News

The initial prototype of Solar Impulse, a solar-powered aircraft that may fly around the world without fuel in 2011, was unveiled last week in Switzerland by project organizer Bertrand Piccard. The first aircraft has a wingspan of almost 200 feet and will be used to test the basic science behind the project. If all goes […]

The FAA and NTSB are investigating how two seasoned pilots, both senior officers in the Civil Air Patrol, flew into a mountain near Las Vegas Thursday evening. Col. Edwin Lewis, director of operations for CAPs western region, and Col. Dion DeCamp, commander of the Nevada unit, died when their CAP Cessna 182 hit 8,500-ft. Mt. […]

It can take decades but military aircraft technology often trickles down to civilian applications (think FLIR, head-up displays, GPS) and the latest in fighter pilot headgear would sure make life easier for all types of pilots. The London Daily Telegraph is reporting that the helmet worn by Royal Air Force F-35 pilots will display flight […]

Sales of piston singles continue to lag behind last years impressive totals but major increases in the sales of turboprop and jet aircraft continue to keep the general aviation industry robust. Figures released by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association for the third quarter of 2007 show the total number of sales up marginally (1.7 percent) […]

So, how busy is your aircraft plant that it needs its own tower? The FAA started daily 7 a.m.-to-7 p.m. staffing of an air traffic control tower at Independence, Kan., last week and Cessnas piston single and Mustang entry-level jet traffic is the main reason. “This is another milestone in the expansion of the Independence […]

Swiss-based TAG Aviation Holding Ltd. and its U.S. subsidiary TAG Aviation USA will pay the FAA $10 million as part of a final resolution of the FAAs concerns over TAGs involvement with FAA-regulated aircraft operators, the company said in a news release. In October, the FAAs concerns led to the revocation of AMI Jet Charters […]

The Office of Inspector General began looking into the saga of NASAs National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service (NAOMS) a week after NASA Chairman Michael Griffin said the data from the survey would be released publicly. Griffin was on the hot seat last week after The Associated Press ran a story in which a NASA official […]

The NTSB released its annual most wanted list of aviation safety improvements on Thursday and among the most urgent recommendations is that the FAA address runway incursions. It is time to do something before we have to investigate an accident that is catastrophic and explain to the families that technologies are out there to begin […]

That’s the question raised by a Wall Street Journal commentary on Wednesday. The procedural rules that would allow it to happen are complex — the sausage factory analogy certainly applies — but according to the WSJ, Congress could pilfer the $10 billion per year raised by airline excise taxes (and GA fuel taxes) and use […]

“I heard this huge bang, and [the man next to me] said, that’s our engine that’s just fallen off. I couldn’t believe it. He had to repeat it to me,” passenger Ronel Derma told the Independent News. A Nationwide Boeing 737 was taking off from South Africa’s Cape Town International Airport on Wednesday afternoon when […]