News

Canadian airline WestJet is considering creating a spinoff regional carrier in a move seen as a direct challenge to the country’s flag carrier Air Canada. WestJet said it’s considering buying about 40 turboprop airliners to serve smaller markets and shorter routes. The airline would be competition for Air Canada Express, the big airline’s contracted regional […]

AirTran has been ordered to reinstate a pilot who federal authorities determined was fired in 2007 in retaliation for reporting mechanical problems with airplanes. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OHSA) said the action violated whistleblower legislation and told the airline, which was taken over by Southwest last year, to pay the unidentified pilot more […]

LightSquared is now claiming that interference tests on GPS devices in the presence of its broadband signal were “rigged” and it’s asking the FCC to redo the tests. In a news release Wednesday, LightSquared officials claimed those running the tests “cherry picked” the most vulnerable devices for testing and then applied unrealistic standards. A panel […]

Wisconsin has apparently outbid Maine in attracting Kestrel Aircraft. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker announced Monday that Kestrel’s manufacturing and headquarters will be located in Superior, just across the border from Kestrel CEO Alan Klapmeier’s home of Duluth, Minn. “I am pleased with the aggressive package we have put forth in conjunction with strong local support […]

Plenty of kids grow up around airplanes but not many are raised building the airplane in which they take their checkride. And to top it all off, Blake Crawford was signed off on his 17th birthday by a world-renowned aerobatic pilot who is also an FAA examiner. Debbie Rihn-Harvey, three-time national aerobatics champion and Southwest […]

Australia has grounded all older-model Beech Bonanzas, Debonairs and Twin Bonanzas with the single pole style yoke attachment. The Civil Aviation Safety Administration (CASA) issued an airworthiness directive (AD) (PDF, one of four) on Beech model 33, 35-33, 35, 36 and 50 aircraft banning further flight (except for a single positioning flight) until the forward […]

Don’t see a video screen?Try disabling ad blockers and refreshing this page.If that doesn’t work, click here to download the video directly. While slip devotees might decry the crosswind coping techniques displayed in the accompanying video, the long lens and perfect angle offer an interesting perspective on the relative effectiveness of the crab-and-kick technique that […]

A petition titled “Take Aviation User Fees off the Table” has been sent to the White House with well more than 8,500 signatures, and the White House has offered an official response. The response is titled “Why We Need Aviation User Fees.” It presents the Obama administration’s “conclusion” that “a $100 per flight user fee […]

Don’t see a video screen?Try disabling ad blockers and refreshing this page.If that doesn’t work, click here to download the video directly. Red Bull Air Race pilot and airshow performer Kirby Chambliss last year went to Mexico and flew his Zivko Edge 540 beneath a motorcycle as the bike performed a backflip between two ramps, […]

The speed of prevailing winds over the North Atlantic trended higher in December than in recent history and that has led to some complications for United Continental airlines’ Boeing 757s. Last year, when flying west over the North Atlantic, the airline landed twelve jets short of their destination because high winds slowed the jets’ progress […]