News

Famed director George Lucas says his soon-to-be-released movie on the Tuskegee Airmen almost didn’t make it into theatres because the film industry didn’t want to fund its release because of the all-black cast. “It’s because it’s an all black movie. It has no major white roles in it at all,” Lucas said in an interview […]

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Tuesday filed papers seeking to force the FAA to release information about use of drone aircraft and the identity of entities allowed to fly them inside the U.S. above an altitude of 400 feet. That specific kind of operation requires authorization from the FAA and as yet, the FAA has […]

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 […]