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The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) announced on Tuesday that 2009 worldwide shipments and billings of general aviation airplanes were down in all categories. GAMA Chairman Rob Wilson, president of Honeywell Business and General Aviation, said it was one of the toughest years ever for GA manufacturers. “The worldwide economic crisis, which included major constraints […]

It’s no secret that 2009 was a tough year for the U.S. economy, and year-end reports released last week by two industry stalwarts show how hard it’s been for general aviation. Sales of business and GA aircraft at Hawker Beechcraft were down by about 30 percent in 2009 compared to the year before, the company […]

You’d think there would be plenty of airspace to go around in North Dakota, one of the most sparsely inhabited states in the U.S., but pilots there are protesting a plan to create some large new restricted areas near Grand Forks that would enable the military to operate unmanned aerial vehicles there. Hearings held last […]

Half of the Miracle on the Hudson flight crew was back in the water on the weekend but Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger didn’t get his feet wet this time. Sullenberger was walking down a street in Vancouver, British Columbia, taking in the sights of the Olympic city when Darren Batstone, a pilot for Harbour Air, […]

Rhonda Doyle, of Ridgway, Colo., is this year’s winner of the King Schools’ Future of Flight airplane sweepstakes and recently picked up her G1000-equipped Cessna 172S at Montgomery Field in San Diego. Doyle, a commercial pilot who runs the snowboard school at Telluride Ski Resort, was taking some lessons of her own when she got […]

Pilots who’d like to combine a tropical aviation adventure with the chance to brush up on the full range of piloting skills might consider the Governor General’s Challenge Cup air rally coming up in April. Participants will take off from Banyan Air Service in Ft. Lauderdale for a 10-day tour of the Caribbean, with stops […]

An Ottawa, Kan., pilot will have 15 months to think about all the work she and her husband put into building the experimental aircraft that was briefly theirs. Sandra Brandes was sentenced to a year and three months in prison last week for stealing $77,000 from her former employer, Kansas City, Mo. dentist Dr. J. […]

18-year-old Colton Harris-Moore is apparently the prime suspect in a fourth stolen aircraft episode in the northwest — this one involving a Cirrus SR22 and the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. This time, the plane was flown near airspace that is restricted for the Winter Games and landed on Orcas Island, off the coast of Washington state. […]

Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said a week of Senate floor time will be scheduled in March to address aviation safety reforms and the FAA reauthorization bill. Senators have been pressured by surviving family members of victims of Flight 3407 to move the process, and its included safety reforms, along. The bill currently […]

Thursday, a modified Boeing 747 carrying more than seven tons of optics on its nose and a megawatt-class laser in back destroyed a ballistic missile in its first successful test when fired at such a weapon. In a prior test, the laser system successfully “disabled” a truck, but the Airborne Laser Testbed (ALTB) can now […]