Business & Military

Sikorsky Aircraft has been awarded an initial $1.24 billion contract to develop and build six new U.S. presidential helicopters based on the model S-92, the first step toward a fleet of 21 new aircraft by 2023, the Pentagon announced on Wednesday. The award capped years of efforts by the U.S. Navy to replace the current […]

AVwebs weekly news roundup uncovered reports about the tight competition in the Red Bull Air Race series as it touches down in Asia, the success of the Pilatus PC-7 trainer in service with the Indian air force, Embry-Riddle Universitys new Masters degree program in Unmanned Systems and an upcoming NTSB meeting on ag aircraft safety. […]

I was looking through the archives the other day to see when we did our first serious coverage of electric aircraft. It was 2009; five years ago this summer. We imagined then that production versions would be trickling to market in a few years. They arent. But thats not to say theres not interesting progress […]

Sixteen media organizations filed a brief (PDF) with the National Transportation Safety Board in support of aerial photographer Raphael Pirker. Pirker was fined $10,000 by the FAA for flying a drone near the University of Virginia to make a commercial video in October 2011. An administrative law judge ruled in March that the FAA can’t […]

The Black Knight Transformer is not a pretty aircraft — it looks like a mashup of a trailer truck, four rubber tires off a go-kart, and a swarm of quadcopters — but it flies and drives, as Advanced Tactics proved with a video posted online this week. The optionally-piloted vehicle aims to combine the capabilities […]

As Textron works through the integration of Beechcraft into its newly formed Textron Aviation unit, some complications have arisen that put millions of dollars in taxpayer-funded incentives in question. According to the Wichita Eagle, detailed discussions between Textron and state officials are planned to sort out the future of a total of $45 million in […]

Officials at two national parks have told visitors the use of drones within their boundaries is illegal but the absence of laws and regulations governing their use could make the ban short-lived. Last Friday, officials at Yosemite National Park in northern California reminded visitors via social media that drone use is “prohibited” and on Monday […]

NBC News is reporting that a U-2 spy plane caused the air traffic control failure that backed up traffic to and from Los Angeles basin airports last Wednesday. The computer glitch caused a ground stop that rippled delays across the country and lasted more than two hours. It was an En Route Automation Modernization (ERAM) […]

Former House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Jim Oberstar, D-Minn., died unexpectedly early Saturday at his home in Potomac, Md. Oberstar was keenly interested in aviation and was viewed by aviation groups as an ally on Capitol Hill because of his consistent stand against user fees. He served 18 consecutive terms as the representative for […]

A story that appeared in Friday’s AVwebFlash described a rare action by the NTSB recommending a specific group of aviation companies in Alaska be targeted for additional oversight by the FAA. One of the companies has a name similar to that of a firm that is not part of the NTSB recommendation. AVweb made the […]