News

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 […]

A 61-year-old helicopter pilot who suffered a stroke in 2006 should have received more attention form the FAA, the NTSB said, before an emergency took place on Dec. 29, because the same pilot couldn’t move his arm. The emergency flight took place at night during an emergency medical services trip on a twin-engine Eurocopter. No […]

Three crew somehow escaped serious injury when their fully loaded Boeing 707 tanker crashed and burned on takeoff from NAS Point Mugu in California late Wednesday afternoon. The airframe is obviously a writeoff. The aircraft was one of two 707-300 passenger aircraft converted to tankers owned by Omega Air Refueling, which has been contracted to […]

The second annual International Learn to Fly Day, which is organized by EAA, aims to provide free introductory flights and encouragement to adults curious about aviation, with events at airports around the world. This year’s event is set for Saturday, May 21, with close to 200 sites participating. Many airports and flight schools host an […]

In China it may not always be easy — or legal — to fly a general aviation aircraft, but a very small, very select group of Chinese are doing it anyway. There are an estimated 1,000 registered private aircraft in all of China. Among that group, there is a tiny subset of wealthy individuals that […]

The number of women pilots has increased since 2000 by 18.6 percent and the number of those with ATP certificates is up 35 percent while the number of male pilots has dropped, according to statistics updated Monday by the FAA. There were an estimated 42,218 female certificate holders in 2010, which puts the group at […]

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 tricky maneuver of re-entry to the atmosphere is a challenge for spacecraft, but Burt Rutan’s innovative “feathering” mechanism aims to make it simple and safe — and now Scaled Composites has successfully […]

Preliminary analysis of the flight data recorder from Air France Flight 447 has not revealed any mechanical malfunctions that would require safety recommendations for the A330 fleet, according to a notice Airbus sent to its customers this week. That notice sparked speculation in the French media that pilot error was the likely cause of the […]

Diamond Aircraft will have to find other ways to get the funding it needs, said President Peter Maurer this week, now that the Canadian government has turned down a request for a $35 million loan. The company has been working to find private investors to keep the company and its D-Jet program going while waiting […]