News

The FAA on Monday expanded its recall of faulty hydraulic lifters on Teledyne Continental general aviation engines to include the TCM 346 series and R-RM IO-240-A reciprocating engines. Excessive wear on the lifters can result in loss of engine power, the FAA said, with at least one instance of damage after just one hour in […]

Jonathan Trappe, of Raleigh, N.C., last Friday successfully completed the first crossing of the English Channel flying a cluster balloon system. Trappe flew in a chair suspended from 54 small helium balloons, crossing 22 miles from England to France in about two hours, at altitudes up to 7,500 feet and speeds up to 25 mph. […]

“Finally we can say we are flying a solar plane,” pilot Andre Borschberg, CEO of the Solar Impulse project, wrote in his blog last Friday. The 12,000 solar cells on the wings of the one-of-a-kind aircraft for the first time produced more energy than the aircraft was consuming, providing thrust for the engines with enough […]

Our sister publication, Aviation Consumer, is conducting research on attitudes toward replacement strategies for 100LL. To take the survey, click this link and let us know what you think. (The results will appear in a future issue of Aviation Consumer. For subscription information, click here.)

p>Do you have an LSA at a flight school? Do you rent one? Aviation Consumer needs to hear from you. Aviation Consumer is looking at the long-term durability of these aircraft when subjected to the rigors of flight training, as well as their cost and ease of repair. Whether you run a flight school with […]

An Air France Concorde was to have undergone borescope tests Saturday to determine if its four engines can be safely started in advance of a possible return to flight. The aircraft is at a French museum at Le Bourget Airport, where it was mothballed seven years ago when Air France and British Airways ended supersonic […]

The structure of a much-anticipated mass arrival of DC-3 aircraft at this year’s AirVenture Oshkosh is in question after an apparent rift developed between the owners group organizing the 40-ship formation and EAA. Last week EAA announced that it will “exclusively organize and coordinate all AirVenture activities for the DC-3 75th anniversary.” The owners group, […]

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 Air Force’s scramjet, the Boeing X-51A Waverider, set a new world record, Wednesday, when it ran for 200 seconds, burned JP-7, and reached a speed of about Mach 5 (roughly 1 mile […]

For the first time since the late 1960s, Lycoming can produce in-house pistons, and the company believes the technology it developed with an English partner company and a Japanese machine tool company puts it well ahead of competitors. The company unveiled its new process and machinery Wednesday. In practice, a billet goes through four individual […]

Citing four foreign accidents in two years involving uncontained engine failures, the NTSB Thursday issued recommendations that ask the FAA to require GE to redesign a specific engine component. The failures (one each on two Boeing 747s, an Airbus A300 and a DC-10) did not result any injuries or death, but the NTSB believes they […]