News

Even though everyone had survived, for Peter Burkill, captain of the British Airways Boeing 777 that in 2008 crashed short of the runway at Heathrow, the drama was in many ways just beginning. The crash was, in Burkill’s words, “unprecedented” as was, for Burkill, the personal impact it had on his life. The airliner had […]

Organizers of the Centennial of Women Pilots, celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first pilot certificate awarded to a woman, set a record this month by introducing 310 girls and women around the world, ages 2 to 70, to their first flight in a general aviation aircraft. The flights took place in eight countries on […]

At a contentious hearing on Tuesday, an Oregon judge said he will decide on Friday who can take over the bankrupt Epic Aircraft company. After five hours of testimony, “there was a sense that any of the three contestants could still walk away with Epic’s remains, either alone or in some combination,” according to a […]

The NTSB is sending an investigator to San Francisco to figure out how a United Boeing 777 and an Cessna 182 came within 300 feet vertically and 1,500 feet laterally of one another over the city on Saturday. An earlier NTSB news release said the light aircraft was an Aeronca Chief and that it came […]

Bombardier has reached a $3.9 billion deal with China Development Bank Corporation’s (CDBC) leasing department that could give it an important edge in selling aircraft in China. The bank has agreed to make the money available to airlines interested in buying aircraft from Bombardier. Although the financing will be available to overseas carriers, the funding […]

Boeing insists the first 787 Dreamliner will be delivered to launch customer All Nippon Airways by the end of this year even though it hasn’t started certification flight testing yet. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal, Jim Albaugh, head of Boeing’s commercial airplane unit, said snags in pre-certification flight testing, one of which […]

Less than a year after they took over the type design for the Eclipse very light jet, the owners of Eclipse Aerospace say they are ready to offer a limited number of fully functional copies to new owners. “The EA500 is a sophisticated, high-performance, economic twin jet with low operating costs, low environmental impact and […]

Several new items of interest to pilots are now available on the Internet. The NTSB has posted its complete probable-cause report (pdf) on last year’s fatal Colgan Air crash. The 285-page document details the board’s findings and analysis, as well as the conclusions and recommendations that were announced at a hearing a few weeks ago. […]

Pilots need more training in the use of glass cockpit technology, the NTSB said this week. The safety board issued six recommendations (PDF) to the FAA as a follow-up to a recent report that found advanced cockpits are not helping to prevent accidents in the general aviation fleet. “Advanced avionics and electronic displays can increase […]

Pilots who fly high-performance amateur-built aircraft need to be aware of their slow-flight and stall characteristics, the FAA said last week. In an “information for operators” bulletin (PDF), the FAA said Lancairs and other amateur-built aircraft with high wing loading and stall speeds higher than 61 knots have prompted concern due to a “large and […]