Business & Military

Virgin Galactic is about three months away from launching into space, founder Richard Branson said at a business forum in Finland recently. He added that he expects to fly into space about three months after that. The company has said it expects to start launching flights for paying tourists by the end of next year. […]

After halting a plan last week to start work on shortening the runway at Santa Monica Airport, a federal court has lifted its temporary restraining order, and the work will begin “within the next week,” according to a post on the city’s Facebook page on Tuesday. The court’s order means “the legal complaints raised lack […]

Airbus and Bombardier announced Monday that the European aerospace giant will assume a 50.01 percent interest in the Bombardier CSeries jet program. To keep it afloat, the CSeries program required a $1.25 billion investment last year by the province of Quebec, which will continue to own 19 percent, with Bombardier owning the remaining 31 percent. […]

American Airlines is taking their turn in the hot seat over an incident last week where a pilot intervened to have a passenger removed. Prior to boarding her flight from Miami to New York, Tamika Mallory had a disagreement with the gate agent over whether she was to be seated in a middle or aisle […]

In the first documented incident of its kind in Canada, a Skyjet Aviation flight hit a drone while on approach to Jean Lesage Airport in Quebec City on Thursday. The aircraft suffered minor damage and no one was injured. Skyjet flies King Airs and Beech 1900s for charter and medevac. Canada’s Transport Minister Marc Garneau […]

It’s been 70 years since Chuck Yeager squeezed into the sharply tapered cockpit of the Bell X-1 rocket plane and cracked a physical and psychological barrier that busted aircraft development wide open. After dropping from a B-29, Yeager reached Mach 1.06, causing what sounded like distant thunder to the crew on the ground. Then he […]

A Minnesota man is facing attempted murder charges after a Cessna Skywagon that overflew his property took a gunshot in the fuselage. The Pioneer Press reported the criminal complaint against Chad Lynndell Olson, 51, of Fertile in northwest Minnesota, which alleges the shot that hit the Skywagon on Oct. 7 was the latest in a […]

If I were an airplane salesman, I would starve to death. Airplanes that I think have no prayer of selling fly out of the factory almost faster than they can be produced. One of these was Diamond’s DA42, which I thought was a long shot. The DA62, one of the best GA airplanes ever, in […]

Cal Fire, California’s forest management and fire protection authority, is battling the worst wildfire outbreak in California’s history with the biggest air tanker in the world. Cal Fire’s dedicated air tanker fleet includes 23 Grumman S-2Ts, stationed at 13 air attack bases around the state. According to Cal Fire’s Chief of Flight Operations, Dennis Brown, […]

The state of Wisconsin plans to take legal action against Kestrel for the company’s failure “to show measurable progress toward obtaining financing” to repay a state loan that’s 11 months overdue, the Duluth News Tribune reported this week. Wisconsin gave the company, headed by Alan Klapmeier, $4 million in state loans and millions more in […]