Ownership

Cessna’s admission this week that it now has no definite timeline for its diesel 182 JT-A invites speculation. Or maybe I’m the only one who can’t resist asking what’s going on in Wichita. Earlier this week, we got an email from a reader trying to snag some hangar space at Independence, Kansas, where Cessna builds […]

Pawing back through the archives, I can confidently declare that 2002 was the summer of the VLJ—the very light jet. Some were practically swooning over the notion of sub-$1 million jets and there was a thundering herd of them, led by the rock star of VLJs, the Eclipse. During a round of interviewing that year […]

Is nosewheel shimmy bugging you? It’s a continuing problem for many aircraft owners. With the following, we offer suggestions to minimize the effects of, or even solve this annoying problem. In order to correct nose wheel shimmy problems we must understand what causes the nose wheel to shimmy in the first place. Without getting too […]

Continental Motors Group said today that it will purchase Danbury Aerospace, a group of aviation manufacturing companies that includes Engine Components International, the San Antonio, Texas-based manufacturer of PMA engine parts. Danbury is a privately held company and the dollar amount of the deal wasn’t disclosed by Continental. Because Continental is itself owned by the […]

At the Electric Aircraft Symposium in Santa Rosa, California, on Saturday, I scribbled in my notebook a wry comment from Tine Tomazic of Pipistrel Aircraft, the innovative Slovenian company that’s an unabashed supporter—and maker—of electric airplanes. Tomazic said he hoped the era of electric conversions was coming to an end and he pointedly noted that […]

Vitatoe Aviation’s turbonormalized P210 conversion may just have turned the Cessna P210 into the airplane it should have been all along. I’ve liked the P210 ever since I first flew it in 1979. It’s fast, carries a good load, has honest handling and the pressurization spoiled me. However, the first part of any flight always […]

With few moving parts compared to an aircraft piston engine, electric motors are thought to be far more reliable. But when the systems that control them are factored in, the reliability picture is far less rosy, according to Mike Ricci, who says electric propulsion in general has some distance to cover before it will be […]

Fresh after its announcement of a new, aviation-specific electric motor, Siemens AG has mapped out a developmental path that it hopes will result in practical regional hybrid electric airliners by 2035. At the ninth annual Electric Aircraft Symposium in Santa Rosa, California, this week, Siemens’ Frank Anton said the company will invest heavily in hybrid […]

A new electric motor developed by Siemens, a German company, will make it possible to build four-seat hybrid-electric aircraft, the company said recently. The motor’s capabilities also suggest “that the use of hybrid-electric drives in regional airliners with 50 to 100 passengers is a real medium-term possibility,” said Frank Anton, head of the company’s e-aircraft […]

An alternative to painted graphics is custom vinyl wrapping. It costs far less than custom paint work, with less downtime. Aviation Consumereditor Larry Anglisano spotted Plane Vinyl’s Glasair racer on the flight line at Sun ‘n Fun 2015 in Lakeland, Florida and took a closer look. In this video, Plane Vinyl’s Bud Newton describes the […]