News

Daher-Socata will design and certify Airbus Group’s electric E-Fan aircraft with plans to develop the existing prototype into an all-electric series of production aircraft, the companies announced Thursday. Airbus subsidiary VoltAir, which developed the prototype, will be the project manager as Daher-Socata designs and tests the aircraft, including its electric powerplant and batteries. Airbus announced […]

National Geographic will release a new documentary, “Living in the Age of Airplanes,” in April. The film, produced and directed by Brian Terwilliger — maker of the 2005 GA documentary “One Six Right” — is about how air travel has transformed civilization.Harrison Ford narrates, while the score comes from Academy-Award-winning composer James Horner, also a […]

Hoping to compete in a market flooded with portable ADS-B weather and traffic receivers, SiriusXM Aviation is out with the new $699 SXAR1 portable broadcast weather and entertainment receiver. The SXAR1 wirelessly streams WSI weather data directly to the iPad, eliminating the need for a panel display or a portable GPS. An integral part of […]

One woman was killed and others were injured Wednesday when a French Air Force Alpha Jet training aircraft crashed into a home for the disabled in France. Both pilots ejected safely. The accident occurred about 5:30 p.m. local time in the town of Vouvray, near Tours in central France. The aircraft was on a night […]

The FAA on Wednesday granted four companies exemptions for operating unmanned aerial systems in various functions including aerial surveys, construction site monitoring and oil rig flare inspections. The companies are Trimble Navigation Limited, VDOS Global LLC, Clayco Inc. and Woolpert Inc., which received two exemptions.The FAA is expected to propose rules governing drones by the […]

A passenger on a Southwest Airlines 737 gave birth in flight on Wednesday morning, shortly after takeoff from San Francisco. A doctor and nurse on board assisted, and the captain diverted the flight, which was bound for Phoenix, to land in Los Angeles. “It was a beautiful day, smooth, everything was going great,” said Captain […]

The House has passed a package of tax measures that would, among other things, revive bonus depreciation on capital investments, including aircraft. Bonus depreciation allows businesses to write off up to 50 percent of the value of equipment purchased in and put into service in 2014. There are also reports the plan is to make […]

The flight data recorder from the Phenom that crashed inMarylandon Monday shows the airplane slowed to 88 knots on approach, with the flaps extended and landing gear down, the NTSB’s Robert Sumwalt said on Tuesday. At that point, the FDR shows the aircraft experienced “large excursions in pitch and in roll.” About two seconds later, […]

Pilots in commercial cargo operations will not be subject to the same rest and duty-time rules that apply to pilots who work for passenger-carrying airlines, the FAA affirmed on Tuesday. The FAA reviewed its final rule on the matter, issued in January 2012, in response to comments made on its financial analysis. A fresh analysis […]

Retail giant Amazon told the FAA this week that it would rather be testing its delivery drones in the U.S., but since the agency has stymied the company’s efforts, jobs and investment in the program are being exported to sites outside the country. “These non-U.S. facilities enable us to quickly build and modify our Prime […]