Recent Updates

Scaled Composites flew the second copy of its single-engine-jet, Model 401, for the first time, on Wednesday, the company has announced. “As a proof-of-concept, rapid-prototyping company, it is very rare when we get to build more than one of the same type of aircraft,” the company posted on Facebook. Scaled built two identical single-engine jets […]

Sun ‘n Fun welcomed more than100 returning World War II, Korea and Vietnam war veterans back to the warbird area last night after a whirlwind day of visiting war memorials in Washington, D.C. The Flight to Honor continues a tradition of chartering day flights to the nation’s capital so aging veterans can see the monuments […]

As AVweb reported last week, military aviation is in an uncertain time with U.S. Navy aviation mishaps involving the F/A-18 E/F Super up 108 percent over the past five years, according a story by Military Times. Additionally, in the Navy’s aviation fleet, mishaps jumped 82 percent during the past five years. This is the biggest […]

Terrafugia, the Massachusetts-based “flying-car” company, said on Tuesday it has created 75 new jobs in the last year and plans to add 50 more by December. The company was recently acquired by Zhejiang Geely, a Chinese conglomerate, which provided the resources for the company to expand its operations and hire new workers. “The recent jump […]

Sun ‘n Fun President John “Lites” Leenhouts announced on Monday that the Air Force has sent the Air Combat Command F-16 Viper Demonstration Team to fill the vacant performance spot left when the Thunderbirds cancelled their scheduled performance last Thursday. The cancellation was due to the loss of Thunderbird pilot Maj. Stephen Del Bagno in […]

As important as batteries are, the brushless DC motors that power electric airplanes are just as critical. In this brief AVweb video, Siemen’s Frank Anton explains how they work. view on YouTube

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo,VSS Unity, has completed its first supersonic, rocket-powered flight, the company announced last week. The aircraft was carried to a launch altitude of about 46,500 feet above the Sierra Nevada mountains by the WhiteKnightTwo aircraft, then released. After a few seconds of glide, Unity’srocket motor was engaged, and the pilots placed the spaceship […]

As Sun ‘n Fun opens Tuesday, Bose announced a new noise-cancelling in-ear headset called the ProFlight Aviation Headset. The new product, Bose’s first aviation headset since the A20 was introduced in 2010, is aimed at the cabin class and turbine market, whose cockpits have lower noise levels. See a full video on the new headset […]

Ellen Stofan has been named director of the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. Stofan begins her tenure April 30. She brings more than 25 years’ experience in space-related organizations and a deep research background in planetary geology. She is the first woman to hold this position. Stofan was chief scientist at NASA (2013-2016), serving […]

Fresh from showing its M600 turboprop for the first time at Chile’s FIDAE exposition, Piper is touring the airplane throughout South America and seeing signs that the aircraft market is waking up. Piper’s Latin American sales executive, Dan Lewis, told AVweb that the company has tripled its sales forecast for Brazil and demand in the […]