News

Aviation groups gave the House Subcommittee on Transportation Security and Infrastructure Protection an earful about the ways general aviation security could be enhanced without crippling the industry at a hearing on Wednesday. NBAA member Martha King and GAMA Chair Mark Van Tine both told the committee that applying airline-style security protocols to general aviation will […]

The Senate Commerce Committee this week introduced a bill that would provide funding for the FAA for the next two years without imposing user fees, and would enable the agency to move forward with plans for the NextGen air traffic control system. The Alliance for Aviation Across America, which represents a slew of GA advocacy […]

Icon Aircraft announced last week that it has successfully closed another round of equity financing to support the development of the Icon A5 amphibious LSA. The new cash will take the project through the rest of its flight-test program and will also finance engineering and manufacturing studies, the company said. Icon CEO Kirk Hawkins said […]

Pilots are generally curious about what it’s like to fly other aircraft — airline pilots dream about aerobatics, military aviators wonder about Boeing cockpits, and piston drivers might imagine trying out gliders or DC-3s or jetpacks. But there was one cockpit that only one crew ever got to experience — the Apollo 11 Lunar Module […]

The single-place Belite ultralight, which evolved from an earlier Kitfox design, flew for the first time on July 4, the company said this week. Although the company had announced a “first flight” a couple of weeks ago, that initial effort was described as only a “test hop” down the runway, with more extensive flight testing […]

The airliner that crashed and burned in Iran on Wednesday about 15 minutes after takeoff, killing all 168 on board, was a Russian-built Tupolev 154 operated by Caspian Airlines, based in Iran. An aviation official said a fire broke out in an engine, and the crew attempted an emergency landing. The cockpit voice recorder has […]

The Arlington Fly-In held last weekend in Washington state reported a 14-percent jump in attendance over last year, and it is just the latest big show to report strong numbers. “What can I say, it was great — a phenomenal turnout this year,” said Barb Tolbert, executive director for the Arlington event. “We are still […]

photo by Chris Dorst, Charleston Gazette click for larger version The crew of a Southwest Airlines 737-300 made a safe emergency landing after a hole opened in the fuselage at about 34,000 feet during a flight from Nashville to Baltimore on Monday evening. It was not immediately clear what caused the hole, about one foot […]

AOPA says it tried to help CBS balance a story it ran on the distribution of stimulus money to small airports but didn’t get the chance. The network pointed out that about a third of the $1.1 billion in stimulus money earmarked for “little-used airports or ones catering to recreational flyers, corporate jets and remote […]

A bipartisan committee of senators has introduced an FAA reauthorization bill that sets 2018 as the deadline for GPS-based air traffic control through the whole National Airspace System. The bill was introduced by leading transportation and security committee chairs and will go to the Senate Commerce Committee for discussion before hitting the floor of the […]