News

Miles Hilton-Barber, 58, a British pilot who has been blind for 25 years, landed his microlight aircraft at Bankstown airport in Sydney, Australia, on Monday, after flying more than halfway around the world. His 59-day trip through 21 countries raised money for a charity that works to prevent blindness in poor countries. “It’s the fulfillment […]

Mooney Airplane Co. of Kerrville, Texas, has named two new executives to its staff, with the appointment of Jon Greenwood to the position of vice president and chief financial officer and John McCoury as vice president of engineering. Greenwood previously worked for M7 Aerospace. McCoury has worked with Aviation Technology Group (ATG) and Eclipse Aviation. […]

Eclipse Aviation on Tuesday said the Environmental Protection Agency awarded the company with a 2007 Stratospheric Ozone Protection Award for the development of its PhostrEx fire-suppression system. PhostrEx will transform how our industry protects against engine fires while simultaneously guarding against the depletion of the ozone, said Eclipse President and CEO Vern Raburn. PhostrEx was […]

Cessna Aircraft announced Tuesday that it delivered the first Citation Encore+ to an undisclosed customer. The latest Citation V derivative is powered by two FADEC-equipped, 3,400-pound-thrust Pratt & Whitney Canada PW535B engines that offer “high durability and reliability,” and “surpasses the most stringent environmental standards for emissions, set by the International Civil Aviation Organization.” Besides […]

Bombardier shipped 56 business jets in the first quarter of 2007 with total billings of almost $1.3 billion, according to GAMA’s quarterly report, and Bombardier expects its market to remain strong. The company’s “10-year baseline Corporate Aircraft Market Forecast predicts 9,950 deliveries” in sum total from 2007 through 2016, representing $227 billion in market-wide revenues […]

The European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE), to be held later this month in Geneva, Switzerland, is on target to set new records for static display, booth spaces and overall number of exhibitors. The event, co-produced by the European Business Aviation Association and the National Business Aviation Association is scheduled for May 22 to […]

As new Cirrus-based air taxis (SatsAir and ImagineAir, to name two) and Eclipse-based air taxi hopeful DayJet populate the Southeast, Alpha Flying – better known under its fractional program name PlaneSense — is stretching its wings to the south. The 11-year-old fractional and largest operator of the Pilatus PC-12 is expanding. It currently operates 28 […]

The FAA issued a type certificate for the Eclipse 500 last Sept. 30, but a grievance filed Oct. 20 by National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) aircraft certification representative Tomaso DiPaolo hit the spotlight this week suggesting the gesture may have been rushed. DiPaolo suggests that the pay-for-performance structure within the FAA may have held […]

Multiple announcements from Eclipse last week publicized the company’s new training partners, delivery from the FAA of Eclipse’s production certificate (the company may now issue standard airworthiness certificates for its production aircraft) and questions regarding earlier issuance of its type certificate. In February, Eclipse announced that aerodynamic refinements (larger tip tanks and aerodynamic refinements) made […]

Dassault’s 5,950-nm, fly-by-wire Falcon 7X is expected to enter service before July, having received type certification from both the EASA and FAA on Friday at a ceremony in Bordeaux-Merignac, France. More than 160 of the trijets have been sold, representing four years of production and marking the 7X as “the most popular launch of a […]