Recent Updates

The Senate’s Fiscal Year 2018 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) will almost certainly include authorization for $1.2 billion to buy a fleet of light attack aircraft. Support for the OA-X project has been steadily gaining traction since Senator John McCain proposed that the Air Force acquire 300 low-cost, off-the-shelf observation and attack aircraft early this […]

If you’ve never wandered the pits at the Reno Air Races, you’re missing out. I’ve crewed twice (crewing gets you a pit pass)—once in Formula One and again in Sport Class—and can’t imagine going to Reno without a pit pass. There are so many amazing people, conversations, and airplanes. While you could simply purchase a […]

The Department of Homeland Security has decided not to extend the ban on laptops, currently affecting only flights originating from one of ten Middle Eastern and African airports, to all U.S.-bound flights, choosing instead to require “enhanced” checkpoint screening and other unpublished security measures. According to the DHS fact sheet on the new screening methods, […]

A good friend of mine who’s an aircraft broker called me this week to ask for my take on what to do about ADS-B installations. He has to have a ready answer for buyers and sellers of legacy airplanes who are asking about this. What was I telling people, he wondered, laboring under the misguided […]

An AH-64 Apache with a pod-mounted laser was test fired on targets at the Army’s White Sands Missile Range late last week. The laser, made and tested by defense contractor Raytheon, engaged a stationary target 1.4 kilometers (slant range distance) from the helicopter. The promise of directed energy weapons is highly appealing to U.S. Special […]

Mahindra Aerospace has successfully certified its turboprop 10-passenger GA10 Airvan utility aircraft but hasn’t been crowing about it. The FAA accepted the certification May 19, the same day it was certified in Australia and word is only getting out now because of third-party interest in the design. Although the program has been reportedly owned by […]

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee approved a proposal on Tuesday to separate air traffic control from the FAA and transfer to it a nonprofit corporation over three years, according to a report in The Hill. The bill would create a board of directors with the power to impose user fees; however, general aviation users […]

A deHavilland Mosquito T Mk III, which was restored and test-flown in New Zealand, flew for the first time in the U.S. last Friday in at Paine Field, in Everett, Washington. The Mosquito now is based at the Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum, where it received a fresh coat of paint on arrival, plus […]

A dispute over noise caused by helicopters flying over the tony Hampton area outside New York City made it all the way to the Supreme Court, but this week, the judges said they won’t hear the case. The Town of East Hampton had petitioned the court last November, after a federal appeals court said the […]

If you haven’t caught Sean D. Tucker’s solo airshow performance in his 40-plus years on the circuit, you have this year and next, and then he plans to retire. Tucker, who turned 65 this year, told the Dayton Daily News that he hopes to find a sponsor to launch a formation flying team as his […]