News

Boeing flew an F-16 without a pilot for the first time last week, the company said on Tuesday. The Air Force plans to use the modified aircraft as a target drone for weapons testing and other aerial training. So far, six of the retired airplanes have been modified into the Full Scale Aerial Target, or […]

With a new federal fiscal year about to launch on Oct. 1, FAA officials are facing a $700 million budget gap, according to Bloomberg News. A new round of automatic cuts will take effect in the new budget year and may have more impact than they did this year, sources told Bloomberg, citing briefings with […]

The first all-new Eclipse 550 twin-engine jet to roll off the production line in Albuquerque will be on display at the 2013 NBAA convention in Las Vegas next month, Eclipse Aerospace announced on Tuesday. CEO Mason Holland said the jet represents an “amazing accomplishment” for the company, which bought up the remnants of the original […]

The first FAA-approved commercial flight by an unmanned aircraft launched in the Chukchi Sea, above the Arctic Circle, on Sept. 12, the FAA said on Monday. The flight “went off safely and without a hitch,” the FAA said. A ship chartered by ConocoPhillips carried four Insitu ScanEagle UAS to conduct marine-mammal and ice surveys required […]

An Aviation Rulemaking Committee is expected to tell the FAA this week that the use of certain electronic devices in airline cabins should be allowed, The New York Times reported on Monday. The new guidelines, which would likely take effect next year, according to the Times, would allow passengers to use their tablets to access […]

Hilton Software, developers of the WingX Pro aviation app, is advising its subscribers not to upgrade their iPads and iPhones to the new iOS 7 operating system because the new operating system has stability issues. The company says it believes its app is fully compatible with iOS 7 but the operating system itself has a […]

The Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE) says the FAA should be looking in pilots’ logbooks to help it curtail the GA accident rate. The organization told a recent meeting on the FAA’s data collection process that the agency should “start collecting information on pilot recurrent safety training in addition to the data it […]

The NTSB Thursday announced it has issued a Final Rule applicable to the aviation certificate enforcement appeals process and that it is also issuing a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to extend one of that rule’s benefits to pilots involved in emergency enforcement cases. The Final Rule allows pilots subjected to certificate enforcement to appeal to […]

To no ones surprise, Redbirds Skyport has been inundated with interest in its plan to sell avgas for $1 a gallon during the month of October, as we reported in AVweb two weeks ago. Interest has been so strong, in fact, that the company is setting some limits of both fill-up frequency and volume. Redbirds […]

Lufthansa and two leasing companies have placed orders at a combined total of roughly $19 billion (not including discounts) for large jets that don’t yet exist in Boeing’s line-up, the 787-10 and the 777-9X. The jets currently exist only as computer designs. Planned production of the 787-10, which will be the largest of the Dreamliner […]