News

HorizonX, the Boeing “innovation cell” that launched about a year ago, has invested in its first U.K. company, Reaction Engines Ltd., Boeing announced on Wednesday. Reaction is known for its “Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine” (Sabre), a hybrid engine that blends jet and rocket technology. The engine is capable of Mach 5 in air-breathing mode and […]

As hiring in aerospace heats up, a job fair at Sun ‘n Fun 2018 this week connected dozens of would-be pilots, mechanics and technicians with companies eager to put them to work. The job fair was sponsored by JSFirm, a well-known online job listing service that has more than 4000 openings posted. And it’s adding […]

Just in time to join AVweb’s firehose coverage of Sun ‘n Fun, aviation journalist Kate O’Connor is now a member of the AVweb news team. A 2009 graduate of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s professional pilot program, O’Connor comes to AVweb from a stint as an associate editor at Plane and Pilot magazine, where she wrote and […]

Scaled Composites flew the second copy of its single-engine-jet, Model 401, for the first time, on Wednesday, the company has announced. “As a proof-of-concept, rapid-prototyping company, it is very rare when we get to build more than one of the same type of aircraft,” the company posted on Facebook. Scaled built two identical single-engine jets […]

Elbit Systems, based in Haifa, Israel, has completed the acquisition of Universal Avionics Systems Corp., of Tucson, Arizona, for a price of about $120 million, the companies announced on Wednesday. Universal develops and manufactures commercial avionics for a wide range of aircraft, including flight management systems, displays, communication systems and complete cockpit solutions. These products […]

As the 2018 show reaches its halfway point, Sun ‘n Fun President Lites Leenhouts reported an increase in attendance, revenue and high vendor satisfaction from years past. Attendance as of Wednesday was around 125,000, exceeding Leenhouts’ expectations. JSfirm hosted a career fair Wednesday and 14 companies were hiring on the spot. The fair was so […]

Sun ‘n Fun welcomed more than100 returning World War II, Korea and Vietnam war veterans back to the warbird area last night after a whirlwind day of visiting war memorials in Washington, D.C. The Flight to Honor continues a tradition of chartering day flights to the nation’s capital so aging veterans can see the monuments […]

Although autogyros in the U.S. aren’t quite the thing they are in Europe, a new one is being shown off this week at Sun ‘n Fun in Lakeland, Florida. The Rotorvox C2A, an all-carbon fiber design, is being pitched and an experimental amateur built aircraft for the U.S. market. It’s powered by a turbocharged Rotax […]

With a day of rain gone, the weather cleared in Lakeland Wednesday and the mud dried, but show organizers said first-day attendance still took a hit. Sun ‘n Fun president John “Lites” Leenhouts joked that hotels in northern Florida were calling to say thanks, as many pilots were stopped cold by an intense line of […]

The new portable, externally mounted WingBug Air Data, Attitude and Heading Reference System (ADAHRS) from Straight & Level Technologies provides independent flight data for pretty much whichever aircraft it can be clipped to—as long as the aircraft in question doesn’t exceed 200 MPH. The device, CEO and inventor Alex Rolinski explained to AVweb, sends the […]