News

Pipistrel has sold 15 Alpha trainer aircraft to a flight school in California, the company’s largest-ever U.S. order. The flight school, WorldWide Wings, operates facilities in California and Florida that train pilots from all over the world, especially India. WWW director Naushad Imam said his flight school had been looking for a “suitable LSA ab-initio […]

Piper announced this week that its M600 turboprop and piston twins will soon be available with angle-of-attack systems from Safe Flight. The systems will be offered as options by the third quarter of 2018, Piper CEO Simon Caldecott said in a press conference at Sun ‘n Fun. The Safe Flight system, which is STC’d for […]

Jumbotrons at airshows have become commonplace but this year at Sun ‘n Fun, the airshow has both the giant screens and live streaming for those who can’t make it to the actual event. In partnership with Sun ‘n Fun, a company called LiveAirshowTV is feeding both pre-show programs and the show itself to online audiences […]

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo,VSS Unity, has completed its first supersonic, rocket-powered flight, the company announced last week. The aircraft was carried to a launch altitude of about 46,500 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains by the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, then released. After a few seconds of glide, Unity’srocket motor was engaged, and the pilots placed the spaceship […]

Headset manufacturer Lightspeed Aviation says it’s expanding its aviation philanthropic efforts by focusing in-kind donations of headsets to scholarship and learn-to-fly programs. At a press conference at Sun ‘n Fun 2018 in Lakeland this week, Lightspeed CEO Allan Schrader says past donations have been funneled into compassionate giving, but now the company is interested in […]

Terrafugia, the Massachusetts-based “flying-car” company, said on Tuesday it has created 75 new jobs in the last year and plans to add 50 more by December. The company was recently acquired by Zhejiang Geely, a Chinese conglomerate, which provided the resources for the company to expand its operations and hire new workers. “The recent jump […]

Boeing’s HorizonX division, which supports new business ventures, is now a partner at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Research Park, ERAU has announced. HorizonX will join the John Mica Engineering and Aerospace Innovation Complex, located next to the Daytona Beach campus, which aims to help new businesses bring new enterprises to market. “We are proud to partner […]

Sun ‘n Fun President John “Lites” Leenhouts announced on Monday that the Air Force has sent the Air Combat Command F-16 Viper Demonstration Team to fill the vacant performance spot left when the Thunderbirds cancelled their scheduled performance last Thursday. The cancellation was due to the loss of Thunderbird pilot Maj. Stephen Del Bagno in […]

What better way to learn how to fly than in a taildragger Cub? That’s the idea behind a new organization called Kids Fly Cubs, which is working to set up learn-to-fly promotions using Legend Cub serial number 1 loaned by American Legend, the Texas-based company that has been manufacturing updated Cubs for more than a […]

Ellen Stofan has been named director of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. Stofan begins her tenure April 30. She brings more than 25 years’ experience in space-related organizations and a deep research background in planetary geology. She is the first woman to hold this position. Stofan was chief scientist at NASA (2013-2016), serving […]