Recent Updates

Building on the BR700 engine used in regional jets, Rolls-Royce has formally announced a new family of engines to be called Pearl. Rolls said the Pearl 15 will develop 15,125 pounds of thrust and will exclusively power Bombardier’s new Global 5500 and 6500 business aircraft. The engines were revealed conceptually a few years ago, but […]

The FAA’s “overly conservative” approach to safety risk assessments creates a “significant barrier” to the development and implementation of drone technology, according to a report issued on Monday. Congress mandated the study by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. “FAA needs to accelerate its move away from the ‘one size fits all’ philosophy […]

Daher has developed a new configuration for its TBM 910 and TBM 930 single-engine turboprops to carry intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) equipment, which the company introduced at the Eurosatory 2018 Security and Defense Showin Paris this week. Nicolas Chabbert, director of Daher’s Airplane Business Unit, told AVweb the company’s main objective is to provide […]

Back to Part 1 There are certainly worse places to be stuck than Punta Arenas. It’s quite a pleasant city with friendly folks, good food, and lots to see. After the requisite 72 hours and a lot of work on the part of the ground crew, the permit to fly to Tahiti is in hand. […]

Airbus will close the deal with Bombardier to take over control of the Canadian company’s CSeries program on July 1. The two companies wrapped up negotiations over revenue sharing and the structure of the company that will build the aircraft. Airbus will assume 51 percent of the CSeries Aircraft Limited Partnership and provide procurement, sales […]

The Air Force has temporarily grounded the entire B-1B fleet after an ejection seat mishap in May. A Lancer diverted to Midland, Texas, on May 1 and one of the ejection seat deployment hatches was missing when it landed. The seat did not fire, however, and all four crew used the belly stairway to leave […]

I have my own little axe to grind here and so let the sparks fly. Last month, as part of routine newsgathering duties, I tried to compile a how-goes-it on the FAA’s Piston Aviation Fuels Initiative, or PAFI. This yielded nothing but a waste of time and mounting frustration for me because everyone I spoke […]

En route to Leesburg Executive around 1:00 a.m. inside Dulles Class Bravo, I heard a controller ask a United flight, “United XXX your choice 19R or 19C.” The pilot came back with 19C and once cleared for the visual he responded, “Cleared for visual. 19C United XXX. Over to tower, nighty‑night don’t let the bed […]

This week, AVweb’s weekly news roundup found reports of pre-Oshkosh warbird displays, leadership changes at Sun ‘n Fun, new avionics update technology for business pilots and a fresh Boeing 777 for an aviation holding company. For anyone travelling to Oshkosh this year, the Commemorative Air Force will be returning to the Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport […]

The FAA is continuing to develop and expand its Offshore Precipitation Capability (OPC) system, which uses machine learning and image processing to estimate precipitation intensity and echo top heights in areas where Next Generation Radar (NEXRAD) is not available. While not as precise as radar in identifying the location and intensity of precipitation—although with greater […]