News

In a page-one story published over the weekend, the Wall Street Journal reported on the use of private jets as documented by FAA flight records obtained via Freedom of Information Act requests. The FAA released data from 2007 through 2010, including details of privately operated flights that are protected under the BARR program (Blocked Aircraft […]

A volcano in Iceland is sending ash plumes into the atmosphere that are affecting aviation in Europe, but the impact is not expected to be nearly as dramatic as last year’s eruption. In April 2010, Europe’s airspace was shut down for five days due to volcanic ash, grounding more than 100,000 flights. Since then, flight […]

Swift Enterprises, which is working to create an alternative aviation fuel to replace 100LL, said this week it has taken “a large step” forward in the approval process. ASTM International has published a new fuel specification for Swift’s UL102 high-octane unleaded test fuel. “This will allow us to test every batch of a fuel to […]

A huge area of the U.S. Southwest is under an flight advisory (PDF) warning of potentially unreliable GPS performance as unspecified “GPS testing” is carried out in the area of Truth or Consequences, N.M., from May 27-Jul. 1. It’s not immediately clear if the advisory is related to LightSquared’s ongoing program to test for interference […]

An amendment that some said was stalling progress of the long-awaited FAA reauthorization bill has been withdrawn. Pennsylvania Republican Rep. Bill Shuster’s amendment passed the House by a narrow margin on April 1 and would have required the FAA to conduct studies and analyze the possible impact of rulemaking with “a mandate that regulations are […]

Maine legislators are expected to pass a bill (PDF) that will eliminate a so-called use tax on aircraft purchased outside the state but used within it for more than 20 days in the first year after the purchase. Although the current law affects relatively few aircraft, publicity surrounding a few cases of enforcement and attention […]

The NTSB blames the operator of a large RC model for its highly publicized collision with a full-size biplane at a fly-in in Colorado last Aug. 14. In its final report, the board says the RC operator flew the model outside the area designated for RC operations at Brighton Van-Aire Estates Airport before it was […]

The advertisement for United Airlines reads “You’re going to like where we land.” Unfortunately, it was placed above the entrance to a subway stop at Cortlandt Street, in New York City — with Ground Zero as the backdrop. For those who need reminding, it was United Airlines Flight 175 that struck the south tower of […]

Shell is betting $19 billion that it can pull natural gas from shale rocks and then convert that gas into diesel fuels, including a Jet A product for aircraft. A facility the company is building in Qatar will reportedly become the world’s largest gas-to-liquid plant and could establish technology that would be used on a […]

On Nov. 12, 2001, American Airlines Flight 587 crashed in Queens, N.Y., killing all 260 on board, plus five on the ground, and now an FAA NPRM aims to address one of the accident’s causal factors — over the next four years. The NTSB found that Flight 587, an Airbus A300 out of JFK for […]