leadnews

On Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta made use of his speech at the annual luncheon of Washington’s Aero Club to talk about the future of the FAA and how it will be funded. First there was the encrypted user-fee warning: “I cannot give you the details yet, but I expect that we are going to […]

As AVweb reported in December, Eclipse’s certification schedule slipped to sometime in June after a parts supplier fell behind, but the company is still hoping to deliver airplanes sometime this summer. A final assembly building is under construction and there’s a total of more than 1,000 test hours on the fleet of five flight test […]

Raburn, who’s used to defending the VLJ concept, dismisses the concerns as being from schoolyard bullies who don’t want to share the sandbox. The critics, he said, have the attitude that “if it hasn’t been done before, it can’t be done or it won’t be done or it shouldn’t be done.” As we’ve heard many […]

It’s the year of the very light jet (VLJ) and a new set of naysayers has stepped forth to offer their (generally negative) views. Having survived skepticism that verged on outright hostility from within the general aviation industry, Eclipse Aviation, Adam Aircraft and (after it looked like there might be something to the VLJ phenomenon) […]

If the function of the ADIZ is to ensure the security of the seat of government, some might question Thursday’s TFR that arose around the president when he spoke at Sterling, Va., a hop, skip and a jump from the White House, and well within the ADIZ. “If the ADIZ is doing its job, why […]

But even if the pain of the ADIZ is gut-wrenching to pilots across the nation, it’s the economic impact that carries the clout. The town of Leesburg, Va., northwest of Washington, sent a representative with facts and figures, plus a resolution from the town council opposing the permanent ADIZ proposal and asking for relaxed restrictions. […]

AOPA President Phil Boyer spoke before the FAA, TSA, Defense, Secret Service and Customs brass last week but it was his story about the experience of one pilot perhaps less accustomed to the spotlight that lent a unique power to the presentation. At the public meeting on the future of the Washington Air Defense Identification […]

Although delivery dates have been pushed back (the company told AVweb a year ago that it hoped to be shipping within a month) at least one customer remains confident he’ll (one day) have an Innodyn turbine pulling his RV-10. Dave Talley said the company called him last month to arrange delivery of his engine but […]

Innodyn Says Shipments Begin Next Month A Pennsylvania company that says it can sell homebuilders a new turbine engine for about the same money as a certified piston engine of similar horsepower hopes to be fulfilling that elusive dream next month. This time, that means February (truth be told, we heard something very similar in […]

Cessna is standing by its airplane. Spokeswoman Bree Cox told AVweb the approximately 1,500 Caravans have accumulated more than eight million flight hours with a 99.8 percent dispatch record. “The Caravan was certified by Cessna for flight into known icing to FAA standards and, if operated in accordance with our Pilot’s Operating Handbook, is capable […]