Recent Updates

When, in 1927, it was decided to erect a monument to commemorate the first controlled powered flight of an airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, the place was considered so remote that Congress figured no one would ever deliberately visit such a fly- and mosquito-infested sand spit. So isolated was Kitty Hawk, that the planners […]

Boeing and Embraer continue to navigate the complicated and apparently fast evolving legal landscape to formalize a deal they’ve reached for Boeing to buy 80 percent of the Brazilian company’s commercial airplane business. It would appear the most important part of that process is formally applying to the Brazilian government to approve the deal. The […]

The Aviation Herald is reporting that a TAM Boeing 777-300 made a successful but dramatic emergency landing in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, on Wednesday. Flight 8084, with more than 350 people on board, was still on the climb on its way to London when it experienced an almost total electrical failure shortly after takeoff from Sao […]

Airbus got a joint type certificate from both EASA and the FAA on Friday for its A319neo. The smallest of Airbus’s single-aisle family (not including the recently acquired A220/Bombardier CSeries line) has the CFM Leap-1A that brings quiet fuel efficiency to the Airbus line and look after the lower-volume routes that are beyond regional aircraft. […]

U.K. police have cleared a married couple of any involvement in the Gatwick Airport drone incursions after they spent most of the weekend in jail. Paul Gait, 47, and wife Elaine Kirk, 54, were arrested at their home in Crawley, near the airport, late Friday. They were arrested “on suspicion of disrupting services of civil […]

For pilots and aviation enthusiasts, Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, is hallowed ground and visiting there on December 17th—First Flight Day—is a special thrill. At this year’s First Flight Day ceremony, a newly refurbished museum was unveiled with new displays and exhibits. AVweb’s Paul Bertorelli reports on the event in this video. view on YouTube

GA groups can claim a victory in the fine print of the latest government shutdown. The FAA has confirmed to AVweb that aircraft registry services will be maintained throughout the shutdown, which began at midnight Dec. 22 and is still the subject of political machinations in Washington. “Air traffic controllers, as well as those who […]

Are Towered Airports Safer? Overall, I consider towered airports to be safer. However, that is due mainly to the fact that they provide order to traffic procedures that does not always exist at nontowered fields. Plus, they normally handle larger aircraft with more experienced pilots who are accustomed to following directions from controllers. In my […]

The FAA has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) regarding the adoption of an airworthiness directive (AD) that would require wing spar inspections on nearly 20,000 Piper aircraft. According to the FAA, the AD comes after an investigation into the report of a fatigue crack on a Piper PA-28R-201 “revealed that repeated high-load operating […]

Textron Aviation has announced that the Cessna Citation Longitude super-midsize jet has received provisional type certification from the FAA. According to Textron, the Longitude flight test program has been completed, with the aircraft having accomplished more than 1,650 flights for approximately 4,050 hours of flight time. Provisional type certification will allow future operators to begin […]