Props

When I drive around town, I never fail to see some kind of hybrid car, say a Toyota Prius or maybe a Ford Fusion and the occasional Nissan Leaf. This tells me that hybrids and electric vehicles are now dominating the automotive market and airplanes are soon to follow. And here, let me welcome you […]

The highly modified P-51 Strega flown by James Consalvi edged longtime rival Steve Hinton Jr. in Voodoo, another Mustang, in the gold unlimited class final at the National Championship Air Races in Reno, Nevada, on Sunday, reclaiming the title and spoiling the Voodoo team’s swan song race. Strega covered the 62.8114 miles (eight laps of […]

The all-time piston single speed record was set Saturday when Steve Hinton Jr. flew Voodoo, a highly modified P-51 Mustang, at an average speed of 531.53 mph over four runs at Clarks Ranch in remote central Idaho. His fastest run was 554.69 mph. His average speed beat Lyle Shelton’s record of 528.3 mph set in […]

An engine upgrade for the King Air 350 by Blackhawk Modifications, based in Waco, Texas, is now certified by the FAA, the company announced this week. The upgrade package includes two factory-new Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-67A engines, plus two new five-blade composite propeller assemblies and spinners from MT Propellers. Training, support and a warranty […]

The FAA has reorganized its certification division, scrapping the familiar Transport, Small Airplane, Engine and Propeller and Rotorcraft Directorates in favor of a new “functionally-aligned organizational structure.” Effective July 23 all certifications, whether on airliners or light aircraft, will flow, as is appropriate, through new organizations named Organizational Performance, International, Policy and Innovation, Compliance and […]

With minimal fanfare, composite propellers have been appearing as original equipment on more and more airplanes and more and more owners are finding that they are an option for their airplanes when it comes time for an overhaul or replacement. Composite props are more expensive than their aluminum counterparts, so we were curious why owners […]

Blackhawk Aircraft Modifications says it expects to be able to deliver re-engined King Air 350s that will offer significant performance improvements from the factory models by May of 2017. Blackhawk will begin flight testing a 350 with Pratt & Whitney Canada XP67A engines this month. The airplane came with PT6A-60A engines developing 1050 horsepower and […]

In our series on refurbishing airplanes, we’ve examined what’s involved with updating all aspects of your airplane as well as helping it age gracefully. In this article, we turn to breathing new life into an existing airframe by adding more power to get more performance. We’re looking at one of the more exciting upgrades currently […]

Innova Aerospace is taking 50-year-old King Airs and bringing them into the 21st century with new GE engines and a three-screen touchpad avionics suite. Innova’s David Meske spoke with AVweb’s Russ Niles at AirVenture 2016. Duration: 2:45 File Size: 1.5 MB download here

A half decade ago when diesel engines gained some traction as aircraft powerplants, the skeptics got quite a little whisper campaign going by noting that diesel engines could swing only wooden props. Their torque pulses and resonances were just too harsh for the fatigue limits of metal props. The naysayers forgot to mention—or perhaps didn’t […]