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The planned 10:35 a.m. launch was delayed by a downpour that soaked visitors and would have made the Flyer too heavy to fly well, according to The Wright Experience founder Ken Hyde. A subsequent flight, following the first (less successful) one was anticipated later in the afternoon, but a frontal passage accompanied by shifting, gusty […]

One Magnificent Belly Flop… At about 12:35 p.m., at Kill Devil Hills, N.C, yesterday, EAAs Wright Experience replica Wright Flyer pilot Kevin Kochersberger and crew attempted a launch … and failed to fly. In front of 35,000 visitors (still wet from a morning downpour) and millions of worldwide television viewers, the rather pricey project ended […]

“Manufacturers and pilots are waiting for this,” EAA spokesman Dick Knapinski told AVweb on Saturday, “and we’d like to get it expedited. The sooner the better.” The proposed new rules would create a Sport Pilot certificate that would make it easier for students who want to fly for fun to earn a certificate, and create […]

Sport Pilot Proposal Sits… With so much attention focused on flying machines this week, hope seems to be brewing that the long-awaited Sport Pilot NPRM might be about to take another step forward. “We’re keeping our fingers crossed,” the FAA’s Sue Gardner told AVweb on Saturday, “that we might have an announcement before the New […]

Today, the Smithsonian opens the doors to its Udvar-Hazy Center, the annex to its Air and Space Museum (click here to read AVweb’s advance report), in Virginia. Oregon’s Evergreen Aviation Museum will wrap up its 100-day commemoration — which began in September with the opening of an interior viewing platform for its Spruce Goose — […]

Kill Devil Hills, It’s Going To Be Busy… The Centennial of Flight festivities at the Wright Brothers National Memorial, on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, kicked off Friday, with the news that the White House has confirmed President Bush will speak at the site on Wednesday. Friday’s crowds and traffic were not as heavy as expected, […]

There are currently 41 Symphony 160s flying and Bill Sprague, OMF Aircraft’s vice president of sales, says the top priority now is to ensure continued product support for those customers. He also said the six North American distributors will also be allowed to continue taking orders for the 160 and to reserve positions on the […]

OMF Aircraft needs to raise about $5 million to complete the restructuring. The Quebec government has already invested in the plant and will end up with a 49-percent interest in the company. Raising the $5 million will trigger the release of $4 million of funds already secured through the arrangement with Quebec. Costanzo said he […]

German Parent Company Goes Bankrupt… Quebec-based OMF Aircraft, which produces the $120,000, 160-hp, 128-knot, high-wing Glastar look-alike, the Symphony 160, says it will be back in production by May despite the financial collapse of its parent company, OMF GmbH, in Germany on Tuesday. OMF Aircraft, which was 70-percent owned by the German company, will reorganize […]