Ownership

Insert your favorite speed cliché here. One of the main reasons we love airplanes is that they go fast—and the faster the better. We post photos on social media of the GPS when riding a screaming tailwind and we agonize over the numbers when imprisoned in a headwind. And no matter what we’re flying, we’ve […]

GE Aviation and Safran this week jointly launched a development program for what they call an “open fan” airliner engine design. Under the auspices of the two companies’ cooperative CFM International business unit, the RISE (Revolutionary Innovation for Sustainable Engines) initiative focuses on lowering fuel consumption and carbon emissions, and the team projects greater than […]

Airbus, Safran, Dassault Aviation, ONERA and France’s Ministry of Transport are launching a joint study to assess the compatibility of unblended sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) with single-aisle aircraft, commercial aircraft engine and fuel systems and helicopter engines. The VOLCAN (VOL avec Carburants Alternatifs Nouveaux) project includes an in-flight test to be conducted at the end […]

Rolls-Royce officially opened the doors to its new 7,500-square-meter (80,729-square-foot) testbed facility in Derby, U.K., last week. Called Testbed 80, the testbed can collect data for more than 10,000 different engine parameters and detect vibrations at a rate of up to 200,000 samples per second. Along with being able to handle Rolls-Royce’s UltraFan demonstrator, which […]

Pratt & Whitney Canada is celebrating the production of its 100th PT6 E-Series general aviation turboprop engine this week. The latest in a long line of PT6 models, the E-Series was launched in October 2019.  According to Pratt & Whitney, it is the first turboprop engine serving the general aviation market to offer a dual-channel […]

By the time you read this, my Debonair should have a freshly overhauled engine holding down its nose. The story of how all that came to be is best told with a few adult beverages, but the bottom line is I will soon have a new hole in my wallet and a zero-since-major-overhaul IO-520. This […]

As the world inches its way toward controlling the pandemic, there’s good news and bad news for those who cheer the return of global air travel. The very good news is that all of aviation generates just 1.9 percent of greenhouse emissions (according to ourworldindata.org) and per-passenger emission have dropped by 50 percent since 1990. […]

Legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday would establish a tax credit for sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). Called the Sustainable Skies Act, the bill would provide between $1.50 and $2.00 per each gallon of SAF used as long as the fuel “achieves at least a 50 percent lifecycle greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions […]

Canada has now formalized its intent to impose a “luxury tax” on new “personal” aircraft and it will be tacked on to virtually every factory-fresh plane sold in the country, assuming it’s enacted. The Justin Trudeau Liberal government included the tax in its budget tabled earlier this week and as written will add tens of […]

A first-of-its-kind summit concluded in Brussels, Belgium, earlier this week, dedicated to “a strategic plan for advancing the production, availability, and use of sustainable aviation fuels [SAF] in the region.” Hosted by the European Business Aviation Association (EBAA), the international meeting addressed the “chicken and egg” challenge of simultaneously increasing the demand and availability of […]