News

The FAA’s Joint Planning and Development Office (JPDO) is making progress towards the lofty goal of reinventing the National Airspace System, but there’s a minefield of coordination, budget and implementation issues ahead,

The Department of Transportation Inspector General last week released

The FAA has issued a

AOPA President Phil Boyer said he was “very encouraged” by the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee’s reactions to the FAA’s proposed reauthorization blueprint. The hearing featured “a lot of blunt, outspoken dialogue,” he said, and he expects all 535 members of Congress will closely scrutinize the FAA plan, and consider its effect on their constituents. […]

The FAA’s long-anticipated new funding plan, revealed Wednesday morning, calls for a changeover to user fees, as expected — but the agency ran into immediate and widespread opposition at a hearing later in the afternoon before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Rep. Vernon Ehlers, R-Mich., called the proposal “dead on arrival.” Many on the […]

The FAA’s proposed reauthorization legislation, the Next Generation Air Transportation System Financing Reform Act of 2007, revealed Wednesday, claims a new financing structure is necessary for the FAA to build an efficient and safe air transportation system for the future. Airlines and air travelers would pay less, but operators of business and general aviation aircraft […]

COLUMN INDEX The Savvy Aviator #41: Is Your Equipment List Up-To-Date?The manufacturer provided an equipment list for your aircraft when it was delivered from the factory. Whenever equipment is added or removed from the aircraft, the FAA requires that list to be revised. Is yours up-to-date?

Linear Air, an air-taxi company based at Hanscom Field, just outside Boston, Mass., is expanding into the Caribbean, and moving forward with its plans to be among the leaders in the very light jet (VLJ) air-taxi market…although so far, it has been operating without any VLJs. While waiting for its first Eclipse jet, now expected […]

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are rapidly being developed and deployed, and the FAA on Tuesday published a UAV policy to outline how these aircraft can be used in the National Airspace System. The rules vary depending if the UAV is operated as a public aircraft (operated by the government), a civil aircraft or a model. […]

When a lovingly crafted Messerschmitt Me 262 replica built in the U.S. was shipped to Germany to fly in an air show last summer, the event stirred up memories — and they weren’t all positive ones. The airplane itself might be an engineering marvel and a joy to fly, but an Austrian journalist, writing for […]