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The agricultural aviation community needs to do a better job dealing with fatigue, risk management, and aircraft maintenance, the NTSB said in a special report (PDF) issued on Tuesday. “Ag operations are inherently flown at low altitudes, often close to obstacles and hazards,” said NTSB board member Earl Weener. “That kind of flying requires rigorous […]

If the UAS industry thought the FAA might be about to relax its stance toward enforcement actions against illegal drone operations, the FAA on Tuesday removed any doubt. The FAAs Jim Williams, who heads the agencys unmanned aircraft integration office, told several hundred attendees at the AVUSI show in Orlando that the agency will continue […]

Defense contractors are investing heavily in politicians as a means of stemming looming cuts to the military. Bloomberg is reporting that political contributions by the top ten contractors went up by 29 percent in advance of the 2014 midterm congressional elections over the same period in 2012. The next crop of politicians will preside over […]

SyberJet, the company that now owns the SJ30 light business jet design originally developed by Sino Swearingen, has started construction on a new completion and delivery center at the Cedar City Regional Airport in southwestern Utah. The new facility is adjacent to the headquarters of SyberJet’s parent company, MSC Aerospace, and will provide space for […]

Just as a combination of radar, transponders and active traffic systems improved flight safety for manned aircraft, the UAS industry may benefit from different twists on the same technology. At the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International show in Orlando this week, General Atomics, the maker of the Predator UAS, explained its novel approach to […]

Although the FAA said last week that detailed rules for operating unmanned aircraft systems in regulated airspace may be seven years off, the UAV industry appears bullish that it will happen sooner. Michael Toscano, president of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, told AVweb Monday in Orlando, Fla., that he’s optimistic that operators of […]

Satellite-communications company Inmarsat has offered to provide airlines with free global tracking service over its network, the company announced on Monday. “This service is being offered to all 11,000 commercial passenger aircraft, which are already equipped with an Inmarsat satellite connection, virtually 100 percent of the world’s long-haul commercial fleet,” the company said. The offer […]

An FAA official has told representatives of the UAV industry that it may be 2020 or later before the agency has a comprehensive set of rules governing small pilotless aircraft. Forbes aviation blogger John Goglia wrote last week that Jim Williams, speaking at the Small Unmanned Systems Business Exposition in San Francisco, said that although […]

There’s one feature Cirrus Aircraft sales people talk about a lot but had never demonstrated until Saturday when an Australian rep had to deploy the parachute while on a demo flight with prospective customers. Peter Edwards, 62, and his unidentified prospects, both 58-year-old men, took off for a flight over Australia’s Blue Mountains, just outside […]

The body of the pilot of a hot air balloon that caught fire at a Virginia balloon festival was found Sunday. Daniel T. Kirk was an experienced pilot and witnesses said he did everything possible to keep the balloon from climbing after it struck power lines and the basket ignited Friday night. The bodies of […]