Business & Military

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 […]

Bell Helicopter has flown its 505 Jet Ranger X for the first time, the company announced this week. “The Bell 505 performed exactly as anticipated today,” Yann Lavalle, senior flight test pilot for the company, said on Monday. The 30-minute flight, at the company’s facility in Mirabel, Quebec, comprised two laps around the pattern, a […]

The new version of Eastern Air Lines, based in Miami, is recruiting cabin crew this month, to be ready for a start of operations early next year, the company said on Friday. “This is another important step as we prepare to launch the airline,” said CEO Ed Wegel. “We are eager to move forward.” The […]

Boeing says it will have a replacement for the 737 by 2030 and it’s likely to have a composite airframe. CEO Jim McNerney told Reuters the aircraft will be a little bigger than the 737 but will be much the same as the world’s best-selling airliner. “It will be slightly bigger, there will be new […]

NASA has flight tested a flap design that can be bent and twisted in flight to improve aerodynamics and reduce noise. The Adaptive Compliant Trailing Edge flap has shape-changing assemblies that seamlessly bend and twist rather than running in one dimension along rails or guides. The plan is to be able to contort the trailing […]

Now that the debris from the Tuesday election has rained back down from the heavens, how is general aviation likely to fair in a decidedly red Congress? Such that the 113th Congress didn’t accomplish much of anything, are the prospects for GA any better in the 114th, which convenes in January? Based on conversations I […]

Orbital Sciences said this week it plans to revamp its Antares rocket program and target another launch in 2016. Meanwhile, the company continues to investigate the cause of the Oct. 28 engine failure that led operators to intentionally destroy the unmanned supply rocket seconds after ignition. David Thompson, the company’s president and CEO, told investors […]

Canada will introduce a massive deregulation of commercial unmanned aerial systems later this year that will open up most of the country to for small UAS to fly without direct government oversight. In an announcement at the Unmanned Systems Canada conference in Montreal on Wednesday, Transport Canada Director General Martin Eley said his department will […]