News

SpaceX’s first successful commercial mission came off almost without a hitch last week. Almost. Despite landing safely on a drone ship off the Florida coast, one of the three boosters was lost before it could return to dry land. By design, the two outboard boosters returned safely to land, while the larger, center booster successfully […]

Following the trend at other aviation trade shows, attendance at last week’s Aero exhibition was up slightly over the previous year, according to show organizers. And a record 757 exhibitors showed their wares at Friedrichshafen, up 7% over 2018. While the weekly gate is a fraction of that at AirVenture or Sun ‘n Fun in […]

Three occupants survived the crash of a Cessna 172 into a Long Island suburb Sunday night, according to reports in the New York Post. The 1977 Cessna 172N was on a flight from Niagara Falls, New York, to Republic Airport in Farmingdale, New York. According to FlightAware.com, the Cessna took off at 5:12 p.m. and […]

Details surrounding the crash on April 9 of a Japanese Air Self-Defense Force F-35A have been slow to emerge as a highly coordinated Japanese and American military rescue mission continues. Pieces of the aircraft have been located, but neither the pilot nor major portions of the Lockheed Martin fighter haven been found. The Nikkei Asian […]

American Airlines announced over the weekend that it was extending the cancellation of flights slated to use the Boeing 737 MAX until Aug. 19. This move follows reports that indicate more international aviation authorities around the world are planning to carefully scrutinize any updates to the jet’s MCAS stability-augmentation software before permitting revenue flights to […]

The Wall Street Journal is reporting(subscription) that the safety certification of the Boeing 737 MAX will be reviewed by an international committee, a large group of representatives from most of the major aviation regulators in the world. The panel, which is led by former NTSB Chairman Christopher Hart and includes delegates from Canada, China, Indonesia, […]

The world’s largest airplane took its first flight early Saturday. The Stratolaunch, a six-engine, twin-fuselage behemoth with a 385-foot wingspan, took off from Mojave after years in development. The aircraft was conceived by Paul Allen and Scaled Composites founder Burt Rutan as an aerial launch platform for low Earth orbit satellites that will reduce launch […]

As the 2020 ADS-B mandate pumpkin looms on the horizon, say this is about the system: Once you’ve ponied up for the installation cost, it does provide free weather and traffic. But in Europe and the UK, no deal. And a recent experiment to see if pilots across the pond would pay for these services […]

While Cirrus’ sales success with the SR line and now the VisionJet is obvious, less well known is that the company is becoming a force in the aviation training market. At Aero this week, Cirrus revealed that it’s staffed up and is investing in significant in-house training resources and video and that all of this […]

Multiple investigations into two accidents of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft will inevitably focus on a much misunderstood FAA program called ODA for organization designation authorization. And Pete Bunce, president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, says that may ultimately be a good thing for both the aerospace industry and general aviation manufacturing specifically. We […]