News

New Zealand aviation groups are lining up in opposition to major increases in fees for obtaining and maintaining a pilot’s license. The one-time “issuance fee” for a pilot’s license is going up from $55 to $230 but it’s the new “medical service application fee” that is raising the collective blood pressure of the pilot population. […]

It’s now been confirmed that celebrated author and longtime flying enthusiast Richard Bach was seriously injured when his SeaRey amphib clipped power lines and went down short of a runway on San Juan Island northwest of Seattle on Friday. His son James told The Associated Press his father’s condition is improving. He has a broken […]

The idea behind MakerPlane is to create an “open source aviation project” that allows people to build their own aircraft using personal Computer Numerical Control (CNC) mills and 3D printers. In that way, MakerPlane hopes to create an environment where people can produce aircraft largely “built on a computer controlled mill at home.” The man […]

A team of researchers at the University of Miami has received $100,000 in NASA funding to further develop their ninja-star-looking bi-directional flying wing jet, which rotates 90 degrees in flight to achieve supersonic speeds with virtually no ground-observable sonic boom. The aircraft design is symmetrical along its longitudinal axis and its lateral axis, but one […]

The National Aviation Hall of Fame (NAHF) will honor the legacy of the first man to walk on the moon by renaming one of its most prestigious awards as The Neil A. Armstrong Aviation Heritage Trophy, to be awarded this September. Formerly The Rolls-Royce Aviation Heritage Trophy, the award has been presented during the Reno […]

A new turbine-powered personal flying wing jetpack may be coming from San Diego-based Troy Hartman, an X Games skysurfing gold medalist and aerial stuntman who is actively testing his developing design. Hartman has not yet flown the complete rig but is testing its key components (see video). The ultimate solid wing design may be similar […]

British pilot Jeremy Roswell hopes this November to fly 10,000 miles from Sydney to London in a diesel Cessna 182 burning petroleum fuel processed from waste plastics. The fuel has been developed by Cynar Plc, an Irish company that uses a process called pyrolysis to melt down plastic trash into a petroleum distillate. That product […]

When Jared Calvert, a 25-year-old pilot from Texas, decided to tour the 48 contiguous U.S. states in his Piper Cub early this year, his plan was to not have a plan. “I wanted to take off and just go,” he said. After several years of working to restore a Piper J-3 Cub that had been […]

Under the recently passed Pilot’s Bill of Rights, airmen under investigation by the FAA have the right to request air traffic data such as recordings from control towers and flight service stations, and the FAA said this week it has posted information and links online to facilitate that process. Since air traffic data are stored […]

Since the death of astronaut Neil Armstrong on Saturday, the aviation community has been paying tribute to his memory and his career. In addition to serving as a NASA astronaut, the National Business Aviation Association noted, Armstrong worked as a project pilot on many pioneering aircraft, including the X-15, which flew at altitudes up to […]