News

Unmanned aerial vehicles are becoming more vital all the time to military operations, and as their capabilities develop, demand for trained pilots is expanding. “[UAV] missions are no longer support operations, they are the operations,” USAF Col. Scott Murray told Defense News recently. The Air Force is working on a report, to be released in […]

The FAA wants to change the way air traffic controllers are trained, dividing the job into two specialties for working in either a tower or a radar center. Most controllers currently are trained in both functions. John Wallin, president of the controllers’ union local in Memphis, told The Associated Press that cross-training is important for […]

Classified British documents from 1957 that were released this week reveal that a U.S. fighter pilot flying from an English air base was ordered to open fire on a massive unidentified object that had lit up his radar screen. Retired pilot Milton Torres, of Miami, is not named in the documents but has long maintained […]

With the U.S. presidential election less than two weeks away, AOPA has released the answers it received from candidates John McCain and Barack Obama on topics of interest to general aviation pilots and aircraft owners. AOPA has not endorsed either candidate, but asked about a range of issues including user fees, the next FAA administrator, […]

Jets seem to get all the attention but turboprops are the backbone of many business aviation sectors and the focus is on them next week at the annual Turboprop Expo. The 2008 edition launches in Scottsdale, Ariz., on Oct. 28 and continues for three days of turboprop-specific seminars and workshops. Keynote speaker Dr. David Strahle […]

There are a lot of older business jets out there that still stack up fairly well in terms of performance and comfort but their cockpits, especially, are showing their age. Recently, Universal Avionics announced the first installation of a flat-panel display in a Hawker 700A. Mid-Canada Mod Center in Toronto put Universal’s large-format PFD/ND EFI-890R […]

It wasn’t that long ago that the waiting time for an Eclipse 500 was measured in years, but chances are you could have one in a few days if you don’t mind a blue stripe down the side. Eclipse Aviation is holding a dispersal sale of the 28 aircraft returned by DayJet when the incipient […]

Pratt and Whitney Canada will spend more than $360 million on research and development in the next three years to make engines that are cleaner and leaner. The Quebec government is chipping in $125 million in the form of a repayable loan that the province will recover from royalties on sales. John Sabaas, PW&C’s executive […]

Owners of Thielert aircraft engines who have been impacted by the company’s bankruptcy proceedings now can expect some relief, the company said on Monday. Bruno Kubler, insolvency administrator for Thielert Aircraft Engines, said owners of the Centurion 1.7 and Centurion 2.0 engines can expect lower costs thanks to the development of a new fuel feed […]

The first Hawker 4000 corporate jet that was delivered to a customer has been seized by federal investigators in connection with a tax-evasion scheme, according to reports this week in the Associated Press and the Wichita Eagle. Gary Hall, a Kansas businessman, took delivery of the $21-million Hawker bizjet in a ceremony at the Beechcraft […]