News

Yves Rossy (a.k.a. Birdman and FusionMan) last Wednesday covered 21 miles in 10 minutes with a 120-pound, eight-foot carbon-fiber wing strapped to his back, powered by four micro-turbine jet engines. The distance flown matches that of Calais, France, to Dover, U.K. Rossy intends to fly across the English Channel Sept. 24 (weather permitting) following Louis […]

Voice and data recorders have been retrieved (but the data recorder has suffered damage) from the Spanair MD 82 that crashed last week following an aborted takeoff. The crash has so far resulted in the death of 154 people, with all eighteen others injured, some critically. Early reports state rescuers believe that as the aircraft […]

If ADS-B began in Alaska’s Capstone program in 1999, was put into practical use with UPS cargo jets the same year, and the network of ADS-B ground stations should be completed by 2013, why has the FAA set 2020 as the deadline for equipping planes with just ADS-B/out? The Reason Foundation’s Bob Poole asks the […]

Development of Lockheed Martin’s Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) is not progressing smoothly. The F-35 “is Department of Defense’s (DOD) most complex and ambitious aircraft acquisition,” according to a recent GAO report, “seeking to simultaneously produce and field three aircraft variants for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and eight international partners.” Some sources also label […]

Grob Aerospace, which Monday announced its insolvency after repeated delays in the SPn business jet flight-testing program were capped by the loss of a loan provider, is winning support from customers. Chief executive Niall Olver says customers with jets on order have offered to support the manufacturer and told Flight International that half the customers […]

Liberty Aerospace is demanding the FAA retract a statement made earlier this week that the company is undergoing a special certification review (SCR) on its XL-2 two-seat aircraft. In a news release about an SCR being conducted at Eclipse Aviation, the FAA mentioned other companies that have been similarly probed and Liberty was listed. But […]

Eclipse Aviation is laying off about 650 (of 1,800) employees as part of what acting CEO Roel Pieper is calling the company’s “operational excellence strategy.” The layoffs affect 38 percent of the workforce and will hit employees, including temps and those who have been working less than six months, at facilities in Albuquerque, Gainseville, Fla., […]

While the TSA stipulates that its inspector damaged sensitive external probes while assessing the security of nine American Eagle planes parked overnight at O’Hare, it contends that the inspector got into seven of the nine — and that American is to blame. Toward that end, the TSA is opening an inquiry into “multiple security violations” […]

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The FAA is conducting a satisfaction survey to get feedback about flight services that are provided to pilots. The FAA says it will use the survey results to improve service and “to continuously advance the safety and security of civil aviation.” The survey takes about 10 minutes to complete, the FAA says, and is being […]