Business & Military

Airbus’s A350 XWB carried passengers for the first time earlier this month, taking two loads of Airbus employees and “cabin experts” from Toulouse back to Toulouse on shakedown flights. Those on the flights to nowhere were urged to press all the buttons and generally push and pull anything a regular airline passenger might encounter on […]

The FAA on Tuesday approved, for the first time, commercial operation of an unmanned aerial system over land. Previously, the agency had OK’d flights only over remote areas of the Arctic Ocean. The new approval will allow energy company BP and UAS manufacturer AeroVironment to fly a Puma AE for aerial surveys in Alaska’s Prudhoe […]

Jinnah Airport in Karachi, Pakistan, remains closed after authorities retook it from at least 10 gunmen with explosives strapped to their bodies who stormed a VIP terminal on Sunday night. At least nine people were killed in the initial attack and more attacks followed. Pakistan says all the terrorists were killed. At least one aircraft […]

Harking back to the 1930s when downtown rooftops became runways as major newspapers flew autogyros from the tops of their buildings, Nick Macomber, in partnership with the Smithsonian Channel, made a 30-second jetpack flight from the roof of the Four Seasons Hotel in Denver, Colo. Dubbed the Go Fast Jet Pack, Macombers Thursday sunrise flight […]

At its Gunskirchen, Austria factory, Rotax on Thursday rolled out its 50,000th 912-series aircraft engine and celebrated the 25th anniversary of the engine family with a fly-in at the nearby Wels airport. Manufacturers from around Europe flew in Rotax-powered aircraft for sales demos. The company combined the event with an annual homecoming of Can-Am Spyder […]

Our review of the weeks aviation news turned up stories including delivery of the 500th Phenom family jet, word that the application window has opened for this years AirVenture Cup race, ALPAs praise for the progress of NextGen, and an announcement that Airbus just delivered three of its heli-lift EC225 helicopters for duty in Africa. […]

This week has seen two seen two military jet crashes, fortunately with no serious injuries. The first, a Marine AV-8B Harrier, impacted in a residential neighborhood in Imperial, Calif., at 4:20 PDT on Wednesday, destroying three homes and leading to the evacuation of eight others. The pilot ejected safely and was hospitalized for evaluation. The […]

U.S. Navy Capt. Gregory McWherter, who served as commanding officer of the Blue Angels for two terms between 2008 and 2012, has been found guilty of failing to follow orders and of “conduct unbecoming of an officer” for fostering a hostile command climate, failing to stop obvious and repeated instances of sexual harassment, condoning widespread […]

Diamond’s still-in-development DA52 got a name change on Wednesday. It will now be known as the DA62, a move the company said is supposed to provide it some addition product identity. We are renaming the DA52 to improve differentiation from our DA42 series that continues indefinitely in parallel production, said Christian Dries, CEO of Diamond […]

Diamond Aircraft has slowly been recovering from some tough economic times, and last week the company took another step forward, announcing a new collaboration with Northrop Grumman. The two companies will work together to build new intelligence-gathering aircraft in Ottawa, Ontario, starting with manned models by the end of this year, and then collaborating on […]