Ownership

A research team at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has developed a simple technology that could help to prevent icing on aircraft wings, the university announced on Wednesday. The team experimented with ridged surfaces to see if they could reduce the time it takes for a water droplet to hit a surface and then recoil. […]

Every certified glass panel airplane needs backup flight instruments. Aircraft manufacturers and some glass cockpit owners are making the switch from traditional, round-gauge mechanical backups in favor of all-in-one backup EFIS systems. The way we see it, if the primary flight data fails, you might only need backup attitude data to help you keep the […]

Responding to the growing demand for ADS-B-capable equipment, BendixKing is rolling out a new Mode-S transponder called the KT-74. AVweb got a tour of it at AirVenture last July. view on YouTube

In a public submission, the NTSB has told the FAA it does not understand the foreseeable safety benefit of the FAAs proposed action regarding specific parts of the agencys NPRM on ECi cylinder assemblies. As written, the FAAs NRPM would require thousands of aircraft owners to inspect or replace certain ECi engine cylinders. In its […]

Wind tunnel testing conducted earlier this month at Moffett Field, Calif., has shown promising results for active flow control technology and its potential for reducing the size of vertical tail structures for a whole family of aircraft. NASA, in partnership with Boeing, equipped a full-scale Boeing 757 vertical fin with active flow control technology that […]

Gulfstream has taken extraordinary measures to prevent speculation in the market for its flagship G650 long-range big cabin business jet. As we reported in October, an early position holder of the $65 million aircraft, Formula One luminary Bernie Ecclestone, sold his almost-new G650 at a $7 million premium to the owner of a soccer team. […]

Letter of the Week:Airline Pilot Training Regarding the new flight training regulations: I flew for the airlines most of my life (retired now) have more than 23,000 hours and several type ratings. When an airline I worked for first got the Canadair CL-65 regional jet, the failure rate for upgrade was more than 70 percent. […]

Zaon Flight Systems, the maker of the popular PCAS portable traffic alerting system, has ceased operation according to Sporty’s Pilot Shop and Aircraft Spruce and Specialty, two of the company’s largest distributors. Both distributors told AVweb that Zaon “is out of business” and couldn’t offer any suggestions for obtaining support for existing Zaon products.Zaon introduced […]

The FAAs processes combined with financial constraints have created a bottleneck that has held up roughly 1,000 certifications, industry representatives told a House aviation subcommittee last month – and it could get worse, they said. In the past year alone, the certification office lost resources due to the sequester, instituted a hiring freeze, and had […]

Pilots decide to buy their own airplane for a variety of reasons. It could be a business decision, helping ensure cover-age of a relatively wide sales area, or perhaps an aerial photography business. Specialized flight training-like acro, or a quicky instrument rating-also can be a reason. Recreation or personal transportation is yet another. One of […]