News

The UPS A300 that crashed in Birmingham, Ala., on Wednesday flew itself into the ground, according to the NTSB preliminary analysis of the flight data recorder information. At a news conference on Saturday NTSB spokesman Robert Sumwalt said the aircraft was flying on its autopilot until “moments” before it crashed less than a mile short […]

Last weeks massive proposed airworthiness directive aimed at thousands of Engine Components International cylinder assemblies is drawing mixed reactions from engine overhaul shops, according to an AVweb canvass of shops this week. While some say the proposed AD is a kneejerk over reaction, at least one shop told AVweb that the AD is justified, based […]

The 10-story “Grasshopper” rocket created by SpaceX was successfully flown to hover on August 13, and then returned to land on its launch platform after executing a lateral maneuver, the company said Wednesday. The test carried the rocket to an altitude of 250 meters and incorporated a lateral shift of 100 meters. The Grasshopper rocket […]

As part of the Eclipse 550 certification process, Eclipse Aerospace now has available a new “safety enhancement” package offering new or existing owners upgrades from brakes to multifunction displays, plus one “industry first,” the company has announced. According to Eclipse, the addition of autothrottles as part of the new safety package marks a first within […]

Researchers at MIT say they have created a new structure that is “10 times stiffer” than existing ultralight materials, can be easily disassembled and reassembled for maintenance or repair, and is “useful for anything you need to move or put in the air or in space.” The research team says the structure is made by […]

Brent Owens is a professional pilot, RV-8 builder, and former (and current) AVweb podcast subject who has recently found the attention of aviation publications for his written articles and his latest endeavor — a blog dedicated to money-saving tips for pilots. The website, FixedWingBuddha.com, is a collection of articles that detail methods that can help […]

Wesley David Archer in the 1930s produced pictures of WWI aircraft engaged in aerial combat that became a popular sensation in their day, but decades later were discovered to be falsified, and Wednesday in Australia they went up for auction. In 1933, the photos gained publicity through their use in the book Death In The […]

The presidential helicopter group, Marine Helicopter Squadron One, Saturday debuted its new MV-22 Ospreys, and will receive a total of 12 of the tilt-rotor aircraft, none of which will be used to move the president, and all of which cost more than $10,000 per hour to operate, according to the GAO. The aircraft were used […]

A new feature from Xsight Systems aims to improve the detection of ground-level birds in real time, in severe weather, and in the dark, the company said this week. The feature, called BirdWize, is an add-on to a system the company sells for detecting foreign-object debris on runways. “Forty percent of all bird-related incidents happen […]

A UPS Airbus A300 cargo airplane on approach to Runway 18 at the Birmingham, Ala., airport crashed Wednesday morning at about 6 a.m. local time. Both crew members were killed, local authorities have reported. The aircraft hit the ground in an open field about a half-mile north of the runway, outside the airport boundary, broke […]