Business & Military

The crew members of a FedEx A310 were surprised at a knock on the cockpit door as they prepared for arrival in Lubbock, Texas, on Friday since they were supposed to be the only ones on the plane. Flight 1459 took off from Memphis on its regular run to the Lubbock and there should have […]

The family of a well-known movie pilot who died in a crash of a Piper Aerostar in Colombia last September is suing a movie studio. Alan Purwin, 54, was a passenger in the aircraft flown by Colombian Carlos Berl on the flight, which occurred just after production of the Tom Cruise thriller Mena wrapped up […]

Three aerospace teams will compete for a military contract to further develop their ideas for a reusable unmanned spaceplane that can make daily flights over a ten-day period. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency announced this week it will hold a publicProposers Day on April 29 to discuss the second and third phases of its […]

After a nine-month hiatus in Hawaii, Solar Impulse 2 is ready to resume its around-the-world flight. The crew will look for favorable conditions this month so the single-seat aircraft can launch from Oahu for North America, where landing options include Vancouver, San Francisco, Los Angeles or Phoenix. From there, the aircraft will continue eastward and […]

I have always been baffled by the psychology of paying a company a tidy of sum of money to assure that I get one of the first new-and-improved widgets it proposes to make: the pre-production deposit or, as it’s popularly known, a “position.” This is quite common in the aircraft business as most recently demonstrated […]

External Tank 94, a 69,000-pound artifact from NASA’s space shuttle program, is en route to a permanent home at the California Science Center in Los Angeles. The tank, which was one of 138 built at NASA’s Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, is the last of its kind. ET-94 left its storage site there this […]

AVweb‘s search of aviation news worldwide found announcements from the National Aviation Hall of Fame, National Air Transportation Foundation, Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals, and the Sapphire Pegasus Awards. The National Aviation Hall of Fame is seeking entries for the 30th annual A. Scott Crossfield Aerospace Education Teacher of the Year Award, which includes a […]

Ten aviation advocacy groups submitted a letter to U.S. senators this week, asking them to oppose any changes in the FAA Reauthorization Act that would allow local and state governments to create their own rules about drones. Allowing that kind of “patchwork” of laws could “erode, rather than enhance, air safety,” the letter says. It […]

Advocates converged on Washington this week to push for passage of the Safe Skies Act, which would extend to cargo pilots the same rest requirements mandated for pilots who fly with passengers. “This is not a partisan issue, it’s a science-based, common-sense issue,” said Chesley Sullenberger, who has been advocating for the act, at a […]

I don’t make a habit of including photos in this space unless there’s a compelling reason to do so. I prefer to imagine that my incisive prose will somehow deliver you to a place where a mere photo would be nothing but a rude intrusion on a near metaphysical bond between author and reader. But […]