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Meanwhile, a group of volunteer GA pilots in Ohio is working to help the aging veterans of World War II travel to Washington, D.C., to see the memorial in their honor. Making the trip to the capital can be a hardship for many vets — due either to infirmity or finances, or both. Honor Flight, […]

Veterans Honored With Air Show At the Aviation Nation air show in Las Vegas over the weekend, Veterans Day was honored with a special tribute to those who served in Vietnam. Saturday’s show featured a Vietnam-era air power re-enactment with an AC-47 Spooky gunship and the simulated rescue of downed pilots by three UH-1 Huey […]

Boeing also is hard at work on its new 787 Dreamliner, which takes composite construction to new lengths for airliners. And following that lead, upstart Spectrum unveiled its all-composite bizjet project at NBAA’s big shindig last week in Orlando (if you missed our BizAvFlash coverage on Friday, check it out online…complete with exclusive interviews). The […]

Meanwhile, Boeing established a new world record for distance traveled nonstop by a commercial airplane last week, in its new 777-200LR Worldliner. The airliner flew 11,664 nautical miles — more than halfway around the world. It took off from Hong Kong the evening of Nov. 9, and landed at London Heathrow Airport 22 hours and […]

Airbus A380 Flies To Asia Airbus took its new A380 behemoth on a jaunt last week from France to Asia and Australia. The tour, which continues through this Friday, began with a 12-hour nonstop flight to Singapore. The crew checked the width of taxiways and runways and tested out a new passenger boarding bridge. Airport […]

May also said the air traffic control system needs operational and funding independence from the FAA and that likely means some form of privatization. “We need to establish a level of independence for the ATC system,” he said, citing Canada’s transfer of ATC to NAV CANADA, a private company, as an example. “It’s got to […]

May said a system of user fees is the most equitable way to assess ATC charges. “The best proxy for use of the system itself is user fees,” he said. Five days earlier, at AOPA Expo in Tampa, Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta said he didn’t favor user fees for general aviation. However, he didn’t […]

Airlines Want Business Planes To Pay Fair Share With the National Business Aviation Association’s convention now underway in Orlando, the head of the Air Transport Association (ATA), which represents U.S. airlines, told a Canadian audience of airline industry executives last Monday that business aircraft should pay as much as airliners to use the National Airspace […]

Despite an 11th-hour diversion from its planned locale — New Orleans — to Orlando, NBAA’s 2005 annual meeting will be in full swing by the time you read this. The association is expecting more than 1,100 exhibitors, 110 aircraft on static display and thousands of attendees to descend on the Orange County Convention Center for […]

Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corporation (SSAC), manufacturer of the newly FAA-certified SJ30-2 twinjet, already has piled up 295 sales, the company said last week. The orders add up to $1.5 billion. “Orders are accelerating into the stratosphere,” said company spokesman Gene Comfort. The jet cruises at 487 knots and has a range of 2,512 nm. SSAC […]