News

Embraer, of Brazil, may develop a larger jet with seats for over 120 passengers, Reuters reported on Tuesday. The airplane would target a niche between the regional jets that Embraer builds now and commercial airliners like those built by Boeing and Airbus. “Whether we should develop a larger plane, alone or with partners, is something […]

The first regional jet built in China, the ARJ21, won its first overseas customer this week. General Electric’s aircraft leasing division signed up to buy five of the airplanes, with options for 20 more, at the Zhuhai air show on Tuesday. GE, which is the world’s largest builder of aircraft engines, provides the CF34 engines […]

Textron, the parent company of Cessna, announced on Tuesday that “due to continued softening in the global economic environment,” it is revising its 2009 Citation jet production schedule. The company had previously targeted about 535 Citations for delivery in 2009, up from about 475 planned for 2008. The number of layoffs hasn’t been tallied.The company […]

As the aviation industry continues to feel the impact of a reeling global economy, Hawker Beechcraft told its employees this week that 490 jobs will be cut, reducing the company’s global work force of over 9,700 by about 5 percent. “While these reductions are painful, they are absolutely necessary,” Hawker Beechcraft CEO Jim Schuster said […]

With the recent discovery of the wreckage of the Decathlon that Steve Fossett was flying when he disappeared last year, it seemed certain that he had failed to survive, but DNA tests on two large bones found near the site now have confirmed that Fossett perished on that remote California mountainside. Local officials announced on […]

Probably one of the most surveyed subjects in general aviation in the U.S. is the effect of competitive outsourcing of the Flight Service Station system. Some said it was long overdue but it seems like there is a constant buzz of discontent from all corners on how the system delivers services. Lockheed Martin, which now […]

Two aircraft collided Saturday, Nov. 1, in the air near Plymouth Municipal Airport, N.C., and though “one plane was in a tree and the other was in a river,” according to Kathleen Bergen of the FAA, “both pilots survived.” The midair collision took place about 9:30 a.m. local time and involved a Piper PA-28 and […]

Some 27,000 of Boeing’s machinists, who walked off the job on Sept. 6 after contract talks failed to adequately address their interests, should be back at work after an agreement was reached on Oct. 27. The contract doesn’t just keep, but increases, pension payments, brings wage increases totaling 15 percent and preserves health-care benefits while […]

Even before fly by wire becomes the standard, companies have been exploring the next steps to remove hydraulics from the aircraft control equation. In mid-October, Gulfstream successfully demonstrated primary aircraft flight-surface control using “fly-by-wireless” technology. And, last week, Bombardier announced it had executed a first test flight with an all-electric Meggitt braking system, called EBrake. […]

The first European Aerial Firefighting Conference was held Oct. 21 and 22 in Athens, Greece, and it collected operators and suppliers from 22 nations running in association with the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. Primarily formed to address technologies and techniques to improve the efficacy and safety of aerial firefighting, the conference has […]