Ownership

If you’re setting up a personal hangar for light DIY wrenching, it’s worth following the lead of maintenance shops that know what’s good. Walk through a real maintenance hangar and you won’t have to look hard to spot the Snap-On tool logo. Whether it’s a gigantic rolling tool cabinet or a pair of cutters, there’s […]

Faced with continuing delays in the development of the new Silvercrest jet engine from Safran, Dassault Aviation said on Wednesday the Falcon 5X program is cancelled. It will be replaced by a new Falcon jet with the same cross section, powered by engines from Pratt & Whitney Canada, with first deliveries in 2022. “There is […]

A Texas pilot has admitted to intentionally ditching his recently purchased Beech Baron in the Gulf of Mexico for the insurance money. Theodore Robert Wright pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit wire fraud and conspiring to commit arson as a result of a federal investigation that looked at a series of expensive insurance claims that […]

So how much would you have to be paid to intentionally ditch a perfectly serviceable airplane in the open ocean? Enough to buy a used SUV? We didn’t think so but Theodore Robert Wright III apparently thought it was worth the gamble and what makes his reckless behavior even more despicable is that he had […]

Rather than plunge into the development of two new clean sheet designs, it now seems like Boeing is going to spend a few years concentrating on the tried and true. Numerous industry publications are reporting that production of the 767-300 will be ramped up in response to airlines that need a 250- to 350-seat airliner […]

When I was in junior high and going to Air Explorer meetings at the Des Moines Airport, I was like every other kid in our group. During breaks from the private pilot ground school, we’d go into the maintenance hangars and out on the ramp to get close to the airplanes that we dreamed of […]

Expanded capabilities in Garmin’s G5 electronic flight instrument system have now been approved by the FAA and EASA, the company announced on Thursday. Owners of specific fixed-wing GA aircraft now can install the G5 in place of an existing directional gyro or horizontal situation indicator, Garmin said. In some panels, when paired with select VHF […]

When the press release on Cessna’s new twin turboprop came pixeling into my inbox Tuesday morning, my first reaction was: a new skydiving airplane! Woo-hoo! This further proves that self-interest easily overpowers rational thought, but in a more sober moment, I realized that in aviation as in everything else, history repeats. Even without a piece […]

Textron will build a new clean-sheet-design large-utility twin turboprop, and have it ready for delivery by 2020, the company announced on Tuesday. The new airplane was developed with launch customer FedEx Express, which has long depended on Cessna Caravans for its delivery fleet. The Cessna SkyCourier 408 will have almost twice the cargo space of […]

The latest model from Airbus, the A350-1000, is now certified by both the FAA and EASA, the company said on Wednesday. The airplane is a stretched version of the A350 XWB airliner. The 1000 features Rolls-Royce Trent XWB-97 engines, adding more power than earlier versions, as well as main landing gear with six wheels. The […]