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A project insider for a planned European hypersonic airliner is confident his program could in 2013 demonstrate that technological barriers can be overcome, but current economic conditions may stall the project. The European Space Agency’s Lapcat program is working on the A2 aircraft, which aims to carry passengers beyond Mach 5 in long-range flight. Johan […]

Public backlash this week followed an FAA action on iPads and the widely reported ejection of a passenger for refusing to turn off his a personal electronic device (PED), but regulatory solutions remain elusive. The FAA recently OK’d the use of iPads for American Airlines pilots and actor Alec Baldwin was ejected from a flight […]

Media in Duluth, Minn., and Superior, Wis., are reporting that a deal is close to site the new factory for Kestrel Aircraft in Superior, which is a few miles from Kestrel President Alan Klapmeier’s home town of Duluth and just across the Wisconsin border. Klapmeier, who co-founded Cirrus in Duluth, took over Kestrel 18 months […]

The new year will bring with it a requirement that carriers flying into and out of European Union airports participate in a system meant to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that critics say may result in higher airfares. Cost of compliance with the EU’s plan, which is generally described as a cap-and-trade program for carriers, is […]

Almost 150 passengers have been paid up to $400,000 each for their experience aboard QF72, a Qantas Airbus A330 that suffered altitude deviations during a 2008 flight, and more lawsuits are in the works. The Australian Transport Safety Bureau found in a final report released last week that the faulty air data information resulted in […]

The Rechargeable Battery Association (PRBA) Wednesday took aim at a recent FA study about the risks posed to aircraft by lithium batteries, calling it “scare-mongering” and distracting from important safety issues. The FAA’s Freighter Airplane Cargo Fire Risk Model (PDF) assessed the likely number of U.S.-registered fire accidents through 2020. The answer, according to the […]

If the Pipistrel Panthera delivers on its performance numbers it could set a new standard of performance for four-place piston travel, but it could more certainly deliver 1,000 EUR to whoever submits a winning livery design. The company has opened a competition and is providing three digital images — a side, top and bottom view […]

A Bell 206 helicopter on a flight to retrieve a heart for a transplant patient crashed in the woods early Monday morning in Jacksonville, Fla., killing the pilot and the two medical workers on board. The crash ignited a fire that burned about 10 acres of forest. The NTSB said there was no distress call […]

General aviation accidents and fatalities both declined in 2010 for the fourth year in a row, AOPA said last week. Based on data from the National Transportation Safety Board, the total of 1,435 GA accidents was the lowest in 20 years. Fatalities for the year totaled 450, down from 478 in 2009. AOPA’s Air Safety […]

The union representing pilots who fly for UPS already has filed suit over new FAA fatigue rules that exempt cargo airlines, and now FedEx pilots also have expressed outrage over the rules’ “casual dismissal of cargo pilots and their families.” The rule “completely ignores the safety of cargo pilots and instead lets operators choose to […]