News

Airbus is expected to announce plans next week for a $600 million A320 assembly plant in Mobile, Ala. Numerous news outlets are citing anonymous sources in scooping the company on the announcement, which will bring with it 2,500 construction jobs and at least 500 direct factory jobs. The first A320 is reportedly scheduled to roll […]

Senator James Inhofe, who gained personal experience with FAA enforcement tactics and rules in 2010, is celebrating the passage by the Senate of his Pilots’ Bill of Rights. In October 2010, Inhofe landed on a closed runway in Texas that had vehicles and people on it. He received a remedial training order from the FAA. […]

An FAA assessment of SLSA manufacturers has found that “the majority” of manufacturers evaluated failed to prove compliance with the category’s standards, and that could affect the certification status of some aircraft. The FAA announced its findings Thursday, stating that “aircraft within the existing fleets” of manufacturers not able to issue a valid Statement of […]

Virgin Galactic’s passenger-carrying suborbital space vehicle SpaceShipTwo successfully passed aerodynamic and powerplant tests on June 26, near Mojave, Calif. The vehicle performed its first successful glide since integration of its rocket motor systems. WhiteKnightTwo carried it to 51,000 feet over where it was released under the control of Scaled pilots Pete Siebold and Mike Alsbury. […]

A team at the University of Texas at Austin claims to have hacked into and taken control of a non-military drone using less than $1,000 in parts, highlighting concerns over domestic drone use. Drones operated by the Department of Homeland Security and other agencies are already flying over the U.S. Smaller groups like universities and […]

Fallout from the May 9 crash of Russia’s first completely new post-Soviet era passenger jet may bring changes to how Sukhoi pilots are prepared for display flights, RiaNovosti reported, Wednesday. Last month’s crash destroyed a Sukhoi Superjet SSJ100 airliner, killing all 44 passengers aboard when the demo flight impacted a mountain slope near its departure […]

As the wildfire begins in earnest in 2012, the Forest Service is operating with roughly half of the aircraft it had only a decade ago, stirring some controversy about aviation firefighting resources. Earlier this month, President Obama signed a bill to add larger tankers to the Forest Service’s aerial firefighting fleet and, separately, four Air […]

EAA AirVenture is coming up fast, with opening day set for Monday, July 23, and EAA said this week visitors already have started to arrive in the camping areas. The current Notam, essential reading for pilots who are flying in, has been posted on the AirVenture website. The website also offers discounts on advance ticket […]

The Unleaded Avgas Transition-Advanced Rulemaking Committee (ARC)’s report on its recommended path to a suitable replacement for 100LL has been released to the public by the FAA (two months after the stakeholders committee completed the report) and as we reported in May it will be, under the committee’s recommendations, at least 11 years before such […]

Last year, the FAA ordered airlines to disable emergency oxygen generators that supply decompression masks in lavatories, citing terrorism concerns. This week, the FAA reversed that order, and gave the airlines three years to restore the systems. The change affects about 5,500 airplanes, the FAA said, and will cost about $45 million. The FAA noted […]