News

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” […]

A bill now n the works in the U.S. House would restore a program that allows private aircraft operators to block flight data from display on public flight-following sites, NBAA said this week. U.S. Rep. Tom Latham, of Iowa, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Transportation, included a provision to preserve the Block […]

When China’s new Beijing airport opens in 2015 it will be the largest in the world, covering 21 square miles, with nine runways and the capacity to handle 370,000 passengers per day. Construction is expected to begin soon on a site about 30 miles southwest of the capital city in Daxing, according to the Guardian. […]

The aviation community recently lost three accomplished pilots — an actor, an aerobatics competitor, and a test pilot. Cliff Robertson, best known for his film career, died on Sept. 10 at age 88. He started flying at age 14 and owned several airplanes. He served as the first chairman of the EAA Young Eagles program […]

Three people who locked themselves in an airliner bathroom on a flight to New York on Sept. 11 will likely get to explain exactly what they were doing in there to the Secret Service and FBI. The three passengers, whose gender distribution was not immediately known, went into the lav at some point during the […]

Government leaders appear ready to speed through passage of a four-month funding extension for the FAA when they get back to work next week. In sharp contrast to the rancorous debate that resulted in the FAA going temporarily unfunded last July, House and Senate leaders on both sides of the aisle seem unified in efforts […]

The Hindu is reporting that the government is finished implementing a program in which all airline pilots in the country must submit to a pre-board breathalyzer test. The newspaper says the Directorate General of Civil Aviation announced last week that 100 percent of crews now undergo the pre-flight check. The program was initiated last year […]