News

Cessna’s diesel-powered Turbo Skyhawk JT-A is no longer in production for sale directly to customers, Textron has confirmed to AVweb. The airplane, which was certifiedlast June by both the FAA and EASA, has been deleted from the company’s website. However, the Continental CD-155 engine will still be offered to customers directly through Continental as a […]

Legislation recently introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives seeks to create a program to bring more people into the aviation maintenance workforce. If it passes a House vote, the Aviation Workforce Development Pilot Program Bill, H.R. 5701, would provide grants of up to $500,000 for activities that support aviation maintenance workforce development. Twenty aviation […]

Uber is looking for an international launch city for its UberAIR aerial ridesharing program, the company announced at its second annual Uber Elevate Summit on Wednesday. Uber has issued an open call for interested governments to submit a formal Expression of Interest by July 1, 2018. From there, Uber says it will begin conversations with […]

Uber will be ready to start commercial service with urban air taxis by 2023, Mark Moore, Uber Elevate’s engineering director, said at the Elevate Summit on Tuesday. The electric-powered VTOLs are still in development, but Uber released its latest concept showing a four-passenger aircraft with four rotors. “Stacked co-rotating rotors or propellers have two rotor […]

Flight sharing via app has been stymied so far for private pilots in the U.S., but the idea has taken root in Europe in the last few years, and is continuing to grow. Rules developed by EASA (the European Aviation Safety Agency) now allow GA pilots to share costs with up to five passengers. Tony […]

A new program that launched this week in Wichita, Kansas, will provide technical training for high-school students to prepare them to step directly into jobs in the aviation industry. Aviation Pathway is a joint effort involving Textron Aviation, Wichita Public Schools and WSU Tech, a technical college based in Wichita. Staff at Textron approached public-school […]

China’s government is moving forward with plans to build a commercial-scale plant to produce hypersonic engines for both military and civilian aircraft, according to a recent report in the South China Morning Post. The scramjet engines could produce speeds up to Mach 5. The project will bring together the expertise of the Institute of Mechanics, […]

A Canadian sister company of Viking Air Limited, which builds the CL-415 Aerial Firefighter, has launched the Viking CL-415EAF, called the Enhanced Aerial Firefighter. The company will convert and modify 11 acquired CL-215 firefighters to the upgraded turbine version that provides the basis of the EAF. The company said finding qualified staff for the project […]

A decade of low interest rates on aircraft loans continues to stimulate aircraft sales, but worries about inflation are pushing rates up, says Airfleet Capital, a leading aircraft lender. While no spikes are expected short term, the market is definitely headed higher, says Airfleet’s Jim Blessing. In this podcast recorded last month at Sun ‘n […]

American Airlines won’t be renewing its contracts with regional carriers ExpressJet and Trans State when they expire in 2019, according to Bloomberg News. The report cites a memo to reservations agents that goes on to state the move is being made to streamline passenger experience and that ExpressJet and Trans State flights will be shifted […]