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The icing test program, however, is slated for next winter. And the July and September dates for TC amendments depend on getting all the necessary interaction with the FAA completed. “The FAA budget cutbacks are putting stress on manufacturers,” President Joe Walker said in a follow-up call with AVweb yesterday. Inspectors are not always available […]

It’s Certified, But With Limitations Adam Aircraft CEO Rick Adam hosted a live Web seminar on Tuesday, with an update on the status of his company’s A500 centerline twin and the A700 light jet. The just-shy-of-$900,000 (in 2003 dollars) A500 piston twin received its FAA Type Certificate (TC) in May, and “We’re all thrilled here,” […]

The FAA and airlines were critical of the report, noting that there hasn’t been a major airliner crash in the U.S. in more than three years. “We changed the way we do business as the industry changed,” FAA spokesman Greg Martin told The Associated Press. “This is the safest period in aviation history.” And even […]

FAA Lax In Safety Inspections As the hand-wringing (and finger-pointing) continues over future funding (or lack thereof) for the National Airspace System, other areas of the FAA are also feeling the pinch. Next to be red-flagged in a report by the Department of Transportation’s Inspector General’s office is airline safety inspections. With budget carriers sprouting […]

And as 1970s technology is applied to aerial firefighting hardware, the Forest Service, NASA and the University of California, Davis, are collaborating on a state-of-the-art facility to keep the well-worn fleet of air tankers operating as safely as possible. The new Aviation Center for Excellence includes a flight simulator specially designed for firefighting crews and […]

And while the government sorts out who can fly the ancient iron, entrepreneurs continue to experiment with not-quite-so-ancient aircraft with which to modernize the fleet and potentially open the field to more pilots. As AVweb told you last year, Evergreen Aviation has developed a tanker version of the Boeing 747 and now a group of […]

Eight Pilots Awaiting A Reason Why A year ago, the U.S. Forest Service decided most of its heavy air tankers were unfit to fly, not because they were demonstrated to be unsafe but because there was some circumstantial evidence they might be. Now, it seems some of the pilots who fly the big planes are […]

Next-Gen Cockpits On DisplayThe Maryland SATS lab demonstrated a combination of technologies in a modified Cessna 402B with a new lightweight heads-up display (HUD) combined with synthetic vision from a camera system mounted in the nose. The final system will qualify under the new FAR 91.175 (l) and (m), eventually allowing pilots with enhanced flight […]

Dreaming Big In Danville Making air taxi service a reality from the nation’s 5000-plus small airports will take more than a bunch of very light jets (VLJs). NASA’s Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) project has spent the past five years developing technologies to support that system — the final demonstration occurred Sunday through Tuesday, in […]

Meanwhile, in Santa Cruz, Calif., the FAA says it now knows who was flying a Cessna 172 that allegedly “buzzed” a couple of local beaches. They won’t say who the pilot is but they have confirmed it’s not the registered owner of the plane, whose tail number was caught in photos supplied by complainants. As […]