News

Fractional service AirShares Elite closed Dec. 1 and is now selling off its large fleet of Cirrus aircraft. AirShares pioneered the fractional model for high-performance GA aircraft and was in operation for almost 15 years before it quit the business with no explanation.The company had aircraft in more than 15 cities and was planning to […]

A speaker at a commercial drone conference in Los Angeles on Saturday was shouted down by a protest group blaming him for up to 3,000 deaths caused by Predator drones in Pakistan, the Contra Costa Times has reported. Another group protested police use of drones for surveillance. “Nobody here is even remotely interested in using […]

The Center for Environmental Health, which filed a lawsuit in 2011 seeking to prohibit the sale of leaded gasoline in California, has reached a settlement, NATA said on Tuesday. Under the agreement signed last week, FBOs at 23 airports will provide warnings of lead exposure to individuals residing within one kilometer of the airport, will […]

The 2014 Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy was awarded to airshow legend Robert L. Hoover during a ceremonial dinner in Washington, D.C., last Friday. The annual award is given to a living American by the National Aeronautical Association to honor significant public service of enduring value to aviation. “There are very few people in the world […]

A widely cited story posted on the blog Quartz on Friday raises the question whether airline pilots who post aerial photos online are violating FAA rules against using “personal wireless devices” in the cockpit, but the FAA told AVweb picture-taking is OK with them — as long as pilots use the proper equipment. “A pilot […]

Oklahoma is expected to adopt emergency rules that will require wind farm prospectors to make the temporary towers they use to measure wind energy potential more visible to pilots. The so-called METs (meteorological evaluation towers) are usually a few inches shy of 200 feet tall, the height at which the FAA starts regulating tower marking. […]

Although it’s not the Hollywood blockbuster many predicted would result, a new film has been made that tries to shed light on the life of Colton Harris-Moore, the so-called Barefoot Bandit whose high-flying crime spree came to an end in a hail of bullets off the coast of the Bahamas in 2010. The Barefoot Bandit […]

The world’s biggest airliner may have one of industry’s shortest production runs. Airbus has announced it could end production of the A380 in 2018 after going through the whole past year without a new airline order. The aircraft went into service in 2007. It did get a 20-plane order from a leasing company but there […]

Sweden says Russian spy planes are getting in the way of commercial flights and the Swedes would like it to stop. “This is serious. This is inappropriate. This is outright dangerous when you turn off the transponder,” Swedish Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist said on Swedish radio. According to ETurbo, Hultqvist said a passenger aircraft taking […]

The FAA has funding security (assuming presidential approval) for nine months after the Senate passed the so-called “Cromnibus” spending bill that approves appropriations for most government departments through September 2015. The vote was held late Saturday. The $1.3 trillion spending bill also rejects an administration user fee proposal and gives the FAA more money than […]