News

Hawker Beechcraft laid off another 125 workers in Wichita last week, and six bids are under consideration from potential buyers of the company’s assets, the Wichita Eagle reported on Monday. The company said no final decision has been made regarding a sale, but the bids were solicited as the company continues to restructure under bankruptcy […]

Airbus will build its first U.S. factory in Mobile, Ala., the company announced on Monday, in a move that aims to help Airbus compete with Boeing on its home turf. Aircraft in the A320 family will be assembled and delivered from the facility. “The time is right for Airbus to expand in America,” said CEO […]

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International published a set of guidelines on Monday to help ensure that drone aircraft are operated in a “safe, non-intrusive” manner. “By proactively adhering to these guidelines, we want to demonstrate how the rights of individuals and the safety of all users of civil airspace are our top priority, […]

In a letter to members of the Malibu-Mirage Owners and Pilots Association, the group’s president, Jonathan Sisk, said this week that the FAA’s just-made-public 100LL replacement plan deserves a critical eye. Although he says it represents progress, he believes it’s too narrowly focused on just one path. “I also recommend that Clean 100 members not […]

Accidents at opposite ends of the world and opposite ends of the air show performance spectrum had a common and deadly result on Saturday. In England, the last flying de Havilland DH53 Hummingbird, essentially a 1923 ultralight aircraft, crashed at the Military Pageant Airshow at Old Warden Aerodrome near Biggleswade Beds. Former RAF pilot and […]

After years of butting heads and trading court cases on the topic of restricting flight operations at Santa Monica Airport, local officials and the FAA may have found a way to agree. Santa Monica is going to pay flight schools to go elsewhere for touch and goes and pattern work and the FAA thinks that’s […]

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. […]