News

Beginning in 2017 any aircraft, GA included, with ADS-B Out transmitting at 1090 MHz will be automatically tracked and the precise location of its last transmission anywhere on earth recorded. At last week’s ICAO High Level Safety Conference, Aireon LLC, which is launching the first space-based global air surveillance system, announced that the headquarters for […]

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has posted a video online that illustrates how it expects to deliver payloads of up to 100 pounds into orbit for less than $1 million, within 24 hours of call-up, using a conventional jet fighter plane that can take off from ordinary runways. In a news release last […]

When a LAN Chile DC-3 went missing in the Andes in April 1961 with 24 people on board, rescuers found the tail section, but then abandoned the recovery effort. It was clear there were no survivors, and searching on the steep, remote, glacier-topped mountainside was dangerous. This week, a nine-member expedition team announced that it […]

The FAA on Monday posted a correction to its rule on ADS-B requirements for the general aviation fleet, which should offer more choices to owners of experimental and LSA aircraft. The notice reads that the final rule, posted in May 2010, required that ADS-B equipment must meet the requirements of certain TSOs; however, the FAA […]

The test pilot who many test pilots acknowledge as the “Dean of Test Flight” died last week. Fitshugh “Fitz” Fulton died at his home in Los Angeles from complications of Parkinson’s Disease. He was 89. Fulton tested everything from sailplanes to the YF-12 (predecessor of the SR-71) during his 40-year career and was inducted into […]

There are plenty who would agree that a Boeing 747 is a work of art but a California group is turning a worn-out airframe into a functional sculpture. The Big Imagination Foundation is buying an old 747-300 and plans to turn it into a gigantic “people carrier” for the annual Burning Man event in the […]

For one of the most famous people in the world, the first man on the moon was notoriously private and one of Neil Armstrong’s little secrets is now in the hands of the Smithsonian. Armstrong took one last step for posterity while evacuating the Eagle lander for the trip from moon orbit back to Earth. […]

TransAsia Airways ordered its ATR pilots to undergo written and oral exams in the next few days to continue flying, CNN reported Friday. The airline also plans to have the 71 pilots take simulator tests, according to the report. The moves come as investigators probe the cause of this week’s ATR-72 crash with 58 people […]

Dassault Aviation’s new Falcon 8X completed its first flight this week from the company’s Bordeaux-Merignac facility in France and is on target for certification in mid-2016. Two test pilots completed the first of a series of flight and systems tests that will be followed with a second and third 8X, scheduled to fly in the […]

A Virginia company is exploring the potential for buying and restoring the first presidential Air Force One, a 1948 Lockheed C-121A Constellation used by Dwight D. Eisenhower. Dynamic Aviation announced this week it’s researching the availability of parts, including engines and propellers, that can get the airplane, known as Columbine II, flying again.Owners Harry Oliver […]