Aircraft Upgrades

Anyone who has flown a Beechcraft will have come away impressed with the line’s quality and, especially, the handling qualities. All the way down to the lowly Musketeer, Beech just took pains to get the airplane’s handling qualities a cut above everything else, and that applies in spades to the Baron series. Even so, every […]

For almost 10 years, Africair has been converting Cessna Skyhawks to diesel power and shipping them to the African market for training. In this video, AVweb’s Paul Bertorelli has a look at these conversions and takes a brief flight trial. view on YouTube

Rotax is well known for its line of aircraft engines, but these are just a small part of the company’s engine-manufacturing business. Last summer, AVweb’s Paul Bertorelli visited the factory and produced this engaging video of how the company builds its aircraft engines. view on YouTube

Garmin now has a 7-inch G3X Touch display option available for experimental amateur-built and light sport aircraft, the company said this week. The high-resolution touchscreen display provides an option for owners of aircraft with smaller panels who may be looking for upgrades. The new screen also can be paired with a 10.6-inch display to serve […]

With refurbs gaining momentum, we’re seeing more restoration of modest airplanes, especially Cessna 150s, which are among the most economical airplanes to own and fly. Don Toy of Homestead, Iowa, recently sent us this report on his refurb. “Here is my project of the last year. I boughta 1966 Cessna 150F model of a friend […]

Boots and weeping wings are fine as far as they go, but it’s also nice to have some means of automatically detecting and alarming the presence of ice in flight. A company called SafeFlight is out with a new device that does just that. view on YouTube

Lamda Guard, a company based in Canada, has developed a thin film filter that could protect pilots from laser strikes when applied to airplane windows. The film is built from an array of nanoparticles. It’s quick to install, long-lasting, and cost-effective compared to other options, the company said. The metamaterial technology can block multiple laser […]

Velocity Aircraft introduced a twin a couple of years ago, and it’s expanding the engine options and creature comforts. We talked to John Abraham at Flying Aviation Expo in Palm Springs about the program. Editor’s Note: This video has incorrect information in the introduction. The aircraft was designed by Danny Maher, not Burt Rutan as […]

With a year and 1,300 hours of operation behind them, Redbird says its converted diesel Skyhawks have delivered bulletproof maintenance reliability and significant savings in direct operating costs. At a short briefing during the company’s fourth annual training conference in San Marcos, Texas, Redbird’s Darren Bien told a small group that thus far, customer response […]

At NBAA, Nextant showed off a mock-up of its new G90XT King Air C90 remanufacture. The airplane will include GE engines and a Garmin G1000 suite. view on YouTube