News

The NTSB said Wednesday a “punitive culture and inadequate safety management” along with poor weather caused the crash of an Alaska Department of Public Safety helicopter on March 30, 2013. The single-engine Eurocopter crashed in wooded and snow-covered terrain east of Talkeetna, killing the pilot, another state trooper and the snowmobiler they had just rescued.The […]

The FAA issued a final rule on Wednesday expanding icing certification standards for transport-category airplanes. The new measure requires Part 25 (transport category) aircraft that weigh less than 60,000 pounds to be certified for flight in icing caused by supercooled large droplets — which make up freezing drizzle and freezing rain — as well as […]

Lamda Guard, a company based in Canada, has developed a thin film filter that could protect pilots from laser strikes when applied to airplane windows. The film is built from an array of nanoparticles. It’s quick to install, long-lasting, and cost-effective compared to other options, the company said. The metamaterial technology can block multiple laser […]

The Lightspeed Aviation Foundation has named its grant recipients for 2014. The nonprofit groups, which will receive grants up to $10,000, are chosen based on online voting from the aviation community. “The Pilots Choice voting and awards have introduced us all to dozens of worthy charities and amazing people that are making a significant impact […]

A sale is a sale but Textron Airland probably didn’t expect its first customer-owned Scorpion military jets to hit the airshow circuit. DefenseNews is quoting unnamed sources as saying the United Arab Emirates is in “serious discussions” to buy Scorpions for its air demonstration team, Al Fursan. The team currently flies six (with a seventh […]

Embraer recently rolled out is largest military aircraft to date and is apparently taking aim at the venerable C-130 with the KC-390. Embraer hopes to fly the high-wing twin turbofan by the end of the year and certify it by the end of 2015 with the first operational aircraft delivered in 2016. The KC-390 has […]

An F-35C Lightning II carrier variant Joint Strike Fighter has completed an arrested landing aboard an aircraft carrier for the first time, the U.S. Navy announced this week. The landing took place aboard USS Nimitz off the coast of San Diego on Monday, shortly after noon. Navy Cmdr. Tony Wilson was the pilot. “Today is […]

NTSB Acting Chairman Christopher Hart gave his final briefing from Mojave on Monday evening, and provided a timeline for events leading up to Friday’s fatal accident during a Virgin Galactic test flight. Hart said telemetry data shows the spaceship was released from WhiteKnightTwo at 10:07:19 local time, Friday morning. At 10:07:21, the engine started on […]

Virgin Galactic CEO Richard Branson said Monday his space tourism project will continue and he still plans to be the first passenger.“We will finish building the next spaceship. We will learn from what happened to the first spaceship. We will test it many, many times,” Branson said in an interview with CNN to discuss Friday’s […]

When FAA officials agreed to ban flights above Ferguson, Missouri, for 12 days in August, they knew the purpose was not for safety but to restrict media coverage of local street protests, The Associated Press reported on Monday. “They finally admitted it really was to keep the media out,” said one FAA manager, referring to […]