Recent Updates

A change in tax law in 2005 has resulted in a loss of $1 billion to $2 billion to the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released today. “The amounts lost to the Trust Fund as revealed today by the GAO are simply staggering,” said Andrew Priester, chairman […]

The Coulson Air Tankers Martin Mars is back at its home base in British Columbia after being damaged in an accident at AirVenture 2016. CEO Wayne Coulson told AVweb the aircraft flew from Lake Winnebago to Port Alberni last Tuesday with temporary repairs to holes in the hull. The plane was immediately pulled to dry […]

The builder of a replica of the Bugatti 100p racing plane was killed in the crash of the aircraft in Oklahoma on Saturday. NewsOn6 reported Scotty Wilson, of Tulsa, was flying the aircraft when it went down near Clinton-Sherman Air Force Base in west central Oklahoma. The aircraft was copied from a 1930s design by […]

Airplane shipments are down for the first half of 2016, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association reported Friday. There were 970 units shipped for the first six months of the year, a 4.5 percent decline. Billings for new airplanes fell 11 percent to $9.3 billion, while rotorcraft billings saw a 32.5 percent drop over last year, […]

By law, the FAA has dropped the controversial “biographical profile” for prequalified (college program and military veteran) air traffic control trainee applicants and will hire 1,400 new trainees this year.Applications will only be taken from Aug. 8-15 at the U.S. government’s official jobs website but applicants can set up an online profile before that. In […]

AVweb‘s search of news in aviation found announcements from Cessna Pilot Centers, the Organization of Black Aerospace Professionals,ELITE Simulation Solutionsand CiES.Cessna Pilot Centers’ use of the latest iPad technology gives pilots convenient access to their online courses even when they are offline. The CPC Companion app, a free download from the Apple App Store, allows […]

Moon Express, a Cape Canaveral-based private company, announced this week it has received government approval to send an autonomous lander to the moon and plans to do so next fall. The multi-agency collaboration with the company includes NASA and the FAA. The approval puts Moon Express in the lead among other contenders for the $20 […]

Airbus engineers based in Silicon Valley are working to develop “an autonomous flying vehicle platform,” called Vahana, that could provide transport for both passengers and cargo, the company has announced. Flight tests of the first vehicle prototype are slated for the end of 2017. Ultimately, the system could operate similarly to car-sharing applications, with the […]

In the eight months since the FAA opened its online drone registration system, more than 500,000 hobbyists have signed up, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said today in Washington, already outnumbering the 320,000 registered manned aircraft. Huerta said the FAA now is taking further steps to ensure the drone industry can continue to grow “at the […]

Lockheed Martin is serious about developing lighter-than-air vehicles, and now it has patented a new “spider” device that solves a maintenance problem for airship operators. Traditionally, teams of workers have been required to manually scan the airship envelope to find and repair tiny holes that couldn’t be found any other way. Now, Lockheed’s engineers have […]