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Development Contracts Set… Airliners could soon be packing heat, the missile-confusing type, that is. The Bush administration is pressing ahead with studies to see if commercial airliners can be economically and effectively fitted with anti-missile defenses. The White House announced Tuesday that two airplane companies and an airline will be paid $2 million each over […]

Investigators said an unnamed “technical fault” likely caused the Flash Airlines Boeing 737 to crash into the Red Sea on Saturday, killing 148 people. All but one of the 135 passengers was French and the 13 crew members were Egyptian and Moroccan. The plane was carrying tourists from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh back […]

African Stats Blight Record… Africa continues to be the front-runner in a race no one wants to win. Saturday’s crash of an Egyptian airliner in the Red Sea punctuated a report by the Aviation Safety Network calling the continent the most unsafe place to fly in the world. It accounts for less than 3 percent […]

“Unfortunately, the FAA is trying to make a ‘one-size-fits-all’ rule,” said Herrick. “This will basically eliminate operators offering local rides in historic aircraft …” Other than so-called “discovery flights,” which might lead to flight training, the proposed rule would also prevent people from hiring a local commercial pilot to take them for a ride. Under […]

FAA On The Dollars And Sense Of Giving Rides… It’s becoming the most despised piece of proposed legislation ever to come from the FAA for some and now it’s being blamed for the imminent demise of barnstorming. In case you didn’t know, barnstorming is alive and threatened by the proposed National Air Tour Safety Standards, […]

With today’s edition, AVweb begins its tenth year of bringing the news to your desktop. In the world of Internet publishing, that makes us one of the grand old luminaries of the medium. We just wanted to take a moment to thank all of you who come along for the ride, sending us your pictures […]

Another Year Over… 2003 was a unique year in aviation. The Centennial celebrations — bringing a moment’s pause to reflect on 100 years of powered flight — seemed to inspire the industry to look ahead with confidence to another 100 years of achievements aloft. And the year brought much more than just nostalgia … there […]

Two airline pilots from the Caribbean country of Trinidad and Tobago, flying for BWIA, were detained by the FBI last week after their names reportedly appeared on a TSA “no-fly” list. In a statement, the T&T government said it considered the detention “unwarranted, unjustified and severely damaging, not only to [the pilots’] image and reputation, […]

The TFRs may help revelers to feel safer, but AOPA prez Phil Boyer says they are unfair to GA pilots. “Security-related TFRs usually single out general aviation aircraft, which have never been used in a terrorist attack,” Boyer said yesterday, in a news release. “The restrictions are an additional burden for pilots to carry. AOPA […]

2003 Ends With Airspace Closures… With the alert level stuck nationwide at Orange, airspace restrictions were imposed in an effort to protect holiday events around the country. Over New York City, a no-fly zone covered a five-nm radius over midtown Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty, from the surface to 18,000 feet, and Temporary Flight […]