News

Military aviation forums are buzzing with reaction to a Facebook posting by the Dutch-based Scramble Magazine that four F-117 Nighthawks were pulled out of retirement and snuck into Syria to fly clandestine missions on behalf of the U.S. in 2017. Giving some credence to the report, which is classified as a rumor by most military […]

That telltale trail of smoke from the Air Force’s longest serving airframe will soon be a thing of the past but that’s not because the B-52 is going anywhere. A request for proposal will be issued in March to re-engine 76 of the venerable bombers as part of the Air Force’s long-range bombing strategy through […]

SpaceX celebrated the successful launch of its Crew Dragon capsule followed by the successful autonomous docking of the spacecraft at the International Space Station on the weekend as a prelude to the resumption of manned U.S. space flights, possibly in the next year. The crew capsule was unmanned but carried a life-sized mannequin named Ripley […]

A banner towing pilot died and dozens of others had a close call on Friday when a banner plane flying along Fort Lauderdale’s beachfront hit a condo building and fell about 150 feet to a pool deck below. The Piper Pawnee operated by Aerial Banners Inc. hit the building between the 16th and 17th floor. […]

The NTSB has located and recovered the cockpit voice recorder (CVR) from Atlas Air Flight 3591, a Boeing 767 cargo jet that crashed in Trinity Bay in Anahuac, Texas, on Saturday. The flight data recorder has not yet been located. According to the NTSB, the CVR is being transported to the NTSB labs in Washington, […]

Superior Air Parts has grounded all of its XP-382 and XP-400 experimental engines due to detonation problems found in some XP-400s, according to AVweb sister publication Kitplanes. The company has also implemented a mandatory buy-back program for both engine types. Both the grounding and the buy-backs are effective immediately. “Throughout Superior Air Parts’ 50-plus year […]

The FAA has issued a new rule prohibiting the transport of lithium ion cells or batteries as cargo on passenger aircraft. This revision of the Hazardous Materials Regulations also requires lithium ion cells and batteries to be shipped at not more than a 30 percent charge on cargo-only aircraft and limits the use of alternative […]

Rolls-Royce has removed itself from the competition to power Boeing’s proposed New Midsize Airplane (NMA) platform. The company announced on Thursday that while it believes the NMA platform complements Boeing’s existing product range, it isn’t able to commit to the planned timeline for the project. Rolls-Royce says it will continue to develop the next-generation UltraFan […]

The Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA) annual market report contains good news for avionics manufacturers and shops. Compared to 2017, last year’s total sales topped $2.7 billion, a gain of 17.3 percent. This uptick follows a modest 2.9 percent rise from 2016 to 2017, that in turn followed two years of single-digit decline. Of the total, […]

Bombardier will be quadrupling the existing footprint of its Singapore Service Center, according to an announcement from the company on Tuesday. The expansion, which is taking the 100,000-square-foot service center to approximately 430,000 square feet, will add heavy structural and composite repair capabilities, a paint facility, a parts depot and new customer facilities as well […]