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Blakey Stumps For Business-Friendly Skies In Europe… Yesterday, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey delivered the keynote address at the third annual NBAA/European Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition in Geneva, Switzerland, and emphasized the need for international cooperation to promote a global aviation system that’s safe, efficient, and will help the industry grow. “Aerospace trade between the […]

Details Still A Big Secret… Look out Lycoming and get ready Continental, Bombardier is apparently pushing its way into your sandbox. Bombardier, which makes Rotax engines for light and ultralight aircraft, has developed a line of engines aimed squarely at the mainstream GA market. A very cryptic statement from the company says the “engines will […]

Agencies (Again) Warn Of Small-Plane Suicide Attacks… A new advisory from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) says that terrorists have tried to use small aircraft for attacks abroad, may attempt to use them in the U.S., and that one explosives-laden small aircraft would have the destructive capacity of “a medium-sized truck bomb.” The Transportation […]

Understaffing, Rule Changes, Meigs Closure Cited… Air traffic controllers say they can no longer keep the airspace around Chicago safe and have asked the NTSB to intervene. In a news release Wednesday, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) said chronic understaffing, rule changes and the extra burden of traffic from now-closed Meigs Field have […]

Condit Defends Performance… Despite a gloomy order book and a still-gloomy forecast, Boeing CEO Phil Condit recently assured shareholders the company is on the right track. It’s no secret that rival Airbus is edging out Boeing in the commercial aircraft manufacturing sector. Many predications call for Airbus to beat our Boeing in sales this year. […]

Replica Flies Without Major Glitches… The Wright Redux Association is first in a year that promises more first flight re-enactments. The Association’s 1903 Wright Flyer replica, Spirit of Glen Ellyn, made history of sorts on April 27 when pilot Ken Kirincic flew the aircraft 136 feet, making it the first 1903 Wright Flyer replica to […]

Safire Announces Major Changes In Jet Program… Safire Aircraft, one of the handful of GA manufacturers venturing into the light-jet market, announced on Friday that is has made substantial changes in the design and specifications for its personal jet program. The original S-26 light jet, with a composite airframe, will not be produced, the company […]

First-Quarter 2003: Bizjet Sales Fall, Single-Engine Pistons Hold Steady… Shipments of GA aircraft decreased 16 percent in the first quarter of this year, compared to the same period last year, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association reported on Thursday. Billings in the same period fell 33 percent. Total deliveries for the quarter fell from 531 aircraft […]

It may be hard to believe that folks out there still haven’t figured out that private planes, small, slow and light as they are, aren’t likely to do much damage in terrorist hands. Nonetheless, in Sunday’s New York Times, reporter Marek Fuchs examined “The Case For A No-fly Zone” above the Indian Point nuclear plant, […]

The Centennial Celebration … It’s Coming… With spring of the year 2003 finally upon us, all the events in the works to commemorate the Wright brothers’ achievement are gearing up to full power. In Virginia, Ken Hyde and his staff at The Wright Experience are learning how to handle their reproduction of the notoriously unstable […]