Business & Military

China’s aerospace concern showed off its newest military fighter at Zhuhai’s Airshow, Bloomberg News reported this week. The J-31 fighter, which flew a demonstration at the show, has been compared to the Lockheed Martin F-35 military jet. “It appears to be a fifth-generation fighter and so far of course only the United States has been […]

Continental Motors Group announced Thursday it will offer its CD-100 diesel series for existing light piston airplanes in China. The company has filed for a Chinese STC for the installation of its CD-135 and CD-155 engines in the Cessna 172, Piper PA-28 series and the Diamond DA40. It expects the STC to be granted in […]

A Learjet 60 carrying U2 singer Bono lost a rear cargo door during a flight across Europe early Thursday, resulting in some lost bags, but no injuries, CNNreported.The incident elicited a frenzy of media reports from around the world.Ground crew found the hatch was missing after the jet landed at its destination, Berlin’s Schonefeld Airport. […]

Sixfighter planes that were part of a collection of warbirds sold to a dealer in August will be restored and sold by Boschung Global Ltd. of Switzerland, the company said Thursday. The fighters, a version of German Messerschmitts, operated in World War II and were last flown for the making of the 1969 film “Battle […]

AVweb’s weekly search of the news in the world of aviation turned up some updates in the light airplane sector, as well as an award for Airbus’ electric trainer and a first flight for Bell’s new 505 helicopter. Van’s Aircraft and Dynon have worked to create a dual display option for the popular RV-12 LSA. […]

The space probe Philae made a successful landing on a comet, the European Space Agency announced Wednesday, despite a malfunction in the probe’s anchoring system. After a seven-hour descent to the surface of Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, signals indicating that the probe had touched down were relayed via the Rosetta orbiter craft to stations on Earth, including […]

If you follow spaceflight much-and probably even if you don’t-you’ll recall the Mars probe that burned up during orbital insertion a few years ago. Actually, it was the Mars Climate Orbiter and that was 16 years ago, believe it or not. The problem was that instead of the newton-seconds specified in the contract, software writers […]

Google subsidiary Planetary Ventures has signed a lease with NASA to rent the historic airship hangar and other buildings on Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, citing aviation research as one goal for the site. The company will pay about $1.16 billion over a 60-year lease for use of about 1,000 acres, including three hangars […]

NetJets has flown its first paying customer in China. NetJets announced its intention to do business in China years ago and put a foothold in the country earlier this year. It made the announcement about the charter customer flight and a new arrangement with MedAire at Airshow China in Zhuhai. NetJets, which is doing business […]

The proposed rules for integrating unmanned aerial systems into the national airspace may be published before the end of this year, according to a report in the National Defense Industrial Association blog on Tuesday. The rules “will open the door to a lot of commercial operations that aren’t authorized today,” according to Jim Williams, manager […]