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Mooney Restructures For Less Debt… Last week, Mooney Airplane Company announced a new financial restructuring deal that may help balance the books. President Nelson Happy said the agreement gives Mooney “less debt and more cash,” as investors recognized the company needed more working capital and less debt. Specifically, the company changed the holdings of convertible […]

GA Movers And Shakers Get Attaboys… It’s always a treat to have good news to report from the GA aircraft-manufacturing world, and we found a few such stories to warm our hearts this week. At the Paris Air Show, Flight International announced its annual Aerospace Industry Awards, giving this year’s top honors to Diamond Aircraft, […]

Graphical TFRs In Practice… With TFRs coming and going all over the landscape — and presidential TFRs proliferating as the campaign trail heats up — it’s lucky that the FAA’s graphical TFRs are finally starting to come online. A visit to the FAA Web site over the weekend showed dozens of full-color TFR depictions, from […]

Airbus Bests Boeing… Despite all the handwringing and bickering and grandstanding, dealmaking is the Paris show’s raison d’tre, and it goes on apace this week. Airbus Industrie announced at the show on Monday that it had scored a record-setting $12.5 billion order for 41 jets from Emirates Airline, the fastest-growing airline in the Middle East. […]

Fans Enjoy The Spectacle… The Paris Air Show opened over the weekend at Le Bourget, delighting crowds of spectators with fighter planes zooming overhead, and bringing a bout of nostalgia as an Air France Concorde made its last landing, destined for the airport’s aviation museum. Unmanned aerial vehicles, many of them freshly tested in warfare […]

Service Launched Sunday… Temporary Flight Restrictions, though ever-changing, would appear to be a permanent fixture, so the FAA is (finally) doing something that might actually help pilots comply. Starting yesterday, the agency began posting its own sanctioned graphical depictions of TFRs on the FAA Web site. There have been some graphical TFRs on the FAA […]

Semantics: President Opposes ATC Privatization Ban… Well, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey may have no intention of privatizing air traffic control but she might want to check with the man who appointed her to the job. The Bush White House has put Congress on notice that an FAA Reauthorization bill passed by the House and the […]

FAA Commissions STARS In Philly… On Monday, air traffic controllers in Philadelphia officially began “STARS gazing.” That’s when the FAA commissioned the Raytheon-built Standard Terminal Automation Replacement System (STARS) servicing the Philadelphia International Airport. Philadelphia is the first major airport to fully deploy STARS. Raytheon claims STARS is a highly reliable air traffic automation system […]

NATA Meets With The TSA… National Air Transportation Association (NATA) President James K. Coyne told Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officials last week that the federal governments continuing efforts to reassure the American public of their security is doing irreparable harm to the nations general aviation industry. Coynes comments to TSA officials came during a regularly […]

A Jet For Your Canard… What some people might consider the ultimate personal aircraft is now being built under the watchful eye of its creator. Les Shockley, best known for making jet-powered trucks the feature attraction at many air shows, has come up with a jet kit for canard homebuilts, like Long EZs, Velocities and […]