News

When conditions are right, a jet or turboprop airplane traveling through a cloud can cause it to snow, according to a study in this month’s Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. Airplanes that penetrate altocumulus clouds containing supercooled droplets of water can cause some of the moisture to freeze and fall to the ground, leaving […]

The world’s largest manufacturer of business aircraft engines says the market will return to the record levels enjoyed in 2008 – but not until 2014, at the earliest. Pratt & Whitney Canada President John Saabas told Bloomberg there are also some major developments brewing as Bombardier and Gulfstream square off for dominance of the big […]

One sign that things are looking up in the aircraft business is when cash-strapped companies start getting caught up on their bills, and Cirrus Aircraft took some big steps in that direction this month. This week, the city of Grand Forks announced that Cirrus had paid six months’ worth of back rent worth $507,000. That […]

TWG Aviation is buying the FBO, charter and maintenance portions of Vitesse Aviation Services at Dallas Love Field as part of a deal that should see both companies grow. TWG, which operates Business Jet Access and Business Jet Center, wants to beef up its Dallas operations, and the acquisition of Vitesse’s business and the 7.5 […]

Arcadia Aviation has purchased some of the assets of Wayfarer Aviation after supplying bridge financing to keep the company going folling its brief closure late last week. “Ending speculation about the future of Wayfarer, on Friday June 11, Arcadia Aviation provided bridge financing to Wayfarer to ensure the continuation of uninterrupted service in advance of […]

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) variant flew faster than the speed of sound for the first time on June 10, the company announced on Monday. The aircraft accelerated to Mach 1.07 (727 miles per hour) on the first in a long series of planned supersonic flights.Bob Price, Lockheed Martin’s […]

Extra Aircraft, based in Germany, is expanding its efforts to market the Extra 500 turboprop in North America and expects to select a site for a new assembly plant in the U.S. later this year, company spokesman Errol Bader told AVweb this week. “When we first introduced the airplane several years ago, we decided not […]

More than 1.5 million youngsters around the world have enjoyed their first flight in a general aviation aircraft thanks to EAA’s Young Eagles program, and now they’ll have an opportunity to earn a free first flying lesson as well. EAA announced the new program on Monday. “With the addition of the First Flight Lesson, we […]

The NTSB has issued a safety recommendation (PDF) to the Air Care Alliance, urging them to make several changes in the way charitable medical flights are conducted. The recommendations stem from four accidents in 2007 and 2008, in which three pilots and five passengers were killed. The NTSB says the ACA should require its member […]

Last Friday, the Aero Club New England bestowed its Godfrey L. Cabot award to Joe Gavin and Gene Kranz. Gavin was the Director of the Lunar Module Program for Grumman, and Kranz was the Flight Director for the Apollo missions. (He was the guy in the vest played by Ed Harris in the film Apollo […]