Recent Updates

Aurora Flight Sciences has successfully tested a robotic copilot in a Boeing 737 simulator, demonstrating that it can safely land the airplane on its own, the company said this week. The system is designed to function as a second pilot in a two-crew aircraft, enabling reduced crew operations while ensuring that aircraft performance and mission […]

Proposals to spin off air traffic control from the FAA to be handled by a private agency charging user fees gained support on Wednesday in Washington, but it was still unclear if the plan has enough momentum to become reality. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said in a letter to Sen. John McCain that his department […]

The U.S. plan to ban laptops from airliner cabins on flights originating in Europe is drawing increasing resistance from the European Union, a UK pilot union and business travelers. EU aviation authorities will meet this week to consider the proposed laptop ban. The issue became the center of a Washington political firestorm this week on […]

Aerones, a drone company based in Latvia, has posted a video online showing a custom drone with 28 rotors carrying a skydiver aloft to about 1,000 feet, where he lets go and parachutes to a safe landing. The drone launches from a pond, then picks up skydiver Ingus Augstkalns from a nearby tower. The company […]

Several upcoming airshows in the U.S. and Canada have been canceled, following an announcement Monday evening that the Canadian Forces’ Snowbirds have temporarily suspended air show performances. The team made the announcement on its Facebook page, following an appearance at the Memphis (Tenn.) Airshow. “A reduced training period hampered by poor weather which continued into […]

Toyota has long been rumored to have an interest in flight (see here and here for example) and recently they put some money into backing the Cartivator flying-car project, based in Japan. The investment is modest — about $375,000 over three years — but Cartivator is staffed by 15 young volunteer technicians, and the company […]

The next generation of airliners use a lot less fuel and are whisper quiet but squeezing all that efficiency out is challenging and it’s causing some headaches for airframers and their engine suppliers. Bombardier and Airbus have been having issues with the Pratt & Whitney PurePower geared turbofan that they’ve hung their sales on and […]

A panel of judges will review the deal struck between the FAA and the city of Santa Monica that will close the airport by 2028 and severely curtail operations in the meantime. A U.S. District Court of Appeals rejected the National Business Aviation Association’s bid for an injunction against implementing the deal but it did […]

As might be expected, pilots are reporting seeing a lot more drones these days but the lather that sightings seem to create might be overblown, according to an analysis by the Academy of Model Aeronautics. AMA looked closely at each of the 1,270 sightings reported by pilots of manned aircraft in data released by the […]

What started out two weeks ago as, if not a trial balloon, perhaps a rumor, may be about to happen. Several news outlets have reported that the U.S. wants to expand a policy to ban any electronic device larger than a cellphone from airline cabins on flights to the U.S. originating in Europe. Recall that […]