News

NASA plans to fly an F-18 at supersonic speeds above Florida’s coastal waters later this month, producing sonic booms for a test program. The aircraft will fly at or above 32,000 feet when it goes supersonic. The flightpath is designed to keep the strongest-sounding sonic booms away from residential areas, while still producing booms above […]

With day after day of sunny skies and low humidity in Oshkosh last week, the crowds at EAA AirVenture had nothing to hamper them, and EAA this week reported record-breaking attendance numbers of 590,000, an increase of 5 percent over last year. In his closing news conference on Sunday, EAA Chairman Jack Pelton said, “It […]

An Air India flight was diverted last week because the crew didn’t raise the landing gear. There were apparently lots of clues that something was terribly wrong but the A320 crew pressed on, climbing to 24,000 feet instead of the normal 35,000 to 37,000 feet and reaching only 230 knots as the plane gobbled huge […]

Airbus is in the electric airplane business for at least the medium term and the next few years could see the first flight of a BAE 146 regional jet converted to fly on electric power. Ken McKenzie, senior VP of strategy and corporate development for Airbus, said what started with a quirky rear-engine ducted fan […]

The pilot of a Beech Baron involved in a highly publicized ditching in the Gulf of Mexico in 2012 has been indicted for insurance fraud. Theodore Wright and two other men, Shane Gordon and Raymond Fosdick, have been charged with several counts as part of a larger investigation that also involved an old Citation, an […]

Samson Motors brought its pre-production prototype of the Switchblade flying-car design, which is still under construction, to EAA AirVenture this week. The vehicle “highlights the unique internationally patented wing-swing mechanism,” the company said. According to CEO Sam Bousfield, the company’s goal is “to produce the first commercially successful flying sports car.” The design will fly […]

Aero Electric Aircraft Corp. plans to build a four-seat version of its all-electric airplane, the company announced at EAA AirVenture this week. The Sun Flyer 4 will have a payload of 800 pounds for pilot and passengers, the company said. “The four-seat airplane will have operating costs five times lower than costs associated with similar […]

Mooney’s Chino, California-based design center, which did much of the work on the emerging M10 line, will move its operations to the Kerrville, Texas, factory headquarters. “We’re going to be consolidating efforts,” says Mooney’s Lance Phillips. The Chino facility was responsible for the design and development work on the M10 models, a product line that […]

Lycoming says it’s not ruling out labor charge allowances for engine shops and customers affected by the mandatory rod bushing service bulletin announced earlier this month. In this podcast recorded at AirVenture on Friday, Lycoming general manager Michael Kraft told AVweb that shops need to first do the inspections, then contact Lycoming about support. As […]

Attendees at Oshkosh headed over to the NASA pavilion and try their hand at docking the Orion spacecraft, NASA’s next-generation space vehicle. The simulator at Oshkosh is a simplified version of a system Lockheed Martin uses to test all the functions of Orion. Larry Price, Orion deputy program manager at Lockheed Martin, says the simulator […]