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Toyota Supports Flying Car For 2020

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 […]

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Engine Glitches On New Airliners

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 […]

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Santa Monica Deal To Be Reviewed

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 […]

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Drones Are The New UFOs’: AMA

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 […]

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Ban Laptops From Airline Cabins?

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 […]

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Trump Wants Steam Carrier Catapults

It’s no secret that President Donald Trump is a big fan of coal, but he surprised the Navy with his preference for steam as the power to fling planes from aircraft carriers. In an interview with Time magazine, Trump was quoted as saying that he would not approve equipping new Ford-class carriers with the Electromagnetic […]

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Reaper Spins While Pilot Runs Checklist

An $11 million Air Force Reaper UAV stalled and spun to the ground because the pilot was fixated on completing a checklist, ignoring audible and visual stall warnings, according to the Air Force Aircraft Accident Investigation released Thursday. Immediately after receiving control of the aircraft from the launch team, the pilot of the unmanned turboprop […]

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Happy First Quarter For Piston GA Sales

Bucking long-term trends, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association’s first-quarter data shows a 6.3% increase in sales of piston airplanes over the same quarter in 2016. The allocation of sales within the piston market was mostly unremarkable, though Cessna had real gains, shipping 41 piston singles compared to 27 for the prior year period. Although total […]

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Intel’s Falcon 8+ Inspection Drone

You may not have noticed, but computer chip maker Intel is big on drones. In this AVweb video shot at the AUVSI show in Dallas, Paul Bertorelli took a close look at Intel’s Falcon 8+ inspection drone. It’s selling to the North American market. view on YouTube

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Griff’s Giant Heavy Lift Drone

Most people think of drones as annoying little buzzing quadcopters. Don’t say that to the Griff Aviation Guardian, a 160-pound working drone that can lift its own weight and then some. At the AUVSI Xponential show in Dallas, Griff was showing a prototype and AVweb’s Paul Bertorelli shot a video describing it. view on YouTube

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