Recent Updates

They live and fly by different codes in the 49th state, and what might seem stupid in the lower 48 doesn’t move the needle in a place over twice the size of Texas. Consider the De Havilland Beaver that nosed over in the Noatak River. The NTSB heard about the event—word spreads fast in Alaskan […]

Santa Monica Airport has reopened after a 10-day closure, with its sole runway shortened to 3,500 feet, a loss of 1,500 feet. The change is the latest effort by the city to reduce traffic at the urban airport, an effort that has long been opposed by the aviation community. “This is a great day for […]

The restored B-29 ‘Doc,’ which made its debut at Oshkosh this summer, will be back at the show in 2018, Doc’s Friends have announced. The partial tour schedule, released last week, also includes stops in Pennsylvania, Kansas and Missouri. Meanwhile, volunteers are about 60 percent through the planned winter maintenance program that began in early […]

The pilot who flew the last combat mission of the Second World War died in Florida last week of lung cancer at the age of 93. Army Air Force Lt. Jerry Yellin was with another aircraft attacking Japanese air bases on Aug. 15, 1945, when Emperor Hirohito announced the unconditional surrender of Japan. Yellin’s wingman, […]

An unidentified banner pilot starred in what could become an instructional video on how to ditch an airplane when his Piper Pawnee had engine trouble in the Bay of Biscayne near Miami last Friday. The video, shot from a boat full of people who didn’t seem to realize the gravity of the situation until the […]

China flew the world’s largest amphibious flying boat Sunday in a move that might intensify tensions in the disputed South China Sea. The AG600 Kunlong is roughly the same size as a Boeing 737 and is powered by four big turboprops in the normal high-wing configuration of an amphib. It used its landing gear for […]

I can recall almost to the day when I first became aware of the great breaking Chinese general aviation wave—or takeover, if you prefer. It was mid-June 2005 and I was riding with Michael Feinig, then Diamond Aircraft’s managing director, at breakneck speed down the autobahn to the company’s factory at Wiener Neustadt, Austria. Diamond […]

The president of Brazil says his government will exercise its veto power to block the transfer of control of Embraer to Boeing. Michel Temer said Friday the company is not for sale but he would welcome investment from Boeing. “All partnerships are welcome. What is not an option is the transference of control,” said Temer. […]

Austrian-based Diamond Aircraft Group has been acquired by the Chinese company that purchased Diamond’s North American operations last year. Almost a year to the day that Wanfeng Aviation Industry Co. Ltd. bought Diamond’s London, Ontario, plant, the Chinese firm bought the Austrian holdings of sole shareholder Christian Dries, who founded Diamond 25 years ago. Wanfeng […]

The Canadian government has suspended the operating certificate of West Wind Airlines after the crash of one of its ATR 42 airliners near a remote Saskatchewan airport that injured 25 people. Transport Canada ordered the Saskatoon-based carrier to cease operations after its inspectors found unspecified deficiencies in the way the business was being run. The […]