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States have plenty of economic incentive to push for the ports, according to the AP. Most are sited in desolate regions with little competition for development and a desperate need for jobs. A study commissioned by New Mexico predicted that its proposed port could bring in $750 million and create up to 5,800 jobs by […]

Although a passenger-carrying commercial spaceship has yet to fly, four serious proposals to develop spaceports for the tourist trade in New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas are under review by the FAA, The Associated Press reported on Sunday. New Mexico already has a deal with Virgin Galactic to build a spaceport, expected to open in 2009. […]

Monday, Thielert Aircraft Engines announced at the Berlin Air Show intent to produce a new liquid-cooled turbocharged diesel-burning, FADEC-controlled single-lever-power 230 bhp engine, the Centurion 3.2. The engine is targeted for air-time in late 2007. Frank Thielert, CEO and founder of Thielert Aircraft Engines GmbH, said his goal was to offer a complete piston engine […]

As AVweb reported more than a year ago, RNP has vastly improved accessibility to Palm Springs on the comparatively rare occasions when the weather is down there. Because terrain prevents implementation of a standard ILS, diversions were usually the only option in bad weather. RNP allows Alaska Airlines to land at Palm Springs with minima […]

A system devised by Alaska Airlines and Boeing to help improve accessibility to notoriously difficult airports in the 50th state could soon help ensure better on-time performance on Lower 48 milk runs (relatively speaking). After experimenting with Required Navigation Performance (RNP) systems at some of the U.S.’s tougher airports (Palm Springs and San Francisco among […]

Of course, there are huge financial implications in the audit, but money isn’t everything. The IG also intends to investigate whether the move has impaired safety or adversely affected service (Lockheed Martin had service guarantees built into the contract). Publications like AVweb are often a sounding board for those types of issues. There have been […]

The Department of Transportation’s Inspector General will do a comprehensive audit of the FAA’s contracting out of the Automated Flight Service Station system and it’s already got a half-billion dollar discrepancy to investigate. When the contract was awarded to Lockheed Martin last year, the FAA said it would save $2.2 billion over the life of […]

At the May 4 hearing, Blakey was grilled repeatedly on the agency’s plan to overhaul the funding basis for the FAA. For more than a year, Blakey has been saying revenue sources need to be based on the costs of providing services (read: user fees) but she hasn’t revealed any details about how that system […]

If there ever was an example of why AOPA and other alphabet groups want the FAA to continue to answer to Congress, the details of the latest FAA budget proposal offer illumination. In what FAA Administrator Marion Blakey has called “tough medicine for local programs,” the agency has proposed cutting more than $750 million from […]

Meanwhile, the Japanese effort to design a next-generation supersonic transport is struggling with setbacks and looking for international partners, The Associated Press reported on Monday. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will enter talks next month with NASA to discuss cooperative efforts. Japan is working to develop a scramjet engine that would be 99 percent […]