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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 […]

Early field tests of the effects of LightSquared’s 4G signal on GPS-dependent devices showed some disruption of service when tested by first responders in New Mexico. In a letter to federal officials (PDF) last week, Bill Range, the program director for New Mexico’s 911 system, says the tests run by police and emergency medical services […]

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. Eurocopter has conducted full-power tests of its hybrid helicopter design and says the X3 maintained 232 knots TAS in straight and level flight for “several minutes” on May 12. The aircraft, with twin […]

The European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE) got off to a brisk start on Tuesday with a reported attendance of 12,192. The event is one of the most important business aviation meetings in the world and the theme of this show appears to be the shape and form of the forthcoming recovery of the […]