News

Although electric airplanes still inhabit a regulatory backwater, Slovenian-based Pipistrel Aircraft is boosting its production of battery-powered trainers and reports a 50-50 split between gasoline and electric aircraft. In this exclusive podcast, the company told AVweb this week that a new production line is building five to six Alpha Electro trainers per month. “We reorganized […]

The cargo door of an Antonov An-12, a Soviet-era cargo plane, loaded with nine metric tons of gold broke open as the aircraft took off from Yakutsk in East Siberia. The aircraft’s door apparently gave way and broke off due to the weight shifting in the cargo hold. Gold alloy bars were then strewn across […]

Aerospace has always been a boom-bust business, but following the economic downturn of 2008, the robust upswing has proven elusive, primarily because there are simply too many airplanes available for too few buyers. Says Citi aerospace analyst Jonathan Raviv, this sluggish recovery has earned a name: the lost decade. In this exclusive podcast, AVweb spoke […]

A low-flying plane over an Ohio high school caused concern Thursday afternoon, according to Cincinnati news station WLWT. “After an exhaustive investigation, we determined there is no evidence of any threat or plan to attack any person or school,” Hamilton Police Chief Craig Bucheit said in a tweet. “HPD is working with Federal Aviation Administration […]

The FAA said Friday that it’s restricting helicopter operators from offering so-called doors-off tours unless the passengers are equipped with quick-release harnesses. The announcement came five days after five people died when a tour helicopter autorotated into New York’s East River and rolled over. Although the pilot escaped, five passengers apparently drowned because they couldn’t […]

The NTSB issued a Safety Alert (PDF) on Friday reminding general aviation pilots they should calculate weight and balance before every flight. Between 2008 and 2016, the board said, incorrect or neglected performance calculations were cited as a probable cause in 136 GA accident reports. In one-third of those accidents, people died. “Overloading aircraft or […]

Florence “Shutsy” Reynolds of Connellsville, Penn., passed away Thursday, March 15, 2018, at home. She was 95. She took a Civilian Pilot Training Program at her local airport in Connellsville and completed it, receiving her pilot’s certificate at the end. According to the “Fly Girls the Series” blog, “Reynolds was required to sign a document […]

Zipping across the North Pole to connect city pairs in the eastern and western hemispheres happens multiple times a day. But now Norwegian Air Argentina has applied for traffic rights from Buenos Aires to Perth, Western Australia, a 7,839-mile jaunt that will take commercial airline travelers directly over the South Pole. The South American arm […]

As Western democracies ramp up their rhetoric against Russia, White House officials said Thursday that Russia has hacked or at least targeted U.S. infrastructure, including aviation systems. The Washington Post reported Thursday that these new hacking claims are the strongest condemnation yet of claimed Russian attempts to erode Western values and technical infrastructure. Without being […]

Floyd Carter Sr., one of the last Tuskegee Airmen, decorated veteran of three wars and NYPD officer, died Thursday, March 8, 2018. He was 95. Carter was given the Congressional Gold Medal by President Bush for breaking the color barrier in Tuskegee. Carter rose to the rank of Air Force lieutenant colonel years after joining […]