Business & Military

SpaceShipTwo went higher and faster than it has been before on Friday and Virgin Group President Sir Richard Branson is predicting it will reach space sometime in 2014. Branson had hoped the reusable passenger-carrying rocket would have slipped out of the atmosphere by the end of 2013 but Friday’s flight showed progress toward the ultimate […]

Just 18 days after being designated by the FAA as one of six federally approved test sites for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), Texas A&M-Corpus Christi will conduct several test flightsover South Texas ranchland to continue research and training on the RS-16 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). The RS-16 has a wingspan of 12 feet 11 inches, […]

More than 10 years after Congress mandated that the Transportation Security Administration establish security regulations for repair stations certified under FAR Part 145 and four years after the TSA issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on the matter, the TSA is about to formally publish the final rules (PDF). In a January 10 conference […]

Piper Aircraft announced that it has selected Hebei Yuanao Aircraft Manufacturing Co. Ltd., of Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China, as Pipers authorized dealer in China for sales of the Mirage, Archer TX and Seminole. Established in 2012, Hebei Yuanao Aircraft was the first private general aviation manufacturing company in Hebei Province. Its factory is located in […]

Murphy Aircraft Manufacturing Ltd.,of Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada, is for sale. Asking price: $2.5-$4 million. Founded in 1985, the company builds a line of experimental airplane kits targeted at homebuilders desiring utilitarian, back-country craft that can operate on wheels, skis or floats. The line includes the biplane Renegade Sport, and monoplanes Rebel Sport, Rebel, Maverick, […]

The U.S. military lost two helicopters in two days and the death toll of six may rise. On Wednesday, a Navy CH-53E Sea Dragon, the Navy variant of the Super Stallion, crashed off Norfolk, Va. There were five crew members on board. Four were rescued but two died. There is one still missing. The crash […]

David Cundall, an aviation enthusiast from the U.K., is back in Burma searching for buried Spitfire airplanes, with a new sponsor, according to recent news reports. Cundall returned to Burma last month to search for pristine Spitfires he believes were buried there at the end of World War II. His previous sponsor, the Belarussian video […]

There are cars in the parking lot and 46 employees working at the Mooney International plant in Kerrville, Texas as of Jan. 3, thanks to fresh investment from its new Chinese owners. AVweb’s Russ Niles was there and talked to Director of Engineering Bill Eldred about getting the production line going again. view on YouTube

Mooney is officially back in the aircraft production business thanks to a cash infusion from its new Chinese owners. Mooney International, as it is now called, hopes to begin delivery of new Acclaims and Ovations by the third quarter of 2014. “The last time we restarted the line, it took a year but I want […]

Bombardier will furlough about 300 of its Learjet workers in Wichita, Kan., for six weeks during the first half of this year, according to the Wichita Eagle. Bombardier cited challenges in the jet market as the impetus for the change. A memo sent to workers last week said the layoffs would affect Learjet 70 and […]