Business & Military

The Santa Monica Airport, which has become a poster case for protecting general aviation airports, must stay open until at least 2023, the FAA said on Friday. The historic airport, which has been active since 1917, supports about 300 operations a day and is popular with the private-jet set. It’s less popular with local residents […]

Pieces of the F-1 rocket engines that launched the Apollo 12 mission 46 years ago are at The Museum of Flight in Seattle after undergoing a 2 1/2-year restoration. An injector plate was among the pieces unveiled by entrepreneur Jeff Bezos in November as part of the future exhibit, which will include Apollo mission artifacts […]

To think that regulation does anything but stifle creativity and strangle commerce is about as close to apostasy as you’re likely to get in aviation. And even if it weren’t, would you admit it in mixed company? That’s a rhetorical question. Don’t overthink it. But one man’s onerous, suffocating rule is another’s golden opportunity to […]

Jim Remar, president and COO of the Kansas Cosmosphere & Space Center, talks with AVweb’s Elaine Kauh about the restoration project that will bring parts of the Apollo mission engines into the public eye for the first time since the historic flights took place. Duration: 12:12 File Size: 5.9 MB download here

Congress reauthorized the Export-Import Bank Thursday as part of the five-year transportation funding bill that passed the House and Senate and will go to President Obama for signing. The bank, which guarantees loans on U.S. exports to foreign buyers, will be a boost for international aircraft sales, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association said in a […]

Virgin Galactic’s plans to take small commercial satellites into space took on a new twist this week — on-demand flights via an airliner that would serve as mothership for launching its new space vehicle, LauncherOne.During a ceremony in Texas, Virgin founder Richard Branson unveiled “Cosmic Girl,” a Boeing 747 transferred from his Virgin Atlantic airline. […]

AVweb’s search of news in aviation found a new patent for Aspen Avionics, AOPA’s updated flying club features, a call for NATA award nominations, and the first delivery of Airbus’ U.S.-made H125 helicopter. Aspen Avionics announced it has been awarded a U.S. patent for its groundbreaking Connected Panel wireless cockpit system. The patent, first applied […]

Boeing’s last C-17 flew away from the factory at the Long Beach airport this week, marking the end of the transport plane’s production in California. The C-17, built in Long Beach since 1991, was the final series of aircraft made there. The plant was one of the last living pieces of the enormous manufacturing operation […]

Ho-hum, another month, another accident in which the aviation industry can get its pants snagged on the notion that cockpit automation is turning us all into numbskull idiots with hands of stone. But what if the pilot is already well on his way to being a numbskull? Does the automation push him over the edge […]

General aviation advocates have spoken out against privatizing air traffic control, citing concerns over user fees, but this week airline officials said they think ATC would work better as a not-for-profit corporation with stable funding sources. Executives from a half-dozen major airlines, including American, Southwest and FedEx, told reporters on a conference call Tuesday that […]