News

Most everyone in the aviation industry found something to hate in the “skinny budget” released by the Trump administration Thursday. EAA, NBAA, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association and the Alliance for Aviation Across America all released statements opposing ATC privatization. EAA CEO & Chairman Jack J. Pelton in a written statement released Thursday said, “The […]

Afourth Mitsubishi MRJ90 test aircraft, JA23MJ, scheduled to fly from Honolulu International to the continental United States and join its siblings undergoing certification testing at Moses Lake, Washington, had to return to the airport shortly after departure on Thursday morning. The reason for the diversion is inaudible in publicly available ATC recordings, but the pilots […]

President Donald Trump’s new budget includes privatization of air traffic control. The document tabled Thursday in Washington contains an outright endorsement of privatization as a move that “would benefit the flying public and taxpayers overall.” The airline industry has been lobbying nonstop since Trump’s election for the formation of a nonprofit corporation to run the […]

The proposed budget of the United States, presented in abridged form today by the White House, would eliminate the Department of Transportation’s Essential Air Service (EAS) program, reports The New York Times. EAS currently provides the only form of commercial air transportation to 60 communities in Alaska and 115 communities in the lower 48 states, […]

The NTSB released final reports this month saying two fatal crashes of home-build aircraft involved incapacitated pilots following cardiovascular events. Both pilots had previously been issued medical certificates, which had subsequently expired. In both cases, the pilots had histories of severe coronary artery disease, which may have precluded reissuance of 3rd Class Medical Certificates. Both […]

Luigi Pascale, the founder, president and chief preliminary design officer at Tecnam Aircraft, died at age 93 on Tuesday, after a brief illness. Pascale’s interest in aviation started young, when he entered model airplane races with his brother Giovanni. He earned a master’s degree in mechanical engineering, and in 1951, he and Giovanni built their […]

Just as the world of manned aircraft struggles to understand drones, the unmanned world is trying to grasp how autonomous or remotely piloted aircraft will fit into the national airspace system. “Most of the activity is in what’s called the Part 107 market, which is the line of sight market,” says Brad Hayden, president of […]

The B-21 Raider long-range stealth bomber, under development by Northrop Grumman for the U.S. Air Force, has passed its preliminary design review, according to a recent report in DefenseNews. “It’s making great progress, and we’re pleased with the way it’s headed,” said Gen. Stephen Wilson, the Air Force’s vice chief of staff, at a recent […]

Embraer, which is based in Brazil, now is forming new innovation campuses in Silicon Valley and Boston, the company announced on Tuesday. “A major transformation is unfolding worldwide, and it has been accelerated by the evolution of artificial intelligence, robotics, virtual reality, and autonomous vehicles,” said Antonio Campello, Embraer’s director of corporate innovation, who will […]

David Esteves, 52, who was director of maintenance at the now-defunct Avantair fractional-ownership company, pleaded guilty on Friday in a federal court to charges that he tampered with evidence during investigations by the FAA and NTSB. Both agencies were looking into why an Avanti turboprop crew flew from California to Nevada, with passengers on board, […]