News

Jim O’Neill, 65, was flying at 15,000 feet in clear weather over the UK when he suffered a stroke that compromised his vision. The pilot of 18 years sent a mayday and eventually made contact with an RAF base at Leeming in Northallerton. During that contact, O’Neill complained of trouble seeing the instrument panel. “At […]

Soloy Aviation Solutions, of Olympia, Wash., received FAA certification on Oct. 28 for its Soloy 206 Turbine Mk II, a turbine version of the piston-powered Cessna 206H. Powered by the Rolls Royce 250-B17F/2 turbine engine, the Mk II provides an increase of 110 hp over the standard Cessna 206H, Soloy said this week. With the […]

Crownair Companies will display its first Crownair “Centurion Edition” T210 during the AOPA Expo in San Jose, Calif., this week. The upgraded 1977 aircraft features all-new amenities, including a glass cockpit, new classic blue paint scheme, RAM engine, tinted glass, wingtips with recognition lights, Super Quiet cabin soundproofing and gray leather seats with sheepskin inserts. […]

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 […]