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As with any other professional sport these days, success depends on sponsorship and media deals. Whitelaw said there’s a major TV network interested and a soft drink company is talking with the organizers. Hats, T-shirts and video games are also on the radar. There are even plans for a reality TV series on the selection […]

X-COR’s EZ Rocket is being hailed as the prototype for the race aircraft and it will be put through its paces at the Countdown to the X Prize Cup in Las Cruces, N.M., Oct. 9. The EZ Rocket has been flying for three years and uses a tiny alcohol-fueled rocket motor that can be started […]

Loud, Exciting, And … Loud Will racing do for rockets in the 21st century what it did for aviation in the early part of the 20th century? That’s the hope of the forward-thinking folks that brought you the Ansari X Prize. X Prize founder Peter Diamandis, along with car-racing executive Granger Whitelaw, have formed the […]

Just what role do pensions play in the overall financial health of the major airlines? Although the numbers are huge (airline contributions will total about $10.4 billion over the next four years, assuming they’re made), the actual effect on the bottom line is minimal and only accounts for 15 percent of the cost spread between […]

Now, there’s no news in the GAO’s finding that legacy carriers have higher costs than the budget airlines, and the GAO says it’s in cutting costs where the so-called big airlines will find their salvation. In broad terms, the unit cost per available seat mile of the budget carriers is 7.3 cents and the legacy […]

Costs (Pilot Pay Included?) To Blame Bankrupt airlines may just be delaying the inevitable by walking away from their pricey pension plans, according to a report released last month by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). The report (PDF file) says that even without the pension-contribution burden ($10.4 billion over the next four years) the so-called […]

That’s AOPA’s warning to pilots across the country. “In the Washington ADIZ, the operational horror stories come in to AOPA daily,” Boyer says. “The FAA has tracked more than 1,900 ADIZ violations since 2003. None of the incidents has been determined to be terrorist-related and all but one violation have been inadvertent.” Changing the D.C. […]

Kathleen Roy, a media and public-affairs specialist for AOPA, gave a demo flight in a Piper Archer to a reporter from The Hill, a local D.C. newspaper widely read by legislators and politicos. “Although Roy had filed a flight plan before takeoff, as required, she was denied access initially because air traffic control could not […]

Asking Pilots To Speak Up Pilots need to speak up — and loudly — and the FAA needs to listen, AOPA says, regarding the Air Defense Identification Zone (ADIZ) now eating up the airspace around Washington, D.C. The FAA wants to make the ADIZ a permanent fixture, and AOPA has asked for several public meetings […]

By April 2006, AOPA says, Lockheed is expected to launch the Flight Service 21 (FS21) Web portal for pilots to obtain preflight briefings, file flight plans, store user profiles, and get graphical flight planning and weather products. The first FSS hub, in Leesburg, Va., also is scheduled to open in April, with two other hub […]