Business & Military

An Indiana company is hoping to demonstrate a multi-copter patterned after unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) that can carry a person while in autonomous or remotely operated flight at this year’s AirVenture Oshkosh. AirBuoyant, LLCof Anderson, Indiana, briefly pirouetted its VertiPod with a 125-pound man in a rudimentary cage suspended from a howling quadcopter for a […]

Amazon received an updated letter of approval from the FAA this week to test its package delivery drones after the company said its initial waiver came so late it was “obsolete.” Meanwhile, the FAA stated on its website it’s expediting these types of updated approvals and will also allow sport pilots with driver’s licenses to […]

AVweb’s search of aviation news worldwide found new loan options for AOPA members in Alaska and Hawaii, Textron’s new service center in France, JETTECH’s upgraded avionics STC for Citations, and a call for entries from the National Aviation Hall of Fame.AOPA now offers members in Alaska and Hawaii competitive aircraft loans that were previously difficult […]

Glasair Aviation’s new Merlin LSA had its first flight this week, launching the in-air test phase for the composite light-sport airplane. The flight departed from Arlington, Washington, on Tuesday and lasted for 57 minutes. Following ground tests including engine run-up, high-speed taxi, and ground roll liftoff, test pilot Grant Smith conducted the flight to evaluate […]

The former CEO of Epic Air, Rick Schrameck, has pleaded not guilty to federal fraud charges stemming from the turboprop airplane kit business he operated in Bend, Oregon, The Bulletin reported this week. Prosecutors allege that Schrameck sold kits to customers for $1.4 to $1.8 million each but used their money for other projects as […]

For what can be a long list of new product introductions, AEA has a great strategy: Give every company five minutes on the stage to make the elevator pitch, then on to the next one. Still, with 33 new products on Wednesday’s opening day, it was two-hour slog to sit through it all. I amused […]

We caught up with space-tourism company World View Enterprises’ CEO Jane Poynter at the Aircraft Electronics Association convention in Dallas, Texas. Poynter described the technology behind World View’s balloon-and-parafoil plan to lift passengers into the upper atmosphere for a several-hour tour of the planet. Duration: 9:42 File Size: 8.1 MB download here

Although there are still hopes that China will be a big market for business aviation, recent events in that country have all but negated gains made in recent years. There’s perhaps no better illustration of that than a strategic shift announced by one of China’s largest bizjet financing companies. Minsheng Financial Leasing Corporation told Business […]

Flight Design has partnered with AeroJones, a Taiwanese company working in China, to build its airplanes in Xiamen, a coastal city, for the Asian market. AeroJones has successfully completed a “full manufacturing evaluation,” Flight Design said in a news release this week. Flight Design CEO Matthias Betsch, Director Christian Wenger and Flight Design USA President […]

My first experience with an autogyro was not auspicious. I was a newly minted private pilot waiting to take off from what was then Baltimore Airpark, north of Baltimore. Number one for the runway was a Bensen Gyrocopter of the sort I’d seen a million times in Popular Mechanics ads, but never in the flesh. […]