News

The pilot of a helicopter that autorotated into New York’s East River Sunday evening told investigators that one of the passenger’s bags may have inadvertently bumped the emergency fuel shutoff. The AS350 reported engine failure before it autorotated into the river, appearing to touch down on skid-mounted floats. The pilot, 33-year-old Richard Vance, was the […]

Voom, the urban helicopter service operated by Airbus, now has launched operations at a second site, Mexico City. Voom has been flying in Sao Paulo, Brazil, since last April. “We couldn’t be more excited to bring an urgently needed, alternative transportation option to Mexico City,” said Uma Subramanian, CEO of Voom. Mexico City was chosen […]

A bipartisan bill introduced in the Senate last week would provide $5 million each year from 2019 through 2023 to expand programs and apprenticeships that would train workers for careers in aviation maintenance. “Our aviation industry needs skilled workers, and the aviation-maintenance industry provides high-paying, high-skilled jobs across the country,”said Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla., one […]

Five people were killed after a tour helicopter autorotated into New York’s East River Sunday evening and turned over after touching down on the water. News reports said the pilot was the sole survivor of the accident. Prior to touching down on the water on inflatable skid floats, the pilot had reported engine trouble to […]

A new report this month from the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) says the Federal Aviation Administration lacked effective management controls over the “project level agreements (PLAs)—an internal control mechanism for documenting the agreed-upon work and managing project execution” for the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). This program was implemented to meet the […]

Red Bull Air Race selected the VectorNav VN-300 Dual Antenna GNSS-Aided Inertial Navigation System (INS) as the primary source of aircraft telemetry data for the Master Class raceplanes participating in the Red Bull Air Race World Championship. The February inaugural event of the 2018 season saw the VN-300 used for the first time in all […]

In its 20th annual “Turbine-Powered Civil Helicopter Purchase Outlook,” released in late February 2018, Honeywell forecasts 4,000 to 4,200 new civilian-use helicopters will be delivered from 2018 to 2022. Honeywell says they feel a better long-term global economic outlook this year means customers are holding firm in their intentions to invest in new helicopter purchases. […]

AOPA has developed a curriculum for ninth-grade students that uses aviation to teach science, technology, engineering and math, and is offering it free to schoolteachers. Teachers will be introduced to the program through a professional development workshop offered June 26 to 28, which can be attended at AOPA headquarters in Frederick, Maryland, or taken online. […]

As the huge Stratolaunch aircraft prepares for its first flight at Mojave, company founder Paul Allen is thinking about using it not just to deliver satellites to space, but perhaps also to carry an all-new space shuttle. “I would love to see us have a full reusable system and have weekly, if not more often, […]

Aircraft engines are normally designated by obscure numbers only an engineer could love but as a clear expression of market intent, GE is giving its new turboprop engine a name: the GE Catalyst Advanced Turboprop engine. (Heretofore, it was simply the ATP engine.) GE announced the new engine in 2015 and last fall, it reported […]