News

On the eve of the helicopter industry’s biggest show came news of the helicopter industry’s biggest buyout. Days before Heli-Expo 2008 got under way Sunday in Houston, Texas, the board of Vancouver-based CHC Helicopter Corp. has agreed in principle to the takeover of the company by First Reserve Corp. for a $1.5 billion offer that […]

Both the National Air Traffic Controllers Association and the FAA have turned up the volume on their rancorous relationship and it’s all about an air traffic control supervisor’s decision to cut the sound on a tragedy playing out in northeastern California. In a news release, NATCA is alleging that “controllers at Oakland Air Route Traffic […]

With more than $100 billion in orders booked at the Dubai air show last year, there were no signs of recession in the business jet market, but Singapore’s Air Show may tell a different tale for the airline industry. Early figures from the February 19-22 Singapore Air Show list orders at just over $10 billion […]

Canada’s Bombardier is weighing customer interest in a planned 110- to 130-seat airliner, and considering the financial influences that could see the final assembly of the CSeries take place in America. Global economic factors that currently have the Canadian dollar and U.S. dollar as near equals could lead the company to consider building a new […]

A long discussion between Martin County, Fla., and the FAA, seeking common ground to placate neighborhoods claiming safety concerns and negative impact from aircraft noise and exhaust at Witham Field, may be taking a judicial turn. The county’s commission voted in 1998 to extend Witham’s runway, but provided the FAA with maps that failed to […]

AOPA’s monthly AOPA Pilot magazine has reached its 600th issue and, with its March 2008 issue, AOPA Pilot celebrates its 50th anniversary. The “largest-circulation aviation magazine in the world” is sent to all 415,000 AOPA members and marks the milestone in its March 2008 issue that includes “the very first ‘Never Again’ column.” The March […]

A U.S. Air Force-owned Cessna 172 outfitted with a diesel engine and wearing Iraqi air force markings landed Thursday on a county road after suffering a power failure. Now for the explanation … The air force published plans in October 2007 to send 12 Cessna 172s to Kirkuk where the aircraft would serve at the […]

The first Eclipse 500 to be produced at the Russian Aviastar complex located at Ulyanovsk, Russia (the hometown of Vladimir Lenin), will also be the first foreign aircraft produced in that country, according to a report by Russia Today. Russian production of the Eclipse 500 very light jet (VLJ) is scheduled to begin next year […]

Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered the creation of an aircraft manufacturing complex, to be built near Moscow and to include facilities for design, construction, testing and marketing of aircraft. The goal of the project is to revive Russia’s aircraft industry from its current 10 commercial aircraft per year and raise that schedule to 5,800 […]

Christine Wells-Groff, the widow of a firefighting pilot killed in the line of duty, has been denied federal death benefits by the U.S. Supreme Court. The ruling was finalized when the court declined to hear the widow’s appeal on her own and other widows’ behalf. Unlike public safety employees killed in the line of duty, […]