Business & Military

Could a future weapon in the battle against terrorist groups be found in the warbird section of your local airshow? The U.S. Navy has pressed a couple of OV-10 Broncos into the fight against ISIL. Since the terrorists don’t have much in the way of anti-aircraft defenses, the big, slow Vietnam-era turboprop twins can take […]

Amazon has upped the ante in its foray into the air freight business, announcing Friday that it’s taken a small ownership stake in the company providing 20 Boeing 767 cargo airplanes for its new service. As we reported in December, Amazon did a trial run with five of Air Transport Services Group‘s aircraft, using DHL’s […]

I was browsing the local paper this week and noticed a letter from a resident calling out my local airport at Venice for having installed a very expensive EMAS runway overrun system. You’re familiar with these, I’m sure. EMAS is engineered material arresting system and in this context, it refers to sophisticated foam concrete blocks […]

AVweb’s search of aviation news found announcements from the National Aviation Hall of Fame, RANS Designs, Hillsboro Aviation, and L-3 Aviation Products. The National Aviation Hall of Fame announced that Amy Spowart has been named its new Executive Director. Spowart has been a part of the NAHF since 1999. Spowart started in her new position […]

A Senate committee moved ahead with its version of reauthorization for the FAA on Wednesday, approving legislation that includes third class pilot medicals and aircraft certification reform. The bill’s major components remained intact during the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation markup session. It would see the FAA through Sept. 30, 2017, ordering the […]

Doc, the B-29 restoration project that was forced outside over the winter due to a lack of hangar space in Wichita, now is back under a roof, Josh Wells, a member of Doc’s Friends, told AVweb this week. “Last week we were able to reach an agreement on a tentative plan for hangar space at […]

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have come up with a new system for generating electricity that couldshow promise for powering small airplanes.”The potential energy density of this power source is on the same scale with petrochemical energy sources, and it is orders of magnitude higher than commercial lithium ion batteries,” Michael Strano, an […]

Congress once again has delayed taking substantive action on FAA funding issues, as the House voted yesterday to extend the current FAA budget through mid-July. The FAA’s budget is due to expire on March 31. Competing proposals in the House and Senate have failed to gain enough support for passage, as lawmakers argue over whether […]

We can argue about a lot in aviation, but one thing we rarely dispute is the unwritten rule that your AME and your doctor shouldn’t be the same person. Unpack the logic of that and two things become implicit: We don’t trust the government with our medical data (rightfully) and, if we’re honest, we want […]

An airport janitor was arrested Saturday after a pilot reported his gun had been stolen while he was in the washroom at Philadelphia Airport. The unidentified pilot had cleared security and made the restroom stop on the way to his flight when the theft occurred. The airport was searched and witnesses interviewed, and it was […]