Aircraft Upgrades

Pilatus, best known for its PC-12 turboprop, on Tuesday released details of the PC-24, which will be the company’s first jet. At the European Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition in Geneva, Switzerland, board chairman Oscar Schwenk said the “super-versatile” jet will be able to use very short runways, paved or unpaved, and a cargo door […]

Cessna’s new Latitude and Longitude jets are in the works and making progress, company officials said this week at the European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition, in Geneva, Switzerland. The first prototype of the midsize Latitude is being assembled and should be flying early next year, said Cessna spokesman Terry Shriner. The super-midsize Longitude has […]

Avidyne Corporation announced the STC certification of the DFC90 plug-and-play retrofit autopilot system for Beechcraft Bonanza applications. The STC, which covers 25 models of the Bonanza, allows the DFC90 to replace existing S-TEC autopilots when interfaced with the Aspen Evolution Pro Primary Flight Display (EFD1000Pro). Avidyne previously certified the drop-in DFC90 with the Aspen PFD […]

I’m lucky to be here, I’ll tell ya that. The other day, I just about fell out of the open door of the Cub, a mile south of the airport. For months, I’ve been fooling around trying to get a portable radio to work suitable for pattern communications, without success. I’ve been through two Icom […]

Flyers’ Rights, an advocacy group for airline passengers, said on Tuesday the FAA should restrict 787 flights to within two hours of an airport “until the safety of its lithium-ion batteries is proven.” The restriction wouldn’t affect flights over the continental U.S. or most flights to Europe, but trans-Pacific and transpolar routes would be off […]

A relative surge in shipments of multi-engine turboprops led a positive first quarter for all GA shipments as billings improved by 31.7 percent over last year’s number, GAMA announced Thursday. Improvements to piston aircraft and jet shipment numbers were modest, posting positive changes of 3.8 percent and 4.0 percent, respectively. Diamond’s DA40 led all models […]

Honda Aircraft Co. confirmed this week it will delay until late 2014 its certification effort for the HondaJet light business jet to accommodate more testing for the aircraft’s GE Honda Aero engines. The company announced last October that it was aiming for full FAA certification in the first half of 2013 with deliveries to customers […]

With major certification rules revisions on the book, Flight Design has decided to reset its certification schedule on the much-watched C4 four-place aircraft, its first venture into the world of certified aircraft. Although Flight Design had initially planned a more aggressive development schedule, revisions to CS23/FAR Part 23 now in the works in the U.S. […]

At Pipistrel, “We are not only thinking short term,” said Tine Tomazic at the CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium on Saturday. “We are thinking, what will it take to revive aviation? I think it’s important to bring fun and affordability back to personal aviation.” Tomazic said it would be great if you could take off and […]

To realize the potential of electric flight, batteries are key — they must be safe, powerful, affordable, and long-lasting — and several of the speakers at this week’s CAFE Electric Aircraft Symposium are working to address these issues. Winfried Wilcke, a researcher in an IBM lab in San Jose, Calif., is studying the potential “Mount […]