Business & Military

Jim Bede, who for more than 50 years designed airplanes, aircraft components and homebuilding kits, died Thursday in Cleveland, Ohio, after suffering an aneurysm. His company in Medina, Bedecorp, sells plans and kits for a series of aircraft including the BD-4B and BD-17. His early design, the BD-1 from the early 1960s, evolved into the […]

AVweb’s search of aviation news around the world found a first flight for Bell’s new helicopter, executive changes at Airbus Group, new helicopter services in Sedona, Arizona, and a milestone for Women in Aviation International’s scholarship program. Bell Helicopter announced the successful first flight of its new 525 Relentless. The maiden flight of the super-medium […]

When Louis Bleriot hopped across the English Channel from France in 1909, the Channel still represented a formidable, historic geographic and cultural divide that exists today only in the imagination; cross it on a ferry in a few hours or on commercial flight without even looking out the window. Or in an electric airplane with […]

A small boomerang-shaped aircraft that will go for a test launch later this year could be the first unmanned aerial system to glide over the surface of Mars, if NASA’s project comes to fruition. The Prandtl-m prototype’s test, one of three in the planning stages, will include a launch from a high-altitude balloon at about […]

Pipistrel cancelled plans to symbolically fly its Alpha Electro electric-powered training aircraft over the English Channel on Tuesday after Siemens, the supplier of the motor, issued a “demand not to fly over the water with their motor,” said Pipistrel CEO Ivo Boscarol in a statement (PDF). Boscarol said his company’s flight has been in the […]

The sight of an otherwise normal-looking light twin flying around the patch with no one in the cockpit has just put a new spin on unmanned aerial systems. Aurora Flight Sciences of Virginia announced it completed a series of test flights of its Centaur Optionally Piloted Aircraft in June as part of a project with […]

Well, as the BBC reporter in the posh British accent says in the accompanying video, it was only a matter of time. The first U.S. Aerial Gran Prix was held in L.A. a couple of months ago and now the loosely organized “sport” of drone racing (UAS racing just doesn’t have the ring) is exploding. […]

The other day, I was sitting at the kitchen table doing a little remedial work on my quadcopter after an unfortunate encounter with a tree. A neighbor, who happens to own a Cessna 170, dropped by and after eyeballing the drone for a few seconds, said, “I’d win.” Say again? “I’d win if I hit […]

A remote spit of land on New Zealand’s South Island will soon become a space launch site for Rocket Lab, which plans to offer low-cost launches for satellites using a smaller, specially designed rocket. The site is slated for completion by the end of the year and target markets will include universities and small startup […]

After nearly five days aloft “without a drop of fuel,” Solar Impulse 2 pilot Andre Borschberg touched down in the early-morning light at Kalaleoa Airport in Hawaii. He has just flown over the Pacific from Japan, completing leg 8 of the solar-powered airplane’s global voyage.In the meantime, Borschbergtook the title for the longest nonstop solo […]