News

CubCrafters will significantly increase production of its two-place airplanes in 2019, the company said last week. “Backcountry flying is increasing in popularity,” said Brad Damm, sales director for the company, in a news release. CubCrafters has seen continuous growth since 2009, he said, when the Carbon Cub LSA was introduced. Sales ramped up in 2016, […]

VSS Unity, the aircraft that Virgin Galactic plans to use later this year to carry tourists into space, completed a successful supersonic test flight on Tuesday, the company has announced. The rocket motor burned for 31 seconds, as planned, and propelled Unity to a speed of Mach 1.9 and an altitude of 114,500 feet. “Seeing […]

The Sun Flyer 2, an electric two-seat trainer in development by Bye Aerospace in Denver, will be powered by a Siemens SP70D motor, Bye announced on Tuesday. “The Siemens motor provides great performance and all of the propulsion energy required for normal flight training profiles,” CEO George Bye told AVweb in an email.”The batteries give […]

A modified Boeing 747 operated by the U.S. Air Force Global Strike Command will make its first-ever visit to EAA AirVenture this July, EAA has announced. The aircraft, designated an E-4B Advanced Airborne Command Post, is designed for use by the National Command Authority, which comprises the president and the secretary of defense. “A lot […]

The European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition is underway this week in Geneva, and on Monday, Bombardier introduced two new business-jet models, the Global 5500 and 6500. The jets feature a newly optimized wing design and all-new Rolls-Royce engines, providing ranges of 5,700 and 6,600 NM, respectively. The two jets are expected to enter service […]

U.S. Red Bull Air Race pilot Mike Goulian came second in the weekend race held in Chiba, Japan, and is now tied in the overall standings with Matt Hall, of Australia, who won Sunday’s race. Hall edged Goulian by less than a third of a second. Under the points system that sets overall standings, the […]

One of the most unusual and intriguing aircraft to fly for the Air Force might make an appearance at AirVenture 2018. Aircraft restorer Tom Reilly says he’s close to flying his XP-82, the so-called Twin Mustang that was built as a long-range bomber escort at the end of the war. It didn’t see any action […]

Alan Bean, an Apollo astronaut who was the fourth man to walk on the moon, died Saturday at the age of 86 in a Houston hospital. Bean was the lunar module pilot on Apollo 12 and also commanded the second crewed mission to Skylab in July of 1973. He was a Navy Test Pilot School […]

Textron is in the process of restructuring its Cessna Pilot Center (CPC) network, including cutting back on the number of CPCs and putting more focus on its Cessna Flight Training System digital interactive flight-training curriculum. “As a part of a new strategy to expand the reach of the Cessna curriculum to student pilots,” Textron told […]

Embry-Riddle-Daytona student Nandish Patel, 22, was killed in the crash of a Cessna 140 at Spruce Creek Fly-In private airport (7FL6) in Port Orange, Florida, on Tuesday evening. Also on board the aircraft was Chase Zinn, 23, a May 2017 Riddle graduate and flight instructor at the school. Zinn was transported to the hospital and […]