News

If you or somebody you know would like to give flying a try, this Saturday might be a good time. During the third annual International Learn To Fly Day, airports around the world are hosting events and pilots are offering to take neighbors and friends up for a free introductory flight. EAA spearheads the community-wide […]

Kickstarter, a crowd-funding site, has reconsidered its rejection of a proposal from Synergy Aircraft, and this week said it would allow the project to go forward. John McGinnis, the aircraft designer, said on Sunday that he had “received an email from a human being” saying that Kickstarter had reconsidered his “incredibly ambitious and creative project” […]

The FAA will accept comments until June 8, 2012, on revised rules (PDF) for what used to be called the Block Aircraft Registration Request program, which allows aircraft owners to prevent public access to information tied to their aircraft N-number. The FAA wanted to all but scrap that ability last year but was blocked by […]

Eclipse Aerospace and Sikorsky subsidiary PZL Mielec have signed a deal that will see the major airframe components of the new Eclipse 550 built at the PZL plant in Poland. PZL, which now builds the international version of the Blackhawk helicopter and the M-28 fixed-wing aircraft, will build the fuselage, empennage and wings for the […]

Evelyn Bryan Johnson, who logged 57,635.4 hours in the air — more than six years — during her long flying career, died last week at age 102. Johnson, known as “Mama Bird,” taught more than 5,000 students and gave more than 9,000 check rides for the FAA. She ran a small airport in Morristown, Tenn., […]

The FAA on Monday released some revisions to its rules governing the use of unmanned aircraft systems in the National Airspace System. The changes increase the allowable weight for UAS operated by law enforcement agencies from 4.4 pounds to 25 pounds, and also establish a procedure for those agencies to obtain a waiver to fly […]

Bombardier introduced two new aircraft, the Learjet 70 and 75, at the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition in Geneva on Monday morning. The jets will be based on the fuselage of the Learjet 40 and 45, but with new Honeywell engines and winglets added to boost performance and efficiency. In the cockpit, the new […]

Pipistrel on Monday announced that its Alpha LSA, which the company calls “the perfect training aircraft,” is ready to go, at a price of $85,000. The Alpha trainer is equipped with a Rotax 912 80-hp engine and a ballistic chute. The panel features conventional instruments, complemented by a GPS Garmin Aera 500. The Alpha has […]

Cessna introduced a full-size cabin mockup of it newest, biggest jet, the Citation Longitude, at EBACE in Geneva on Monday morning. The swept-wing Longitude will have the roomiest cabin and the longest range of any Citation jet. “It does a lot of things well and will appeal to customers in all corners of the world,” […]

As more details become clear the mystery of how two airplanes could collide in the middle of rural Saskatchewan has Canadian officials puzzled. We also received word late that a DeHavilland Beaver on floats went down with five aboard on a highway in southern British Columbia with near Peachland. Meanwhile, police, Transport Canada and the […]