News

The FAA people involved with aircraft certification will be busy during the next few weeks. In addition to the Adam Aircraft A500 piston twin, Eclipse Aviation’s Eclipse 500 VLJ, which received provision type certification during last month’s EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, is likely to get its full certification, also. Back in July, Eclipse CEO and President […]

Colorado-based Adam Aircraft yesterday told AVweb that it expects full certification of its A500 piston-powered centerline-thrust twin in the “next few days.” According to a company spokesperson, “all the paperwork is complete” and filed with the FAA — except for known icing approval — and the company is waiting to hear back from the FAA. […]

Billed as its “War on Error,” Canadian airframer Bombardier has set dates for this year’s “Safety Standdown,” the company’s four-day seminar focusing on safe business aircraft operation. This year’s seminar will be held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Wichita, Kan., Oct. 2 through Oct 5, and is open to operators of all aircraft, not […]

Zurich-based Jet Aviation said recently its U.S. aircraft management division added 10 new aircraft to its fleet through new long-term agreements. New additions in the U.S. include a Falcon 900EX, a Citation III, a Citation V, a Gulfstream III, a Gulfstream V, a Gulfstream IVSP, a Challenger 300, a Global Express, a Challenger 601 and […]

The Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corporation (SSAC) said last month its SJ30 light jet had unofficially set records for range and speed for a light jet. The company flew an SJ30 from San Antonio, Texas, to Goose Bay, Canada, refueled, and then flew on to the Farnborough air show in Farnborough, England. Records claimed by the […]

Gulfstream Aerospace this week celebrated the newest addition to its fleet — the G150 business jet. Billed as Gulfstreams “first true mid-size business jet,” the G150 was introduced in September 2002 and certified ahead of the company’s schedule. The G150 completed its first flight on May 3, 2005, and received FAA certification on Nov. 7, […]

For Cessna, Carr said its Mustang type certificate will include approval for single-pilot operation, day/night operations, visual and instrument flight rules (VFR/IFR), and operations in reduced vertical separation minimum (RVSM) airspace — same as Eclipse. In fact, Cessna is being forced to say its Citation Mustang “will be one of the first new aircraft certified […]

It’s been years in the making, but the race between very light jet (VLJ) manufacturers will soon be at high speed. That’s if Eclipse and Cessna have anything to say about it. Cessna last week said it began function and reliability (F&R) flight testing on its forthcoming Citation Mustang VLJ, which the company maintains is […]

As one wag put it, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s actions last week “deemed an entire state of matter to be a security risk” — as well as business necessities like cellphones and laptop computers. But there were no new rules in effect for the average general or business flight, something for which the […]

Although bottom-line impact hasn’t been felt — yet — last week’s terrorism-related restrictions on airline travel are proving to be a major boost to business and general aviation interests in North America and, presumably, Europe. By canceling trans-Atlantic flights and banning from airline cabins many electronic devices and most liquids, anti-terrorism authorities in the United […]