News

An MIT student’s grad school thesis, which relied in part on information gathered from AVweb readers, confirms that cost is a major factor in the decline of general aviation activity. It has also revealed something that hasn’t shown up in other studies but may be related to economics. In her research, Kamala Shetty, who wrote […]

The FAA said on Monday it will form a working group to study whether it might be OK to allow airline passengers to use personal electronic devices during flights. “We’re looking for information to help air carriers and operators decide if they can allow more widespread use of electronic devices in today’s aircraft,” said Acting […]

A request from Hawker Beechcraft to allot $5.3 million in bonuses to eight executives was denied by a federal bankruptcy court on Friday, The Associated Press reported. Judge Stuart Bernstein said the proposed plan would reward the executives just for doing their jobs. The bonus request had been opposed by both the machinists union at […]

Last year’s fatal crash of a P-51 racing aircraft at Reno was caused by compromised stiffness in the elevator trim-tab system, which led to flutter and loss of elevator pitch control at race speed, said the National Transportation Safety Board inin its probable-cause hearing on Monday. At last year’s race, veteran air racer Jimmy Leeward […]

The NTSB is meeting today (Aug. 26, 2012) to determine a probable cause of the crash at the National Championship Air Races in Reno on Sept. 16, 2011, that resulted in the deaths of 10 people and injured more than 60. Jimmy Leeward’s highly modified P-51, the Galloping Ghost, went out of control near the […]

An Oregon app developer has come up with a unique solution to the problem of spotting unfamiliar airports from the air. Paul Mace is offering ARPort, which he says turns an iPad, iPod or iPhone into a “mini-HUD” that displays pushpin locations of airports within 25 miles in the field of view of the device’s […]

Cessna says it has reclaimed (from Gulfstream) the distinction of offering the world’s fastest production civilian aircraft with a maximum speed increase on its flagship Citation Ten. In an announcement Friday, the company said it is now calling the top speed of the lengthened and updated version of the Citation X .935 Mach, a .015 […]

The Aviators, a mostly general aviation-themed documentary lifestyle television series, has wrapped filming for its third season and the first episode will appear Sept. 17 on PBS. In a news release, producer Anthony Nalli said the crew spent 46 days filming in 18 locations to compile a wide variety of segments for the increasingly popular […]

Neil Armstrong, the civilian astronaut who became the first human to set foot on another celestial body, died Saturday from complications from a heart bypass operation he underwent two weeks ago. He was 82. Armstrong lived with his wife Carol in Cincinnati. There was no immediate word on the plan for remembering the self-described “nerdy […]

The prosecution was seeking one year in prison, but a judge has handed down a sentence of four years probation, plus a $100 “special assessment,” for a pilot who falsified logbook entries while seeking advanced ratings. According to the U.S. Attorney’s office, Fahad al-Daous submitted a logbook containing an extra 90-plus hours pilot-in-command time and […]