News

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 […]

Boeing has begun demonstrating software updates for the 737 MAX, according to remarks made by CEO Dennis Muilenburg on Thursday at the George W. Bush Presidential Center Forum on Leadership in Dallas, Texas. Muilenburg said the company has made 96 flights totaling a little over 159 hours with the updated software, which aims to prevent […]

SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket successfully completed its second launch and first operational mission on Thursday. After a 24-hour delay due to weather, the rocket launched from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at 6:35 p.m. local time. The Falcon Heavy’s payload was the Arabsat-6A, a telecommunications satellite that will deliver television, radio, internet […]

Formula 1 racing is a popular event at the Reno Air Races, among other sites, and beginning late next year, it will evolve into something new: electric airplane racing. As AVweb covers Aero this year, Jeff Zaltman, CEO of AirRaceE, says airplanes are being designed and constructed for the first scheduled air race late next […]

The Aero exhibition in Friedrichshafen, Germany has always been fertile ground for new aircraft ideas and with electric aircraft surging, 2019 is no exception. One of the more unusual aircraft on display this week is the AutoFlightX, an exotic VTOL design that looks like a cross between a P-38 and George Jetson’s daily ride to […]

As investigators continue to probe the certification process for the Boeing 737 MAX in the wake of the fatal crashes of Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 and Lion Air Flight 610, it is again being suggested that modifications made to the MAX’s Maneuvering Characteristic Augmentation System (MCAS) after it was initially reviewed by the FAA were […]