News

In the mid-1980s, David Soucie’s decision that helped his employer avoid adding wire-strike gear to their helicopters may have cost the life of one of his friends — now he’s working with airlines and the FAA to make sure things like that don’t happen. Soucie served 16 years with the FAA and spent some of […]

LightSquared, a start-up developed by hedge fund manager Philip Falcone, says its ground-based high-speed wireless network wouldn’t interfere with high-precision GPS devices if GPS manufacturers built their receivers properly. According to LightSquared, Department of Defense standards for the operation of the GPS system are not being met by GPS manufacturers. The company says that GPS […]

The FAA has issued an airworthiness directive, effective Sept. 29, 2011, for a number of Lycoming reciprocating engines; the specific number of engines is two. The agency has decided that an unsafe condition exists that caused the failure of a crankshaft after 440 hours of operation. The cause of the failure was determined to be […]

The U.S. has reportedly filed a protest with the Japanese government after learning that a Japanese air traffic controller posted, online, details of the U.S. President’s November 2010 flight plan in the region. The information is said to include two pages of details that the controller apparently made available through his blog. Details reportedly included […]

The FAA says it will not impose new regulations on the operators of weight-shift-control aircraft in Hawaii but will keep a close eye on them to ensure they are in compliance with existing regulations. Six people died in three crashes in the islands over the last year and a half, raising questions about the safety […]

It seems likely that the FAA will get yet another funding extension by the end of this week, with the U.S. House on Tuesday unanimously OK’ing expenditures through Jan. 31, 2012. That bill now is in the Senate, which must act by Friday to avert another shortfall like the one in July that forced the […]

Pascal Chretien of France flew his own electric-powered helicopter design untethered for two minutes and 10 seconds last month, beating out Sikorsky’s Firefly for the first flight of its kind. Chretien, an aerospace engineer and helicopter pilot, spent about a year working on the project, mostly on his own, according to Gizmag. He devised several […]

At AOPA’s Summit event in Hartford, Conn., next week, Garmin will roll out its newest portable GPS navigator/plate reader, the aera 796. The 796 is a follow-on product to both the GPSmap 696 and the aera product line, which brought touchscreen control to Garmin’s lineup. The new navigator features capacitive-type touchscreen control similar to the […]

Qantas is promising a “private jet feel” in a new ultra-premium airline it’s hoping to launch in Asia. The Sydney Morning Herald says the airline is narrowing down names for the new carrier, which will likely be based in Malaysia or Singapore and cater to high-end business clients. The newspaper says the new carrier will […]

The Obama administration appears to be following through on its earlier anti-business aviation rhetoric by recommending Congress lengthen the depreciation schedule for business aircraft. According to NBAA, the administration’s proposed American Jobs Act contains a measure to change a 25-year-old depreciation schedule established by the IRS. That’s a separate issue from the current “bonus depreciation” […]