Recent Updates

Reuters is reporting that Pilatus is considering going public to finance production of its PC-24 business jet. The IPO would be worth almost $3 billion and give the company the capital it needs to launch the jet, which is a niche product in that it’s designed to use short unimproved runways. The company has undertaken […]

A big hunk of metal that a sea cucumber diver thought might be a Cold War atomic bomb turned out to be a piece of industrial junk. The Royal Canadian Navy sent a ship to a remote area off the northern Pacific coast of British Columbia late last month after the diver, Sean Smyrichinski, reported […]

John Glenn, a lifelong pilot and public figure who is best known as the first American astronaut to orbit the Earth, died Thursday at 95. The retired military airman and four-term U.S. senator was hospitalized in Columbus, Ohio, about a week ago in declining health. Glenn, a native of Cambridge in eastern Ohio,is the state’s […]

\ AVweb‘s search of news in aviation found announcements from theUnmanned Safety Institute, theCivil Air Patrol, Airbus Helicopters and MAC Air Group.The Unmanned Safety Institute announced that it has launched the first-ever online training course designed by its team of leading aviation safety experts to teach drone enthusiasts how to fly safely and minimize risk. […]

That the death of John Glenn on Thursday came as no surprise made it no less sad. For my generation, Glenn was an indelible figure of towering accomplishment. Given his chosen profession and the risks that defined it, living to the age of 95 was itself a feat, never mind being launched into space twice. […]

Former astronaut and U.S. Senator John Glenn is in a Columbus, Ohio, hospital with an undisclosed illness. Glenn, 95, was the first American to orbit the Earth and the last surviving member of the original astronauts in the Mercury program. He was admitted to James Cancer Hospital more than a week ago, and a family […]

There will be no more rocket launches this year for SpaceX, which announced Wednesday it will not be ready to resume flights on Dec. 16 as the company had intended. The delay marks the second time the California company has had to postpone launch operations as the probe into the Sept. 1 rocket explosion at […]

As airlines continue to unbundle what’s covered by a basic fare, United Airlines announced this week that it will begin charging for the use of overhead space in its cabins. While discount airlines such as Spirit have charged for the overhead for several years, United is the first major airline to do so. The Washington […]

Famed aerobatic pilot and aircraft designer Walter Extra has set a new FAI record for time to climb in an electric airplane. According to Extra and Siemens, the manufacturer of the motor used in the Extra 330LE, the climb was 4:22 to an altitude of 3000 meters (9842 feet). That’s an average climb rate of […]

I know it’s fashionable to decry flying on the airlines as the mass transportation equivalent of a slave ship, but I’ve trained myself to tune out the insults and degradations of airline travel. The airlines usually get you there at a fare less than you can fly yourself over the same distance. That’s just economic […]