Recent Updates

I was flying an A-36 Bonanza through the SFO Class Bravo a few years ago and there was quite a bit of airline traffic departing at the time. ATC advised me of a Southwest 737 climbing out at my 1 o’clock and I let them know I had it in sight. Controller: “Southwest 9999 traffic […]

AVweb actually has a policy about ignoring coverage of “youngest pilot” aviation exploits since they can and have led to disaster but a story out of the U.K. is one of the exceptions. Budget carrier easyJet has welcomed the U.K.’s youngest airline pilot and he said few have noticed, which is as it should be. […]

Boeing is considering a new twin-aisle airliner that would bridge the gap between its 737 and the 787. The Wall Street Journal (subscription required) reported last week that Mike Delaney, Boeing’s VP of airplane development, said that the company believes there’s a market for up to 5000 aircraft that would seat up to 270 and […]

A California man has become the first to have his private pilot certificate revoked for allegedly operating a drone illegally. Ralph Rebaya is appealing the emergency revocation of his ticket, which happened June 1, more than six months after he allegedly violated about 20 conditions of his FAA exemption for drone operation. Among the requirements […]

That we live in interesting times is made ever more evident by an email I got from reader Matthew Sawhill following last week’s fatal crash of a Tesla Model S being operated on the car’s much-touted autopilot feature. Conceding that cars aren’t airplanes, Sawhill asked: “Why can’t the auto industry and mass media learn from […]

Unmanned aircraft capabilities took a big leap forward when an expert fighter pilot found he was no match for ALPHA. The artificial intelligence system was developed by Psibernetix, founded by a University of Cincinnati graduate. Gene Lee, a retired Air Force colonel taking part in the research, told UC Magazine this week that ALPHA is […]

The first trailer for Sully, the movie based on the ditching of US Air Flight 1549 in the Hudson River in 2009, was released Thursday. It doesn’t take as long to watch as the 208 seconds it took Capt. Chesley Sullenberger and his FO Jeff Skiles to pull off the so-called Miracle on the Hudson […]

AVweb‘s search of aviation news found announcements from Duncan Aviation, EPS, Cessna Pilot Centers andPower Flow Systems.Duncan Aviation has partnered with ACSS to participate in the launch of the NXT-700 transponder and the development of the Approved Model List (AML) Supplemental Type Certificate. The NXT-700 is a Mode S transponder that satisfies the DO-260B mandate […]

The world’s most powerful rocket, designed for future manned spaceflight, had a successful startup test this week – the latest milestone for NASA’s Space Launch System. This final qualification ground test at an Orbital ATK site in Promontory, Utah, allows NASA to plan for a first unmanned test flight with its Orion spacecraft in 2018 […]

A new pavilion that doubles the exhibit space available at the Museum of Flight in Seattle opened to the public last weekend. The nine-story-high, three-acre roofed outdoor gallery also includes a cafe and a children’s play area, which features a miniature airport terminal beneath the wings of the first 747 Jumbo Jet. Fourteen other rare […]