News

Sales of piston aircraft showed a slump in the first quarter of this year, down 28 percent compared to the year before, as AVweb recently reported, and the numbers for light sport aircraft reflect a similar trend. The data for 2008 through April show sales off 30 percent compared to a year ago. The numbers […]

Less than two weeks after announcing cutbacks in staff, DayJet on Tuesday said it will expand its network of DayPorts, adding two more Florida cities, for a total of nine sites. With the addition of Jacksonville and Sarasota, 62 percent of Florida’s population now lives within 35 miles of a DayPort airport, the company said […]

When the Air Transport Association, the lobbying group for the airlines, sent out an e-mail this week griping about all the private jets that cluttered up the airways during Kentucky Derby weekend, the National Business Aviation Association was quick to respond. “The ATA’s suggestion that GA air traffic at a well-planned weekend event in a […]

A pair of New England balloon pilots have developed what they hope could be a new way for homebuilders to share design ideas, modeled after “open content” and “open source” collaborative projects like Wikipedia and Linux. “Closed content gets fixed in time,” says pilot Dan Nachbar, of Amherst, Mass. “Open content tends to evolve. Good […]

With the Memorial Day weekend coming up, the summer travel season kicks into high gear. While GA pilots have plenty of options and often can avoid the more congested airports and airspace, air traffic controllers are warning of a worsening staffing shortage across the country, and increasing fatigue as fewer controllers work longer shifts. The […]

Citing safety concerns, the city of Santa Monica has banned certain jets from its airport, but the FAA says they have no right to enforce those restrictions. Now, the matter will be decided in court. On Friday, a federal judge said the city cannot impose the ban, pending a decision on its legality. “This is […]

Under new FAA procedures that take effect this week, air traffic controllers must provide specific taxi routes to pilots, instead of simply OK’ing them to proceed to a stated destination. Controllers now must name the taxiways the aircraft should follow at each step along its route. FAA safety officials developed the new procedure as part […]

The news went from bad to worse for owners of Thielert-diesel-powered Diamond aircraft Monday, many of whom are stuck with grounded airplanes following the German engine manufacturer’s bankruptcy two weeks ago. In a lengthy bulletin to owners Monday, Diamond reported that a contentious negotiation with a German bankruptcy administrator has yielded no promise of relief […]

Yves Rossy, 48, again made headlines last Wednesday, jumping from an aircraft over the Alps with yet another set of prototype jet-powered and unfolding wings (roughly seven and one half foot in span), but this time with four jet engines and enough skill to execute a full 360-degree roll. “That was to impress the girls” […]

Materials like titanium aluminide could present enough of an improvement in performance and economy over conventional alloys currently used for turbine blades that the European Space Agency is going to space to learn how to perfect them. The program is called IMPRESS — Intermetallic and Material Processing in Relation with Earth and Space Solidification — […]