Recent Updates

When I swore the air traffic controller employment oath, I shed my civilian identity and for the rest of my FAA career was known by my operating initials. Controllers never said “Goodbye” to end a call to another controller. Instead, like a secret cult, we gave our initials. In my case, IE. Unfortunately, PB was […]

Favorable geography and fortunate civic planning were cited in allowing a charter aircraft the chance to continue its flight from Belfast to Corfu on July 21, 2017, after a typo in the cockpit. The Sunwing Airlines Boeing 737 ran over a runway end light and continued 100 feet beyond before staggering into the air, according […]

Two adolescent boys, aged 14 and 15, were arrested Thursday in Utah after allegedly taking a light sport aircraft for a Thanksgiving joyride. The duo, who police say had earlier made off with a tractor, took the aircraft from a private airstrip in Jensen in the northeast corner of Utah. They reportedly got it airborne […]

Old-School Navigation Technology is fine but has turned a lot of people into morons. I have fond memories of working out the solution to finding one’s position at sea using the stars and a sextant as you described. This was one of the 100 great elementary problems in Heinrich Dorrie’s great book. Also, it was […]

I was approaching Gainesville, Florida the week after the Florida Gators were destroyed by the Nebraska Cornhuskers in a bowl game and I listened to the ATIS. The code was Gator. When I called the tower I thought I would be cute so I said I had Cornhusker. The tower controller got me real good […]

The problems that led to the removal of former commanding officer of the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds, Lt. Col. Jason Heard, from squadron leadership included “aggressive physical contact towards his subordinate” and violating regulations, according to the Air Force Times, which recently obtained a report on the investigation into Heard’s behavior via the Freedom of […]

MIT engineers have developed an aircraft propulsion system with no moving parts. A team led by Steven Barrett, an MIT professor of aerospace engineering, flew a five-pound model the width of a gymnasium using “ionic wind” to maintain flight after an initial push using bungee cords. The first flight occurred almost a year ago. After […]

The FAA has issued a Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO) addressing several aircraft refueled with contaminated jet fuel at Miami-Opa Locka Executive Airport (OPF) in Opa-locka, Florida. The agency reports that five aircraft were serviced with jet fuel containing diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) between Aug. 12 and Aug. 16, 2018. Nine additional aircraft were serviced […]

NASA now has an official development timeline for its Quiet SuperSonic Technology (QueSST) X-plane that, according to the administration, will lead to the X-59’s first flight in the next three years. NASA committed to the timeline after a Key Decision Point-C (KDP-C) review confirming funding and achievability of the project. The administration says the KDP-C […]

Helicopters are ideal for lots of useful tasks, but speed over the ground has never been their strong suit, with a world speed record of only about 220 knots. That could change if a new Russian design in development lives up to its promise — an official at a technical conference last month revealed plans […]