Recent Updates

The FAA has authorized drone delivery and logistics company Zipline to make commercial deliveries using drones flying beyond the operator’s line of sight. According to the agency, Zipline will use its Sparrow drone, which releases payloads via parachute and is capable of traveling up to 120 miles, for beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations. […]

Dayton, Ohio, on Monday was announced as the site of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft manufacturer Joby Aviation’s first full-scale manufacturing plant. Joby passed over potential locations in Michigan, North Carolina, and Marina, California, which had hoped to lure back the company for more after it opened its pilot production line there a few […]

So what can you do with a multi-engine seaplane rating? You can fly firefighting aircraft that scoop water from lakes and dump it on big fires. You can fly an air taxi at a couple of small operations in Florida or Washington. You can fly PBYs with the Commemorative Air Force. Or, perhaps best of […]

Vertical flight solutions company Bristow Group has entered into a partnership with Germany-based urban air mobility (UAM) startup Volocopter to develop commercial passenger and cargo services using electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft in the U.S. and U.K. According to the companies, the partnership will include cooperating on building a UAM ecosystem with the […]

The NASA-SpaceX Crew-6 mission made a safe return to Earth from the International Space Station (ISS) on Monday, splashing down off the coast of Jacksonville, Florida. NASA astronauts Stephen Bowen and Woody Hoburg, United Arab Emirates astronaut Sultan Alneyadi and Roscosmos cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev spent 186 days in space for Crew-6. The mission was the […]

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has released an official opinion proposing new rules for the operation of vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft. The proposal includes regulations governing operations, flight crew licensing, rules of the air and air traffic management for crewed, VTOL-capable air taxis. It also looks to establish criteria and processes […]

Vertical Aerospace has identified a propeller issue as the most likely cause of an Aug. 9 flight testing accident involving its VX4 electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) prototype. According to the company, “an unexpected fault occurred causing the aircraft to enter a stable descent, before being damaged on impact with the ground.” Vertical reported […]

With all the kits available, why did Art Zemon choose a 50-year-old design? It’s a question he gets often, usually followed by “Are you nuts?” The BD-4 “is not pretty,” said the 59-year-old computer engineer based at the St. Charles County Airport west of St. Louis, Missouri. “It looks like the box the airplane came […]

Korean researchers are developing a humanoid “pibot” that looks like a character from a 1960s science fiction sitcom but unlike most autonomous flight systems, this one can literally fill in for pilots in any aircraft. The team at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) say their creation can fly a plane without […]

So here I am. A 23-year-old with my own airplane. I’ve made the investment but don’t (yet) know how to fly it or fix it. I knew that N2165U, my Van’s RV-6, was going to need a lot of love, and I wanted to start immediately so I could fly it as soon as possible. As […]