Business & Military

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 […]

With sales of new business aircraft relatively flat, the used market has been enjoying a burst of activity for almost two years and may improve further as the economy gains steam. “We’re seeing a lot of pent-up demand as a result of the slow growth of general aviation for the last seven to eight years,” […]

Scaled Composites rolled out and flew its most recent project on Wednesday, the company has announced. The company built two identical single-engine jets to demonstrate for an unnamed customer Scaled’s “advanced, low-cost manufacturing techniques” for the production of research aircraft for industry and government. “Today was a great day for our test team,” said Aaron […]

The remotely piloted Ikhana drone could be flying unescorted in the National Airspace System as early as fall 2018, NASA said last week. Testing in the NAS is planned to take place from NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in California. During the test, Ikhana would fly alone in the NAS for the first time, without […]

General Electric, whose DNA extends back to Thomas Edison, started its life as a builder of generators and electrical equipment. It’s more than an electric technology company now, but shoving around electrons is still a core interest. I thought of that earlier this week during GE’s press briefing at NBAA when a company exec mentioned, […]

APS is well known for teaching bizjet pilots how to recover from and survive an unexpected flight upset. At NBAA-BACE 2017 in Las Vegas, the company is showing off its cool SIAI-Marchetti S.211 two-seat jet that’s used in this training. Randall Brooks of APS gave AVweb a tour. view on YouTube