News

A researcher at the University of Akron in Ohio says he may have found a way to suppress potentially damaging hurricanes — send in a couple of F-4 fighter jets to fly supersonic loops around its eye while it’s still at sea, and the resulting sonic booms will break it apart. A patent application filed […]

Cessna on Monday notified over 500 workers that they have 60 days left to work, then they will be out of a job. The jobs are being eliminated at Cessna’s plants in Wichita, Kan., and in Bend, Ore., where the Cessna 350 and 400 are built at the former Columbia plant. An additional 150 workers […]

There’s been a lot of buzz about China’s emerging importance as both a market and producer of aviation-related products but those who have ventured there from western countries often find a perplexing system of bureaucracy and business practices. A new publication by Business Data International attempts to make sense of it in 220 pages in […]

While a lot of attention gets paid to the environmental impact of aircraft, airport facilities put down a huge carbon footprint and a California business aircraft charter and management company is taking a lead role in changing that. Avjet, in collaboration with Shangri-La Development and Shangri-La Construction have built the first Leadership in Energy and […]

An effort to develop an environmentally acceptable supersonic business jet by a group led by Dassault continued last week. Russia Info Center says a model of the HISAC Environmentally Friendly High Speed Aircraft is undergoing testing at Russia’s Central Institute of Aerohydronyamics. Engineers are looking at the aerodynamics and potential sonic boom signature of the […]

Innovation continues even in tough times and Texas Turbine Conversions has received supplementary type certificate (STC) approval to install Honeywell TPE331-12JR engines on all Cessna 208B Caravans. The Honeywell engine puts out 1,100 horsepower but is flat rated to 900 shaft horsepower in the Caravan application, called the Supervan 900. They can replace Pratt and […]

Amid all the economic doom and gloom, we’re glad to serve you a helping of upbeat positive news. First, Aircraft Spruce said this week that its sales at last month’s AOPA Expo in San Jose, Calif., were its best ever in 20 years at the show, with a dramatic increase over 2007. “We were very […]

On Tuesday, Ford Motor Company said it will sell all five of its corporate jets, and General Motors said it will sell off the leases on its fleet. “We don’t use them that much anyway,” GM spokesman Mike Meyerand told ABCNews. “It saves us a lot of money to get out of this business.” The […]

The Airbus A320 that crashed in the Mediterranean last Thursday had just been painted in Air New Zealand livery and The Australian says investigators are probing whether the fresh paint led to the crash. Although only two bodies have been recovered, it’s assumed all seven people aboard the four-year-old aircraft died in the crash. The […]

For an aviation photo buff, there’s nothing like being in the right place at the right time and having the presence of mind to start shooting. Tom Callahan, of Pensacola, Fla., was shooting photos of the Blue Angels Homecoming practice day a couple of weeks ago when he noticed an FJ-4B Sea Fury on final […]