Ownership

The first new copies of the Cessna TTx, which the company calls “the world’s fastest commercially produced and certified fixed-gear single engine aircraft,” have been delivered, Cessna said on Monday. The all-composite, turbocharged four-seat aircraft evolved from the Corvalis (previously Columbia) line. The cockpit features sidestick controls and debuts the Garmin G2000 avionics suite, with […]

Florida-based fractional Avantair employs about 500 people, is the target of a class-action lawsuit, and Wednesday said that it is furloughing pilots and workers while seeking financing to keep its aircraft and continue operations. Last summer, a company Piaggio Avanti turboprop lost its left elevator during flight and landed safely with passengers on board. And […]

Therestoration originally started in July 2009 when the aircraft was owned by myself and two other partners, Tony and Alex Darby. We originally were just taking off the wings as an owner assisted repair for the American Champion wooden wing spar AD to inspect some loose nails and our plans were to simply recover the […]

Preparations for production of the Cirrus Vision SF50 jet are bringing changes to the company’s Grand Forks, N.D., facility that will affect SR-2X series aircraft as well, Cirrus said Thursday. The company’s expansion includes the addition of an autoclave facility that will move some previously outsourced production “in-house.” Cirrus expects the autoclave to go online […]

Australia’s aviation accident investigation agency, the ATSB, Thursday released its final report on an uncontained engine failure that occurred November 4, 2010, on a Qantas Airbus A380 over Indonesia and severely damaged aircraft systems. Investigators concluded that an oil pipe in the jet’s Rolls-Royce Trent 900 engine had been “made with a thin wall section” […]

A California company says it has increased the top speed of the fastest fixed-gear single by almost 10 percent, added up to 30 percent range and given it a 40- to 50-percent increase in climb rate without touching the engine. In fact, says Lam Aviation, the Columbia 300 (predecessor to the Cessna Corvalis) saw all […]

A Belgian company called Sagita earned attention at this year’s Paris Air Show with its Sherpa mockup, a two-seat, 575-pound helicopter turning counter-rotating blades driven by a compressor system. The compressor is driven by a 130-hp powerplant. It takes air in at the rear of the fuselage and then splits its output, sending some air […]

Before there was eBay, Craigslist and Controller.com, not to mention web sites for every imaginable aircraft marque, the one and only place you looked for a used airplane or obscure parts to fix one was Trade-A-Plane, the iconic yellow shopper that, for many of us, was and is a dreamsheet. Despite the onslaught of competition […]

There’s nothing like a global recession to kill the buzz around new airplanes and gadgets, but they seem to keep cropping up. This week, we have a 1,430-lb. personal jet, two flying bicycles, and electric taxiing for airliners. What’s going on? Is innovation in aviation alive? (click to answer) Last Week’s Question: Results Want to […]

Frank Thielert, founder of Thielert Aircraft Engines, which produces Centurion diesel engines for the aviation market, last week was jailed by a judge in a German bankruptcy court who reportedly considered him a “flight risk.” According to the Google translation of a story in the Hamburg Abendblatt newspaper, the judge said Thielert faces several years […]