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NASA’s Centennial Challenge for aviation operated by the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency Foundation (CAFE Foundation) is seeking an eco-friendly, 100-mpg, 100-mph aircraft and its designer(s), to which it plans to offer a big green pile of money ($600,000 in 2009). But before that it’s seeking comments on the yet unofficial rules draft (PDF) before Oct. […]

Eclipse Aviation responded Saturday to an announcement that its largest customer, startup on-demand air taxi hopeful DayJet, ceased all commercial operations as of Friday. In keeping with its recent public relations trend, Eclipse’s release on the subject concluded with the statement, “Eclipse will not be releasing any further information or conducting interviews surrounding this media […]

Piper rolled out the red carpet for members of the press wanting an inside look at their single-engine very light jet entry, the PiperJet, and AVweb‘s Paul Bertorelli was on hand to snap a few photos of the demo model in action. Piper VP of Sales Bob Kromer told us in a podcast interview that […]

Piper’s version of the VLJ is still at least two years shy of deliveries, but while customers wait, the company is enticing them with step-up deals from the company’s piston and turboprop offerings. “We’re seeing a trend,” says Bob Kromer, Piper’s sales VP. “Some customers are saying I want a jet in 2012, but I […]

DayJet, the pioneering air taxi operator that is Eclipse Aviation’s largest customer, has suspended operations and apparently vacated its Boca Raton headquarters. Although the company’s Web site is still operational, calls to the main switchboard are being answered with voice mail. On Thursday, DayJet management were quoted in newspaper stories as saying the controversy over […]

General aviation pilots are often frustrated in their efforts to lend a hand with their aircraft after a natural disaster, but Fred Quarles, of Operation Teacup, is welcoming help from willing aircraft owners. Volunteers can expect “No pay, no thanks, hard work, little sleep, and all the alligators you want,” Quarles said this week. “The […]

Although the congressional panel that met in Washington on Wednesday said the issue wasn’t Eclipse, but the FAA’s allegedly inadequate oversight and flawed procedures, Eclipse Aviation has issued a “fact sheet” in response to the inspector general’s testimony and other matters that arose at the hearing. The fact sheet, which is posted at an Eclipse […]

While Hurricane Ike has faded from memory for most of the country, those hit by the storm will think of little else in coming weeks as the cleanup goes on. In the aviation world, nowhere did the storm wreak more havoc than at the Lone Star Flight Museum, in Galveston. As we mentioned in earlier […]

The flight of the replica of Glenn Curtiss’s America in Hammondsport, New York last weekend was captured in beautiful air-to-air photos, provided to AVweb by Jean Doherty of the Glenn H. Curtiss Museum. Dozens of volunteers worked for more than a decade to make the flight possible. CLICK FOR LARGER INDIVIDUAL IMAGES EACH IMAGE WILL […]

A congressional committee on Wednesday heard a litany of concerns about the FAA’s oversight of the certification of the Eclipse very light jet, including a report that the FAA okayed the jet for a single pilot even though the FAA’s Flight Standardization Board had determined that the aircraft required a two-pilot crew. The House Aviation […]