News

The solar-powered aircraft Solar Impulse, which aims to fly around the world in 2012, was flown Wednesday over Switzerland by test pilot Markus Scherdel to an altitude of 1,200 meters (3,937 feet) in a successful test flight. The aircraft’s previous flight was limited to a 350-meter flight flown about one meter above the ground. On […]

NASA announced April 6 that its X-48B blended wing body remotely piloted scale model successfully met the challenges of low-speed controllability tests, bringing the quieter, more-efficient transport closer to full-scale reality. The most recent tests of the 8.5 percent scale (21-foot wingspan) 500-pound airplane follow some 80 previous flights and prove its flight computer can […]

A notice from the Environmental Protection Agency concerning the future of 100LL is expected to be published within the next few weeks, EAA’s Doug Macnair, vice president for government relations, told AVweb on Tuesday. The advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, or ANPRM, has already gone through the Office and Management of Budget, and publication in […]

An aerobatic flight with the legendary Sean Tucker or a ride with Kermit Weeks in his P-51 are two of the unique experiences available to bidders in this year’s Lindbergh Foundation online fundraising auction. Other prizes include a 10-day African safari, a day at King Schools with John and Martha King, aviation gear from Garmin […]

Click for larger image New York City’s “fourth” airport, Stewart International, is getting a temporary Customs and Border Protection facility as the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey looks for ways to expand service. Stewart International is a former air base about 60 miles north of the city in the Hudson Valley. It […]

A leading market analyst says it doesn’t really matter why Honda is joining the business jet market, the fact that it will start delivering aircraft in less than two years should be enough to give existing airframers pause. The Gerson Lehrman Group says critical observations about the HondaJet’s quirky engine-over-wing design and the lack of […]

The operator of a chartered Learjet 60 failed to properly maintain its tires, starting a chain of events that ended with a deadly crash in Columbia, S.C., in September 2008, the NTSB said on Tuesday. All four of the main gear tires were severely underinflated, which compromised their integrity. The first tire failed about 1.5 […]

A British environmental group says business aircraft should pay a fuel tax currently charged airline passengers. The Air Passenger Duty is part of every airline ticket but the Campaign for Better Transport says business aviation passengers don’t pay it even though they have a much larger environmental footprint than the average airline passenger. Although bizav […]

The FAA needs to do a better job co-ordinating its search and rescue responsibilities, the NTSB said recently, to ensure that survivors of aviation accidents get help as quickly as possible. “The whole process needs to get nailed down a lot tighter than it is,” NTSB radar expert Scott Dunham told the Associated Press. In […]

As if they didn’t have enough troubles already dealing with excessive costs and a manufacturer in bankruptcy, owners of Thielert diesel engines now must cope with a proposed new Airworthiness Directive that could cost them another $1,600. The FAA posted the proposed AD on Monday, citing a problem with an oil separator that could fail, […]