AVweb Insider

Fresh into an all-New Year, it’s tempting to hope that somehow, this year things will be different. The old traps and habits and flaws of the past will fade away, as transient as champagne bubbles and confetti, and life will be shiny and new. Yet a few weeks later we find ourselves back in our […]

Although you don’t see it as much, the kind of nose art that reached its zenith during World War II is still with us. I recently saw a shot of some pretty risqu art on the nose of an A-10. It’s still out there. Another military tradition also popular during World War II was the […]

One of my secret ambitions has been to own an airplane company and I think I’m about to realize it. Not to reveal too much about my personal finances, but I’m about to come into a lot of money. I mean a really, huge, stupid amount of money. I’ve been getting a lot of e-mails […]

Unless you’re reading AVweb late Monday, by the time you read this Tuesday morning space launch history either will or won’t have been made. We ought to know for sure by about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday. In case you haven’t been paying attention-and it hasn’t gotten much coverage-SpaceX is launching another of its robotic re-supply missions […]

One of the most thankless jobs in aviation has to be that of an FAA Aviation Safety Inspector (ASI). This cadre of experienced aviation professionals has made the choice to work for the government bureaucracy that is the FAA and by doing so, are in many cases the front line for safety in aviation. But […]

Back in the dark ages when j-school looked like it might lead to a sort of career, I was asked on a fall registration form to “state minor course of study, if any.” With all the thoughtful consideration a 21-year-old could muster, I checked the box next to Asian history. Somehow, sociology seemed boring and […]

At the risk of being mistaken, at least momentarily, for some doe-eyed Pollyanna, today’s blog will depart from the usual gloom for a brief bout of unabashed aviation boosterism. No, it’s not the Xanax kicking in, just soaring inspiration from seeing how much enthusiasm and creative vitality some people bring to general aviation through the […]

Monday must have been one of those schizophrenic days that only a federal agency could suffer. Just as The Washington Post broke a story that the FAA had hired its own lobbyist to suggest ways of speeding up the drone flight approval process against warnings by its own safety inspectors, it was participating in the […]

I was at Lycoming for three days last week, shooting a video on how the company has invested in new CNC equipment to improve its competitive edge on parts and engines. While I was waiting in the security office to have my visitor badge arranged, I did a quick scan of my e-mail. Coincidentally, there […]

This week’s announcement that the U.S. will seek to normalize relations with Cuba didn’t so much come out of the clear blue as a dark hole where the topic has been consigned for half a century. It’s just been off the radar so long, that only the aging exiles in Miami have been thinking about […]