News

An MD-82 operated by Spanair crashed on takeoff in Madrid on Wednesday afternoon. The aircraft broke apart and a fire ensued, the NTSB said. Early reports saidt 44 were dead and 45 injured, but the death toll climbed through the day. The flight was headed for the Canary Islands, a popular vacation spot off the […]

The FAA said on Wednesday that it has begun a 30-day special review of its certification of Eclipse Aviation’s very light jet, the Eclipse 500. The review started on Aug. 11. Jerry Mack, a former Boeing safety executive, is leading an oversight team of seven FAA experts with specialties such as flight testing, avionics, and […]

Many manuals, regs, training texts and other reference materials now can bought in a convenient e-book format via the online AVweb Bookstore, the company said this week. McGraw-Hill, Jeppesen, AeroEd, and the Aircraft Technical Book Company all have authorized the bookstore to distribute their publications online. The texts can be downloaded immediately, avoiding shipping costs […]

Fourteen American Eagle aircraft were damaged overnight on Monday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport when a TSA inspector used instrument probes as handholds to test the security of the aircraft from tampering, ABCNews reported. Over 40 flights were delayed on Tuesday while mechanics checked the airplanes. “Our inspector was following routine procedure for securing the […]

Winnipeg-based Standard Aero has earned a Supplemental Type Certificate to remove Pratt and Whitney Canada (P&WC) PT6A-41 engines from Beech King Air 200 models and replace them with modern, more fuel efficient PT6A-42 engines. In many ways the classic King Airs and the original PT6 models created a new class of aircraft but they’re due […]

Spectrum Aerospace has announced it has reached a deal to supply an undisclosed number of S-40 and S-33 aircraft to Starfish Aviation, of Northbrook, Ill., for an undisclosed amount of money. Spectrum President Austin Blue says both companies have policies against releasing financial details but he did say the order was worth in the “nine-figure […]

Eclipse Aviation is inviting representatives from all its suppliers to a meeting in Albuquerque next week to discuss its plans for the future. Eclipse spokeswoman Alana McCarraher said the letter went out Monday and didn’t include any insight into what those plans might be. “We haven’t made any of those decisions yet,” she said, noting […]

Gulfstream Aerospace parent company General Dynamics is expanding its stake in the business aviation industry with the purchase of Swiss-based Jet Aviation. General Dynamics paid $2.3 billion USD for the rapidly expanding service, repair and charter company. “Through General Dynamics’ acquisition of this strong and rapidly growing organization, we will expand our participation in the […]

The Canadian Owners and Pilots Association (COPA) says a pending new Transport Canada regulation that would require new emergency locator transmitters (ELTs) in private aircraft is too expensive and won’t help to rescue lost pilots. The new 406 MHz gear would cost the general aviation sector $100 million — with individual aircraft owners forking out […]

“The PiperJet has flown 12 times now,” Piper spokesman Mark Miller told AVweb on Tuesday. The jet, which flew for the first time just last month, is undergoing tests to explore stability, control and handling throughout the flight envelope. In the coming months, it will typically be flown for one to three weeks, and then […]