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Many of the pilots who pioneered aviation flew in the original tours, including Walter Beech, Eddie Stinson, and Anthony H.G. Fokker. This year, our very own AVweb contributor Brent Blue will be participating in the tour, as one of a group of “rotating pilots.” Brent and company will be flying many of the airplanes seen […]

National Air Tours Are Re-created… The innovations of the Wright brothers are not the only aviation milestones being celebrated this year. The re-enactment of a nationwide air event during aviation’s golden era is also being remembered with a special series of events. The National Air Tours were conceived in 1925 and held annually through 1931 […]

The suit alleges that the aircraft went into the spin because of its flight-handling characteristics and maintains that the pilots tried, and failed, to deploy the parachute. Klapmeier flatly denies the claim, saying the allegation about flight-handling characteristics is a direct challenge to the FAA’s certification of the aircraft. He said Cirrus wings are designed […]

Widow Of Crash Victim Sues… Cirrus Design says it will vigorously defend itself against a lawsuit that claims its SR22 aircraft has “dangerous stability, handling, stall and spin characteristics” and that the onboard parachute system failed when the pilot tried to activate it. “We’re going to court,” Cirrus CEO Alan Klapmeier told AVweb. “We’re very […]

The biggest customer for BRS so far has been Cirrus Design, which was the first manufacturer to include the chutes as a standard feature on all of its aircraft. On Thursday, Cirrus announced that it has built its 1,000th airplane, within four years of its first delivery. That milestone secures the company’s place as the […]

BRS To Supply OMF Aircraft With Factory-Installed Chutes… OMF Aircraft says it will offer Ballistic Recovery Systems Inc. (BRS) whole-aircraft emergency parachute systems as a factory-installed option on the two-place Symphony 160 and the diesel Symphony 135-TDI, and as standard equipment on the four-place Symphony 4 now in development. BRS announced it expects to have […]

In San Diego, the 32 members of the airport study group found obstacles at every site — immovable mountains, or too many people, or environmental conflicts. They also wanted the airport to be convenient for people to drive to, without being too close to where those people actually live, which sounds great if you can […]

Another Pitch For Floating Runways… The folks in San Diego need a new airport, but where’s it going to go? A study group met last week and found objections for every one of the 16 sites proposed — except military bases, not all of which were really feasible, and the ocean, the Union-Tribune reported. Building […]

Test Pilot Len Fox Safe The malfunction of an emergency recovery system led to the loss yesterday morning of the prototype Lancair Columbia 400. At about 10:30 a.m. local time, after a series of spin tests and successful recoveries, test pilot Len Fox activated a small tailcone-mounted “spin chute” when his control inputs failed to […]

While the FAA says that incentives such as insurance benefits should encourage GA to quickly adopt FITS, those incentives have caused some concern over at AOPA. As AVweb reported last week, AOPA is worried that the program might become a financial drain on pilots, while generating cash flow for manufacturers and insurance companies. No regulatory […]