News

First place in NASA’s Green Flight Challenge went to Pipistrel-USA, for a prize of $1.35 million, and the second-place prize of $120,000 went to team eGenius, NASA announced on Monday. The prize purse was the biggest ever awarded for an aviation competition, according to NASA. To win, the aircraft had to fly 200 miles in […]

An independent panel has reviewed how the FAA hires and trains air traffic controllers, and this week released a report (PDF) with 50 recommendations for improvements. The panel, made up of five experts in the field, including one from the FAA and one from the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, recommended that the FAA should […]

Six former employees of WECO Aerospace, a Lincoln, Calif, maintenance and repair facility near Sacramento, are facing charges relating to work done on aircraft prior to 2007. California residents Jerry Edward Kuwata, 60, of Granite Bay; Michael Dennis Maupin, 58, of Arbuckle; Scott Hamilton Durham, 39, of Roseville; Christopher Warren MacQueen, 53, of Lincoln; Douglas […]

A pilot’s sole reliance on what proved to be unreliable GPS information during an approach in IMC is being blamed for the crash of Piper Cheyenne that killed six people in Australia in 2004. A coroner has ruled that the pilot didn’t check the GPS information against other navigation instruments as the Cheyenne went off […]

The 52-year-old Australian pilot has answered the obvious question. Paul Cox told rescuers he didn’t see the Ferris wheel. “The next thing I knew, I was stopped inside the Ferris wheel,” he said. “I had no idea for a few minutes and I was just hoping no one got hurt.” There are likely to be […]

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. On Sept. 6, an ANA 737-700 with 117 aboard rolled through 130 degrees of bank and lost more than 6,000 feet of altitude partly due to poorly placed switches, according to Japan’s Transport […]

On Sept. 26, a McDonnell Douglas DC-9-51 operated by Aeropostal landed at Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela, with enough force to crack both engine pylons at the airframe, leaving them dangling at the rear fuselage sides. None of the five crew and 125 passengers were seriously injured and all were evacuated onto the runway after the aircraft […]

A Thursday morning raid at Boeing’s helicopter plant outside of Philadelphia resulted in the arrest of 37 current and former Boeing employees who authorities allege were associated with the purchase and sale of prescription drugs. The plant at Ridley Park produces the CH-47 Chinook and the V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. It employs roughly 6,000 workers. […]

The South African aeronautical firm Aerosud announced this week the Ahrlac high-wing, tandem-seat, pusher aircraft design, which may break new ground for South African aviation. South Africa has produced light aircraft before and a quarter century ago designed an attack helicopter, but the Ahrlac (short for Advanced High Performance Reconnaissance Light Aircraft) may be the […]

26-year-old U.S. citizen Rezqan Ferdaus was arrested Wednesday, charged with plotting to attack the Pentagon and U.S. Capitol with plastic-explosive-laden remote-controlled aircraft. Reports state that an affidavit said recorded conversations caught Ferdaus talking about using three remote-control aircraft like small kamikaze-drones by packing them with C-4 and slaving their controls to GPS equipment. The plan […]