News

The Santa Monica Airport Commission showed its support for the city’s strategy to eventually shut down aviation operations at the airport, recommending this week that the city council move ahead with taking over chunks of the 227-acre field and imposing new rules for hangar owners and other users. This latest move in the long battle […]

Continental Motors Group has received FAA type certification for its IO-360-AF engine and will deliver the first of the alternative-fuel powerplants to Flight Design in Germany. The maker of the CT light-sport models chose the Continental engine for its C4 certified airplane project in 2011. Continental’s approval “brings us another step closer to realizing our […]

The FAA’s Alaska Weather Camera Program is now fully deployed, the FAA said recently, with 221 cameras at remote sites to help pilots determine when and where it’s safe to fly. The system improves safety and efficiency by providing pilots with near-real-time, visual weather information, says the FAA. The system includes an interactive online map […]

This summer, a remote control tower developed by Saab will be tested at Leesburg Executive Airport, in Virginia. The technology makes it possible for controllers to operate as they would in a control tower, but from an off-airport location. A prototype system has been operational in Sweden since last fall, where controllers in Sundsvall work […]

Robinson R-44 helicopters have been cleared to fly again in New Zealand after investigators there concluded that a rotor blade broke because of a crash and its failure didn’t cause the crash. Last Saturday, New Zealand grounded R-44s with Dash 7 rotor blades after preliminary inspection of the wreckage from a crash near Queenstown last […]

Martin Jetpack, the New Zealand-based company that aims to bring a commercial jetpack to the market, raised $27 million Tuesday in its initial public offering, bringing the total value of the company to about $100 million, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. First deliveries of the devices, aimed at the first-responder market, are scheduled for […]

“Poor decision-making by the crew” was the probable cause of a fatal Learjet accident last November at Grand Bahama International Airport, according to the Bahamas’ aircraft accident investigation unit. Both crew members and seven passengers died after the jet struck a crane at about 220 feet ASL, about 3.2 nm from the runway threshold. The […]

The FAA last month proposed a revision to its Airworthiness Directive regarding ECi cylinders, but the NTSB and AOPA have objected to several of the proposal’s key components. In comments posted to the docket (PDF), the safety board says the proposal affects “many more cylinder assemblies” than it should, and also removes repetitive inspection requirements […]

Much of the U.S. is locked into a winter-weather regime this month, but spring is coming soon, and the aviation calendar is filling up. AOPA has announced their second year of regional fly-ins, starting with Salinas, California, on May 16. Each of the free events features a social gathering on Friday night followed by a […]

An Oklahoma Air National Guard student pilot managed to bring an F-16 safely back to his base missing half of the right wing after a midair collision with his instructor over Kansas last October. The Air Force released photos of the aftermath of the encounter in which the unnamed student’s outboard missile severed his instructor’s […]