News

Failure of the nose-strut O-ring seal on many Cessnas is just so familiar. According to McFarlane Aviation Products, one key cause is a rolling deformation of the rubber O-ring on the chrome strut shaft. Enough twisting and the O-ring begins to tear. Instead of a conventional circular cross section, the PMA seal has an X […]

Update:Captain Daniel C. Wells, Atlas Air captain and president of the Airline Professionals Association, Teamsters Local 1224, released the following statement on the Atlas Air plane crash. Teamsters Local 1224 members flying for Atlas were on the flight. “Our union stands together as a family and in support of our members’ families. Our focus is […]

The STOL Twin Bee crash near the Winter Haven airport last week claimed the life of well-known flight instructor James Wagner but his student, Tim Sheehy, and an occupant of the house they crashed into escaped with minor injuries. Local reports are suggesting that the Twin Bee lost an engine soon after takeoff from Winter […]

As the final link in the chain joining Embraer and Boeing in a critical strategic partnership, the Brazilian company’s shareholders have overwhelmingly approved the deal. Boeing’s ownership stake of the partnership in commercial aviation and services will be 80 percent to Embraer’s 20 percent. The agreement affects Embraer’s commercial unit only, with its defense and […]

The idea of a combat drone isn’t really new, but Russian arms manufacturer Kalashnikov is trying to bring the scale and cost of UCAVs (unmanned combat aerial vehicles) to a new low. Introduced at the International Defense Exhibition and Conference (IDEX) in Abu Dhabi last week, the KUB-UAV is just 4 feet wide, perhaps ushering […]

A 25-year-old hijacker was shot by commandos and later died after the aircraft landed in Chattogram, Bangladesh, on Sunday. Bangladesh media reports Biman Bangladesh Airlines Flight BG147 was on a flight from Dhaka to Dubai when the man, who identified himself only as Mehedi, reportedly tried to get into the cockpit. He was armed with […]

An Atlas Airlines Boeing 767 flying for Amazon Prime crashed just off the shore of Anahuac, Texas on Saturday and it’s presumed the three crew members died. Two bodies have been recovered. “It’s probably a crash that nobody would survive,” Chambers County Sheriff Brian Hawthorne told USA Today. The aircraft descended at about 6,000 feet […]

A British man’s quietly persistent tribute to an American B-17 bomber crew he believes sacrificed their lives for him became a national tribute last week, complete with a major flypast of U.S. Air Force hardware. Tony Foulds, then eight years old, and his friends were playing in a field near Sheffield when the bomber appeared […]

Canada has dropped its ban on pilots with pre-existing Type 1 diabetes becoming commercial pilots. In 2001, the agency made pre-existing insulin-dependent Type 1 diabetes a disqualifying condition for the commercial medical even though it had previously allowed pilots who developed diabetes after obtaining their commercial license to continue flying. Private pilot Austen McDonald, who […]

Virgin Galactic sent its first passenger to the edge of space Friday although it wasn’t a paying customer. The company’s astronaut trainer Beth Moses rode in the passenger cabin of the spacecraft Unity on the flight Friday morning from the company’s base at Mojave, California. “Beth Moses is on board as a crew member,” a […]