News

Slow sales have Piper Aircraft planning a layoff this month that could affect up to 150 workers, the company announced Wednesday. Production will be scaled down for this year and next, resulting in the termination of 15 to 20 percent of its 750 employees, the company said. “Piper Aircraft has experienced steady recovery since 2009, […]

The annual pilgrimage of all things aviation to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, has begun, with official opening day of EAA AirVenture set for Monday. Show events will honor the end of World War II, 70 years ago, and the legacy of aircraft designer Burt Rutan (who may fly to the show in his newest creation, a seaplane). […]

The inadequate restraint of five large mine-resistant military vehicles being carried as cargo in a National Airlines B747 was the cause of a fiery crash shortly after takeoff from Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan in April 2013, the NTSB said in its probable-cause meeting on Tuesday. All seven crew members died in the crash. At least […]

Damage to the batteries during the long flight to Hawaii can’t be quickly repaired, the Solar Impulse team said on Wednesday, so the unique aircraft will remain hangared until April 2016 before resuming its round-the-world flight. “During the first ascend on day one of the flight from Nagoya to Hawaii, the battery temperature increased due […]

A teenage girl found along a roadside in a remote area of Washington state on Monday had been walking alone in the wilderness for two days after the Beech A-35 Bonanza in which she was a passenger crashed, apparently killing her two step-grandparents, according to local authorities. Autumn Veatch, 16, was found by hikers near […]

Solar Impulse 2, the solar-powered airplane that successfully crossed the Pacific from Japan to Hawaii two weeks ago, will stay on the ground for at least two to three more weeks to repair “irreversible” damage to its batteries, the team has announced. During the record-breaking five-day oceanic flight, the batteries overheated due to over-insulation. There […]

Lockheed Martin is working on an $8 billion deal to acquire Sikorsky, which went up for sale by parent company United Technologies Corp. last month, according to press reports on Monday. The deal could close within days, according to The Wall Street Journal. Sikorsky’s helicopter business would be a “growth engine” for Lockheed, according to […]

A restored Zero fighter plane from World War II is set to take flight over Japan next week, marking the first time since the war’s end 70 years ago that one of the iconic aircraft has flown in Japanese airspace, the Japan Times reported on Monday. The Mitsubishi A6M3 Zero had been in storage in […]

Even as it ponders the fate of its flagship A380 airliner, Airbus has reportedly filed patent applicationsfor an even larger design. Airbus hasn’t had a new order for the A380 in more than a year and now there are at least three used super jumbos on the market, further diluting the already-rarified market. That apparently […]

As the public relations-spawned dissection of two flights over the English Channel by electric aircraft late last week got into finer and finer details, a big-picture perspective surfaced in the AVweb inbox. The first flight of an electric aircraft over the English Channel happened more than 30 years ago but it was overshadowed by perhaps […]