News

Following a nearly three-year secret development program, computer scientist Alan Eustace today shattered the world skydiving record with a jump from 135,890 feet, a supersonic free fall and a safe landing 70 miles from his departure point at Roswell, New Mexico. The previous record skydive was from 128,100 feet-it was set by Austrian daredevil Felix […]

In January 2012, Bell Canada applied to the FAA for an exemption from the FARs that would allow it to increase the gross weight of its Model 429 by 500 pounds to 7,500 pounds as had been approved in Canada and a number of other countries. The FAA denied the petition in August 2012. Bell […]

In an exclusive, Reuters is reportingthat Lockheed Martin and the Defense Department have inked a $4 billion deal for an eighth series delivery of 43 F-35 single-engine, all-weather, stealth fighters. According to the report, the hard-fought contract will lower the price of the jet by about 3 percent-and it includes aircraft to be built for […]

While the rest of the world, especially Israel and Australia, move rapidly forward with commercial deployment of unmanned aircraft systems, the FAA’s slow formulation of regulations endangers the U.S. ability to compete. That was one observation that came out of an hour-long panel discussion attended by several hundred people at NBAA in Orlando this week. […]

The eighth and final race of this year’s Red Bull Air Race series will be held Sunday at the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria. Nigel Lamb of Britain stands in first place with 53 points after seven races, ahead of Hannes Arch at 48 points, who will be competing in his home country. The […]

UFO reports by airliner crews are nothing new, but a British A320 crew raised eyebrows after saying they had a close encounter with a flying man who swooped past their aircraft without visible means of support on June 13. The UFO has been dubbed the “Superman of Macclesfield” and the UK Airprox Board, which investigates […]

Three people were reportedly killed Thursday afternoon at the Frederick, Maryland, airport when an airplane and a helicopter collided close to the runway. The airplane was a Cirrus SR22, according to WJZ-TV, and news photographs show firefighters with a deployed parachute from the aircraft. Two men aboard the Cirrus were taken to a Hagerstown, Maryland, […]

Pilots may presume that we now have access to accurate terrain maps nationwide, but in some remote areas, maps may be based on incomplete data or inaccurate observations that are decades old. “Mars is better mapped than the state of Alaska,” Steve Colligan, president of E-Terra, an Anchorage mapping firm, told The Washington Post recently. […]

After mostly remaining aloof from the record-setting side of aviation for over 70 years, Cessna appears to have returned to the fray-using the Mach 0.935 cruising speed of its recently certificated Citation X+ to set four city-to-city speed records in its weight class. Over a two-day period, the jet set speed records on four sequential […]

Piaggio Aero, the Italian company that builds the unique Avanti P180 twin turboprop, said this week at the NBAA convention in Orlando they will now be known as Piaggio Aerospace. The change reflects a new direction for the company, which plans to expand its product portfolio and grow in new markets. The company will continue […]