News

With the holiday shopping season in full swing, our inbox is overflowing with aviation-related gift ideas. For those in the airplane-shopping mood, perhaps looking to take the bonus-depreciation tax write-off before the end of the year, Liberty Aerospace, in Melbourne, Fla., is selling eight of its demonstrator airplanes at deep discounts. The XL2 two-seaters are […]

Colgan Air, in a 67-page statement (PDF) to the NTSB filed last week, blamed the two pilots for the fatal crash of a Bombardier Dash 8-Q400 turboprop near Buffalo, N.Y., in February. “The probable cause of the accident was the flight crew’s loss of situational awareness and failure to follow Colgan Air training and procedures, […]

Both pilots who were distracted on their laptops while flying a Northwest Airbus A-320 off-course in October told NTSB investigators they were sorry and at a loss to explain the lapse. The NTSB’s summary of its crew interviews (PDF) was released on Wednesday among a slew of documents from its investigation. In the summary, the […]

Gulfstream G250 Airbus A400(click the thumbnail for a video) A few days after the first extended test flight of its G650 large executive jet, Gulfstream flew the super-midsize G250 for the first time. Whereas the first flight of the G650 on Nov. 25 was cut short by a vibrating gear door, the G250 flight went […]

The fallout from cost-cutting at NetJets was felt at Hawker Beechcraft as the planemaker announced the giant fractional operator is canceling $2.6 billion worth of orders. The company didn’t specify the types and numbers of aircraft but said it represented 90 percent of NetJets business over the next few years. The cancellation dropped Hawker Beechcraft’s […]

Embraer says U.S. deliveries of its Phenom 300 “light executive jet” should begin by the end of the year, following FAA type certification on Monday. The FAA nod came 10 days after Brazilian authorities signed off on the six-passenger aircraft. The 300 is Embraer’s second entry into the low end of the bizjet market and […]

Swift Enterprises announced this week that its biomass fuel, designed as a replacement for 100LL, has been OK’d by ASTM International for use as a test fuel. “With this approval, we can begin full-scale testing with industry stakeholders,” said Mary Rusek, president and co-owner of Swift. Extensive testing of aircraft fuel systems, engines and materials […]

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. At 10:28 a.m. local time on Tuesday, the first Boeing 787 Dreamliner took off from Snohomish County Airport in Everett, Wash., into cloudy skies, before a crowd of about 16,000. The flight was […]

Idaho politicians and the controllers’ union claim the FAA is trying to rush through the planned closure of the Boise TRACON before a new FAA reauthorization package prevents such closures. According to the Idaho Statesman a local FAA official has confirmed TRACON functions will be transferred to Salt Lake City despite a call by the […]

Rolls-Royce and GE are together battling Pratt & Whitney in the race to power the Joint Strike Fighter but critics say new problems with one team mean it’s time to cut it loose, leaving the estimated $100 billion-over-30-years prize solely to the other. Rolls-Royce apparently must redesign a component that helps hold its engine together, […]