018 will have something for each of us and one thing for all of us: It’s a poster child for that unassailable nugget of aviation wisdom that accidents comprise a chain of errors leading to a blackened crater. The chief investigator said as […]