News

The Solar Impulse 2 aircraft and its crew are ready to fly from China to Hawaii, and waiting for the right weather window, which the crew now says won’t happen before Sunday. The 5,000-mile leg, which will be the longest nonstop flight on the solar-powered electric airplane’s round-the-world trip, is expected to take about five […]

The FAA wants to make it easier for drone operators to know if they’re flying legally so on Wednesday, it announced a new geographically sensitive smartphone app that will instantly inform drone pilots if they’re legal to fly in the airspace they’re in. The new app is called B4UFly and will be available later this […]

The FAA will work with several partners from private industry to “explore the next steps” in allowing unmanned aircraft operations in the national airspace, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta announced Wednesday at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International conference in Atlanta, Georgia. “This is a big job, and we’ll get to our goal of safe, […]

During the flight from Dusseldorf to Barcelona immediately prior to the fatal crash on March 24, Germanwings first officer Andreas Lubitz repeatedly reset the A320’s altitude to 100 feet while alone in the cockpit, according to a preliminary report (PDF) released Wednesday by the French BEA safety board. Lubitz didn’t activate a descent, but the […]

Cirrus Aircraft will likely announce a new delivery center in Knoxville, Tennessee, on Wednesday. Tennessee officials, including Gov. Bill Haslam, have invited media to a news conference at McGhee Tyson Airport near Knoxville to reveal “a significant economic development announcement.” It’s unlikely the announcement has anything to do with aircraft production as new facilities and […]

Organizers are calling this Friday’s flyover of the nation’s capital “one of the most diverse arrays of World War II aircraft ever assembled,” with 56 aircraft in 15 historically sequenced formations flying 1,000 feet above the National Mall to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe. The formations will […]

NASA has successfully flown a remotely piloted aircraft powered by 10 electric motors that can take off vertically, then rotate its wing and tail surfaces and fly like an airplane. The aircraft, which weighs about 62 pounds, has a 10-foot wingspan, with eight motors on the wings and two on the tail. “During the flight […]

Continental Motors Group said today that it will purchase Danbury Aerospace, a group of aviation manufacturing companies that includes Engine Components International, the San Antonio, Texas-based manufacturer of PMA engine parts. Danbury is a privately held company and the dollar amount of the deal wasn’t disclosed by Continental. Because Continental is itself owned by the […]

As part of its investigation into several events when airplanes landed at the wrong airports, the NTSB told the FAA this week it should amend its ATC procedures. “Controllers [should] withhold landing clearance until the aircraft has passed all other airports that may be confused with the destination airport,” the NTSB said. Also, software that […]

The electrical systems on Boeing 787s need to be shut down and restarted before they reach 248 days of continuous power, the FAA said on Friday, to prevent a “loss of all AC electrical power, which could result in loss of control of the airplane.” The airworthiness directive was issued “straight to final rule,” without […]