News

The HondaJet has received provisional type certification from the FAA, Honda Aircraft announced Friday. Honda has four HA-420 jets in its test fleet with more than 2500 hours to date and is planning for final type certification in the next few months. The twin-engine business jet, the company’s first commercial aircraft design, is being manufactured […]

The AOPA Air Safety Institute released a new online course Friday designed to help pilots transition into unfamiliar aircraft. “Transitioning to Other Airplanes” offers factors to consider when moving up or down in airplane size or complexity, or into one with different avionics. The first ten hours of flight in an unfamiliar airplane pose more […]

Airlines around the world said Thursday they’ll start requiring two crew members in the cockpit at all times. The change comes after details emerged that the co-pilot of Germanwings Flight 9525 deliberately locked the captain outside the cockpit and crashed the jet into the French Alps on Tuesday, killing all aboard. Norwegian Air Shuttle announced […]

Lightspeed Aviation’s entry-level headset now comes with full Bluetooth audio capability, the company announced Thursday. The upgrade to the Sierra headset now makes all three Lightspeed headsets capable of connecting to cellphones, music, and audio alerts.Each headset can connect to an iPad or iPhone with Lightspeed’s FlightLink app. “Sierra already enabled pilots to use a […]

Andreas Lubitz, the co-pilotfound to have deliberately crashed the Germanwings Airbus 320 into the French Alps this week, was undergoing treatment for depression but concealed his condition from the airline, according to a Wall Street Journal reportFriday that quoted unnamed sources.A search of Lubitz’s Dusseldorf home turned up torn-up medical leave notes excusing him from […]

At a congressional hearing in Washington on Tuesday, advocates cited issues with unstable funding, aging infrastructure and inadequate staffing for critical air traffic control functions, and lobbied for fundamental change in how the FAA is managed and funded. Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, told the House aviation subcommittee that “the […]

The Canadian Owners and Pilots Association (COPA) is rallying its members to oppose proposed regulations it says will threaten small airports across the country and make it much more difficult to build new airports or expand existing ones. Transport Canada’s Notice of Proposed Amendment (NPA) would mandate public consultation on any new airport or expansion […]

Amazon says the FAA approval for limited outdoor testing of its unmanned aerial systems delivery service is not much use to the company because it applies to an aircraft the company is no longer testing. In testimony (quoted in Geekwire) before a Senate committee on Tuesday, Amazon VP for Global Public Policy Paul Misener said […]

Sales of light sport aircraft in the U.S. for 2014 totaled 199, according to numbers compiled and released this week by the Light Aircraft Manufacturers Association. CubCrafters took first place, with 50 airplanes, and Van’s Aircraft took second place for the year, with 26 copies of its factory-built RV-12 sold. Other top sellers for the […]

A German Airbus 320 is down in a mountainous region of southern France, and all144 passengers and 6 crewon board are believed to be dead, officials announced early Tuesday morning. The airplane was en route from Barcelona to Dusseldorf and was operated by Germanwings, a low-cost subsidiary of Lufthansa. Early reports said a mayday call […]