News

Shoppers in the market for a light sport aircraft have lots of choices, but according to a report in the February issue of Aviation Consumer, those choices get thin when it comes to finding a loan. “The LSA industry is stuck in a Catch-22,” the report found, “where low volume of sales hinders financing, but […]

The NTSB held a hearing on Tuesday to learn more about safety standards used in air races and air shows, and although an FAA official said current regulations are adequate, NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman was less certain. “We have 11 ongoing investigations,” she said at the close of the hearing. “Certainly, when there’s accidents, we […]

Hawker Beechcraft CEO Bill Boisture vowed the company will fight vigorously to overturn an Air Force decision to exclude its AT-6B from the bidding for a light air support platform. “We won’t go away quietly,” Boisture said in an interview. In a podcast interview with AVweb he said his company has sold hundreds of aircraft […]

Bombardier formally announced expansion plans for its Wichita facilities Tuesday, saying it will add about 450 jobs as it ramps up for production of the Learjet 85. At a news conference, Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said he said the state was providing $16 million in incentives toward the expansion, which will start with a $52.7 […]

The European Business Aviation Association (EBAA) says revisions are needed to the European Union’s Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) to ensure it doesn’t unfairly burden business aviation. EBAA says the controversial climate change initiative, which was recently changed to include aviation emissions, places a disproportionate cost on so-called “small emitters” like bizjet operators. “Business aviation is […]

The FAA on Tuesday launched a new mobile version of its website, providing access to various features that are useful to pilots. The mobile version provides N-number lookup, airport status and delays, a library of Advisory Circulars, a locator to find the nearest Flight Standards District Office, and on-the-go wildlife-strike reporting. The site also provides […]

Pipistrel this week launched a fuel-efficient Virus-SW914 on a mission to circle the world and study the climate. The lightweight LSA, flown by Matevx Lenarcic, took off from Slovenia on Sunday and headed west to Morocco. Lenarcic aims to cross the Atlantic, then follow the coast of South America southward, fly across Antarctica, and head […]

The FAA has reversed its recent decision to ground the pilots of Operation Migration, and will allow them to finish a flight leading whooping crane chicks to Florida from Michigan, The New York Times reported on Monday. The birds were grounded in Alabama last week after the FAA couldn’t resolve a question about whether the […]

The FAA believes lithium batteries can pose a threat to flight safety and bans them from the cargo holds of passenger aircraft, which carry fire-suppression systems, but that’s not the case for cargo aircraft and the disparity is not sitting well with cargo pilots. The Independent Pilots Association (IPA), which represents UPS pilots, is seeking […]

A federal judge has ordered an Alabama man to forfeit his AD-4N Skyraider after siding with the Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) branch of the Department of Homeland Security that the Vietnam-era close support aircraft was illegally imported to the U.S. ICE is turning the Skyraider over to the Navy for display in the National Naval […]