News

The FAA has issued a direct-to-final rule that fixes two unforeseen glitches from its complex light sport aircraft rule. The original rule prohibited retractable landing gear, which caused a problem for amphibious aircraft. Under the rule, pilots who took off from the water weren’t allowed to lower their landing gear in flight for a runway […]

Recently, some aircraft sellers have told buyers that certain aircraft can use auto fuel when they’re not certified to do this, EAA said last week. A records check failed to confirm that one such aircraft had an autofuel supplementary type certificate (STC), and there were no placards on the aircraft. Only EAA and Peterson Aviation […]

Both engines of a DA42 Twinstar quit shortly after takeoff in Germany last month, and now Diamond is saying it was caused by an engine problem while Thielert says it was an airframe issue, Flight International reported this week. The accident airplane’s battery had drained overnight and the pilots had apparently started both engines using […]

Avantair Inc., which says it is the only publicly traded standalone fractional operator in the U.S., yesterday said its has promoted Darren Blackett to the position of vice president of sales and marketing while appointing Mark Whitman as sales director of a newly formed territory in the North and Midwest. Blackett, who joined the company […]

Flightplan, the Farnborough-based aircraft sales and charter company, last week said it had entered a partnership with Express Jets of San Antonio, Texas. According to the company, the move will provide Flightplan with access to the resources and used-aircraft inventory of the North American market while Express Jets’ recent move into Europe will now give […]

Fresh from a 20,000-nm trip to Australia, including a week at the Australian International Airshow, the newest model of EADS Socata’s TBM 850 single-engine turboprop was on display last week at Aero 2007, in Friedrichshafen, Germany. The latest iteration of the company’s flagship business turboprop is dubbed the TBM 850 VFT (Very Fast Turboprop) and […]

Eclipse Aviation last week said one of its Eclipse 500 very light jets (VLJs) successfully ventured outside of North America for the first time. The aircraft left the company’s headquarters in Albuquerque, N. M., on April 14, 2007; flew the North Atlantic route through Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and the United Kingdom; and landed in Friedrichshafen, […]

Universal Avionics yesterday said it obtained European certification for its Vision-1 Synthetic Vision System (SVS) last month under EASA standard ETSOA IM.21O.671. The Vision-1 image is a real-time computer-generated rendering of the terrain ahead of the aircraft oriented to the aircrafts vertical and lateral position when displayed on the company’s EFI-890R, MFD-640 or EFI-550 flat-panel […]

Gulfstream Aerospace yesterday recognized four small businesses for their outstanding performance as suppliers to the company during the 2006 calendar year. The ceremony was held at Gulfstream’s Ninth Annual Corporation Supplier Conference, held recently in Savannah, and which helps the company manage the $252 million in goods and services it purchased from U.S. small businesses. […]

Pilatus Aircraft last week celebrated delivery of its 700th PC-12 single-engine turboprop in a celebration marked at the V. Kelner Pilatus Center in Thunder Bay, Ontario. The 700th example went to David Fountain, a private investor, who accepted the keys to his aircraft from Robert Arnone, president and CEO, and Steve Davey, vice president of […]