News

Whether it’s all just a publicity stunt or it’s been Michael O’Leary’s dirty little secret, the flamboyant owner of Ryanair certainly knows how to stimulate headline writers. The Irish entrepreneur’s latest media bombshell is the suggestion that his no-frills airliners stream, among other things, porn to the handheld devices of passengers. He’s also thinking about […]

It’s just natural to adapt to one’s environment and when you’re Burt Rutan in Idaho with too much time on your hands, that means designing an airplane to take advantage of the circumstances. “Going out and exploring little lakes and rivers in a STOL seaplane is a fantasy, I think, for a pilot,” the legendary […]

Production of the Airbus A340 four-engine commercial jetliner has ended, making it Airbus’ shortest-lived production model. The aircraftentered service in 1993, but soonbegan losing favor with carriers due to the economic factors associated with feeding fuel to and maintaining four engines. Demand for the A340 also took a major hit with the expansion of extended […]

On March 3, 2011, a Dash 8 operated by Flybe between Exeter and Newcastle, UK, dropped a right main wheel on takeoff right in front of window-seated passengers, but it was Air Traffic Control that notified the crew, according to an AAIB report. The precise chronology of the event is not known, but passengers seated […]

The FAA plans to impose mandatory fixes for nearly 700 GE turbofan engines Monday because the engines are unacceptably prone to uncommanded inflight shutdown due to ice and a 2007 fix didn’t work. Government and industry experts have documented single or dual-engine shutdowns of GE’s popular CF6-80C2B engines on more than 100 Boeing and Airbus […]

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. 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. The Japanese Defense Ministry unveiled at a […]

A coalition of GPS manufacturers told the FCC Tuesday that there is still no reason to think that LightSquared’s use of frequencies to provide broadband will not impair GPS signals as LightSquared expands its plans. According to the coalition, “there has been no suggestion that there will ever be an effective way to mitigate interference […]

General aviation operators and airports need to do a better job of reporting wildlife strikes, the FAA said this week. A recent study showed that out of more than 100,000 reports, only about 6,000 originated from GA operations, indicating a reporting gap. The agency hopes to improve those numbers by distributing 12,000 posters to GA […]

Despite this week’s GAMA report showing a continuing decline in sales of GA aircraft, both Piper and Cirrus said they found some positive trends in the data. Piper noted in a news release that its delivery numbers have increased in each quarter this year, and revenues are up 19 percent compared to the first three […]

Click to see the full-size image at NationalGeographic.com From 6,000 photos submitted to a National Geographic photo contest, the grand prize this week went to an aerial shot of two aerobatic aircraft, shot by Evan Peers of San Carlos, Calif. “Sean Tucker and his son, Eric, were flying a photo shoot with Sean’s new Challenger […]