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Japan, France Cooperate On Mach 5.5 Airliner Imagine a supersonic airliner that flies almost three times faster than Concorde did, uses less fuel and is much quieter. Well, that’s what engineers in a cooperative effort between French and Japanese aerospace industry associations envision as the next incarnation of supersonic travel. “Three-year research activities are planned […]

Meanwhile, the much-castigated Pennsylvania pilot who violated the Washington, D.C., ADIZ on May 11 and caused panic in the Capital has been cut a break by the FAA. Hayden “Jim” Sheaffer will be allowed to reapply for his pilot’s certificate in 10 months, instead of the one-year restriction that was originally imposed, on the condition […]

On his second landing, he landed hard, gave it some throttle to avoid the fence, then came down on the road outside the airport. The aircraft was damaged and the boy suffered minor cuts and bruises. Altogether his flight lasted less than half an hour. “It’s a miracle the boy wasn’t killed or someone else […]

Gate Open, Keys Inside Some folks in Fort Payne, Ala., learned a hard lesson last week — if you surround your airport with a security fence but then leave the gate unlocked, well, you have not secured the field. A 14-year-old boy, driving a van he allegedly stole from his grandmother, arrived at the airport […]

Despite his disappointment over the loss, Carter said he was “ecstatic” over the success of Friday morning’s flight. “We exceeded a Mu of 1 for the first time in history. This has been our goal ever since we started flight-testing in 1998. … History will prove out the significance of this.” The “Mu-1 barrier” is […]

“From Exhilaration To Devastation” … Along with the prototype. The staff at CarterCopter, in Olney, Texas, was busy on Friday afternoon preparing a press release about that morning’s success — they had finally achieved an aerodynamic breakthrough they’d been working on for years — when news came in that the one-of-a-kind prototype gyrocopter had been […]

“Aw [expletive] we’re gonna hit houses, dude.” The NTSB has released new information — including cockpit voice excerpts (see NewsWire) — related to the Oct. 14 fatal crash of a Pinnacle Airlines regional jet. The pilots were flying an empty Bombardier CL-600-2B19 and hoping to “have a little fun” when they decided to climb to […]

In a bizarre turn of events, two airplanes crashed on the same runway in northern Kenya last week. First, at about 1 o’clock Friday afternoon, a Hawker-Siddeley 748 cargo plane landed with its gear up, and left wreckage strewn on the Lokichokio airport’s only runway. The airport was closed. About an hour later, a Hercules […]

Three OK After Street Landing A DC-3 with two pilots and one passenger aboard made an emergency landing, clipping trees and sliding 100 yards on a street in a residential neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on Monday, without impacting homes or (directly) injuring anyone one the ground. After the left engine caught fire shortly after […]

The company is shifting now from development mode to manufacturing mode, Adam said. That means adding staff and working to fill orders. The company is ready to build about one airplane a month, but it has the capacity now to build up to six a month. Orders are in for 71 airplanes. Development is continuing […]