News

Pipistrel said this week its electric-powered, two-seat self-launching glider, the Taurus Electro G2, is now available for sale. The company, based in Slovenia, is also offering a solar trailer for the airplane, which can charge it up in about five hours. The 40-kilowatt motor is powered by lithium-technology batteries that are monitored by Pipistrel’s own […]

Embraer will open its first U.S. factory next week in Melbourne, Fla. The 90,000-square-foot assembly plant for Phenom business jets will be officially opened with a ribbon-cutting Feb. 21. The factory project was announced shortly after the Phenom 300 prototype started flying in May of 2008. Both the Phenom 100 and the Phenom 300 will […]

The general aviation fleet in the U.S. will continue to grow over the next 20 years, but at a rate of only 0.9 percent per year, the FAA said in its annual forecast, released on Tuesday. Fixed-wing turbine aircraft will sell best, growing at a projected rate of 3.1 percent each year. Rotorcraft are projected […]

Garmin is standing by its position that a proposal to build a network of 40,000 broadband transmission towers around the U.S. could severely disrupt GPS service. As we reported last week, LightSquared has received conditional FCC approval to install the massive system to carry 4G signals, the conditions being that it restrict its signals to […]

The White House on Monday released its budget proposal for the next fiscal year, and so far general aviation advocacy groups are finding not much to complain about — no sign of user fees, and funding for GA airport improvements and NextGen remains intact. “This is a long and extraordinarily complex document, and a complete […]

Given the advance press on President Barack Obama’s budget and the bizarre legislative history of the FAA’s current reauthorization process, it’s far too soon to predict how it will all turn out but some groups see hope their specific issues will be addressed by the final bill. Among them is the small but organized effort […]

The legal dispute between FlightPrep and RunwayFinder over the latter’s alleged patent infringement continues to move forward but there have been a couple of twists and turns. According to the most recent post to RunwayFinder’s website, owner Dave Parsons has filed a dismissal notice in the Oregon court where the suit was launched, alleging the […]

There’s an undeniably California flair to a strange dispute that has pitted (sorry) an olive farmer against hot air balloonists in the state’s Coachella Valley, near Palm Springs. And now the local polo club is involved. The Eldorado Polo Club is hosting a fundraiser on Feb. 27 to help pay the incidental expenses of 15 […]

The House of Representatives and the Senate are both considering legislation that would roll back funding of the FAA to 2008 levels, but still provide funding toward NextGen, according to a Reuters report, Friday. Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, Rep. John Mica, said in a statement that the proposal “increases the efficiency […]

A letter from the FAA (PDF) to Sen. James Inhofe says he has completed “remedial training” and the FAA has decided not to pursue legal enforcement action as the result of his landing on an occupied closed runway, before departing from a taxiway, last October. The FAA initiated an investigation after the 75-year-old senator landed […]