News

Four individuals have been selected for their contributions to flight instruction, maintenance, avionics and safety, to be recognized at AirVenture Oshkosh 2013 by FAA Administrator Michael Huerta as part of the General Aviation Awards Program. The awards program is a cooperative effort between the FAA and supporting organizations. It is designed to “highlight the important […]

The NTSB says it still doesn’t have any answers about the root cause of a battery fire aboard a Japan Airlines Boeing 787 in Boston in January but it’s going to great lengths to get it done. At a news conference in Washington on Thursday, Board Chairman Debra Hersman said the interim factual report it […]

The first flight of a production Cessna Corvalis TTx — the plane Cessna bills as “the world’s fastest fixed-gear, single-engine piston aircraft in production” — took place on Saturday, March 2, at Independence, Kan., the company announced Wednesday. The Cessna turbocharged TTx evolved from the Corvalis (previously Columbia) line. Cessna says the plane is the […]

A decision on whether or not the city of Grand Forks, N.D., will provide Cirrus Aircraft with a $950,000 loan will be delayed for at least a few days until the company answers questions about its financial standing, the Grand Forks Herald reported Tuesday. Cirrus wants to use the loan to expand its Grand Forks […]

Consumer technologies that use GPS to track aircraft in flight are adding features all the time, and this week one of the more popular vendors, Spidertracks, of New Zealand, announced new capabilities in its latest device, the Spider S5. The new unit retains the small footprint of the earlier models, but adds integrated Bluetooth communications […]

Aviation biofuel experiments took another step forward this weekend when a crew from the New Jersey-based Paramus Flying Club flew their Cessna 182 with an SMA diesel engine from Smithfield, R.I., to Kitty Hawk, N.C., on a blend of 50 percent biofuel and 50 percent Jet A. The biofuel, made by SkyNRG in the Netherlands, […]

As all sectors of government scrambled this week to figure out how to operate under the new rules imposed by sequestration, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association said on Tuesday the FAA intends to send furlough notices to all of its employees. “This means that beginning in a month, there will be fewer air traffic […]

The ever-fertile mind of David Wartofsky has come up with a way of framing the movement to abolish third-class medicals for private pilots in a way the FAA is sure to understand. In a letter headlined “Potential Cost Savings for the FAA” (PDF), Wartofsky, the outspoken owner of Potomac Airfield, urges John Porcari, the Deputy […]

AgustaWestland has unveiled an unmanned electric tiltrotor technology demonstrator at Heli-Expo, which runs until Thursday in Las Vegas. The aircraft, which features twin rotors powered by independent electric motors, was built in less than six months and has flown a few times, tethered and untethered. The aircraft is entirely electric with no hydraulic system. Although […]

A small hovering drone was reported by an Alitalia pilot near New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport about 1 p.m. on Monday, officials said on Tuesday. “The FAA is investigating a report … [the pilot] saw a small, unmanned or remote-controlled aircraft while on final approach to Runway 31 Right,” FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown told […]