Airbus has announced that it will increase the production rate for its A320 family from four to seven aircraft per month at the company’s Mobile, Alabama, manufacturing facility by the beginning of 2021. To support both the production increase along and continued recruiting efforts for the A220 manufacturing team, Airbus says it will be adding […]
Leonardo Helicopters announced that it successfully completed the first flight of an AW609 tiltrotor prototype “fully representative” of the aircraft’s final production configuration last week. The aircraft is the fourth AW609 prototype and, according to the company, represents the model’s entry into “the final program development and ground/flight testing stages.” The flight took place at […]
Russian aircraft manufacturer and United Aircraft Corporation branch Irkut continued the flight test campaign for its MC-21-300 airliner with the initial flight of the program’s fourth test aircraft on Wednesday. According to the company, the design of its latest test aircraft took into account test data from the first three MC-21-300 flight test models. The […]
Textron Aviation announced that it has successfully attached the wings to the fuselage of its first Cessna SkyCourier prototype. According to the company, landing gear and avionics ground testing for the twin-engine utility turboprop are also underway. The first flight of SkyCourier is expected to take place in 2020. “As expected, the operation was sound […]
NASA has announced that its X-59 Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) aircraft has been cleared for final assembly and systems integration, a move the agency called the “last programmatic hurdle” for QueSST prior to flight signoff. Approval for final assembly of the X-59 was given at a Key Decision Point-D (KDP-D) management review last week. Assembly […]
The grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX has turned a pilot shortage in China into a pilot surplus for those qualified on 737s. A year ago, Chinese airlines were scrambling for pilots to help fuel the rapid growth of the industry in Asia and most of them were pinning that growth on massive orders for […]
Textron is laying off 875 people including some in its aviation division and closing some facilities just before Christmas as part of a restructuring plan outlined in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Thursday. The company announced on Thursday that it would lay off an unspecified number of salaried employees but refused to offer […]
The prototype of what may be the world’s first fully electric airliner, a modified 60-year-old De Havilland Beaver, is tentatively scheduled for its first flight on Dec. 11. Harbour Air, which operates one of the world’s largest seaplane airlines on the west coast of British Columbia, is tentatively planning to fly the aircraft off the […]
Pilatus announced the delivery of its 1,700th PC-12 single-engine turboprop on Tuesday. The company says it expects hand over a total of more than 80 PC-12s in 2019. The 1,700th PC-12 was delivered to fractional ownership company Jetfly Aviation, which is based in Luxembourg. Jetfly currently has 40 PC-12s in service. “We have enjoyed an […]
A British company, with funding from the U.K. government, says an electric-powered airliner could be in revenue service as early as 2023. Cranfield Aerospace Solutions says it will convert a Britten-Norman Islander to hybrid electric power for short hop service between Scotland and the Orkney Islands. Scottish carrier Loganair will be the launch customer. Pure […]
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