Recent Updates

Virgin America officially ceased to exist on Thursday. The quirky carrier was set up on a market branding agreement with Britain’s Sir Richard Branson, the billionaire founder of Virgin Atlantic and minority investor in Virgin America. Alaska Airlines closed a $2.6 billion acquisition of Virgin America in December of 2016 after the Justice Department approved […]

Boeing reported that it delivered more commercial airplanes than any other manufacturer for the sixth consecutive year and set an industry record with 763 deliveries in 2017. The results were driven primarily by high-volume output of its 737 and 787 jets. The company, whose shares have more than doubled over the last 12 months, also […]

The BelugaXL, the extra-large and unique cargo aircraft built by Airbus to transport huge aircraft sections among its various production sites in Europe, has rolled out from its assembly hangar in Toulouse, France, for the first time, this month, Airbus announced on Tuesday. The airframe is now structurally complete, the company said. It’s the first […]

Some financial analysts predict that the tax reform recently enacted will see corporate earnings grow in the 8 to 12 percent range in 2018. As all of us in the general aviation industry know, this projected growth could have a positive trickle-down effect for our market. In my segment of the industry – avionics manufacturing, […]

Volocopter, the German company that has long been working to develop a semi-autonomous VTOL, flew its aircraft for the first time in the U.S., on Monday. The aircraft flew briefly, unmanned and tethered, on a stage during the keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Volocopter also announced it had flown with a […]

Michael Huerta’s five-year term as FAA administrator ended on Saturday, and so far the Trump administration has not named his replacement. Daniel Elwell, who was named as the FAA’s deputy administrator last June, will serve as acting administrator until the position is filled. Elwell was previously a senior official at Airlines for America, an airline […]

There was more misery for those trying to get through JFK Airport in New York Sunday as a water main break forced the closure of Terminal 4 and took with it 38 gates, most of them used for international flights. Water poured into public areas and service areas, including a baggage handling area. It’s not […]

John Young, NASA’s longest-serving astronaut and the first to command the Space Shuttle, died Friday. He was 87 and died from complications from pneumonia. Young went to space six times, walked on the moon and was the only astronaut to take part in all of the Gemini, Apollo and shuttle programs. “If anybody deserves the […]

An empty Sunwing Airlines Boeing 737 under tow caught fire on the ramp at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport on Friday evening after running into a WestJet 737, resulting in the emergency evacuation of the WestJet aircraft. No passengers were hurt but a firefighter was treated for chemical inhalation. The mishap further snarled traffic at Canada’s […]

A Van’s RV-7 that crashed on New Year’s Day in Northland New Zealand, killing both occupants, has caught the attention of the RV community because of the possibility of structural failure. If the investigation confirms the witness accounts, it will be the second suspected fatal in-flight breakup of an RV-7 this year. A similar aircraft […]