Recent Updates

An unmanned aerial system that can take off and land on destroyers and other small military ships is nearing reality. After completing initial design phases, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency this month awarded a contract to Northrop Grumman Corp. to build a full-scale demonstration model of the yet-to-be-named UAS.DARPA’s goal is to build a […]

The Port of Seattle has partnered with Alaska Airlines and Boeing to set an ambitious goal — powering all airline flights at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport with sustainable aviation biofuel. The partners have launched a $250,000 study to assess the costs and infrastructure they would need to deliver a biofuel/jet-fuel blend to all airline flights at […]

The entrepreneurs behind Morgan Aircraft, a startup based in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, planned to develop and build a twin turboprop VTOL business aircraft, but they have now shut down the company and filed for receivership, according to local news reports. The receivership process is similar to bankruptcy, and allows the company’s assets to be sold off […]

Vandals cut though a chain-link fence Sunday night at the Van Nuys Airport near Los Angeles and sprayed three corporate jets with graffiti. It was the first time vandals have struck at the airfield since a similar incident two years ago. The jets were parked on a ramp outside of a hangar. “This happened in […]

This year has been the most profitable ever for China’s airline industry, growing 76 percent from last year and generating $8.5 billion in profits, according to local reports, despite an overall slowdown in the economy. Over the last five years, passenger traffic grew about 10 percent per year, nine new airlines launched, and the number […]

As 2015 draws to a close, it’s time to take a few reflective moments to consider the year just past, to wonder at the marvel of flight, to appreciate its sheer poetry and to give thanks for that rarified privilege we all reverently share. And also to attempt to make feeble but pointless amends for […]

Mitsubishi has pushed back the certification and delivery schedule of its MRJ regional jet by at least a year, saying the aircraft might not be strong enough to meet certification requirements. In a surprise announcement on Christmas Eve, Mitsubishi Aircraft President Hiromichi Morimoto said the 90-seat aircraft meets so-called “normal use” requirements but the company […]

The Army’s longest-serving unmanned aerial system retired this month after a final flight at Fort Hood in Texas. Operators of the Hunter, a fixed-wing unit similar in size to a two-seat piston airplane, enjoyed a last demonstration flight during a ceremony Dec. 16 at Robert Gray Army Airfield. The UAS is among the early generations […]

This week’s successful landing and recovery of a launch booster by SpaceX got a lot favorable coverage and was an impressive feat. But as a classically trained aeronautical engineer who spent more than three decades flying crewed rocket ships into space, I have always looked at the concept of a fly-back booster with skepticism. The […]

Flying an RV-8 from Los Angeles, California to Oxfordshire, England in 19 days may strike many as an adventure of a lifetime. For me, the 7000 NM trip was my way to return home after working four years in the Tesla Motors Design Studio in Hawthorne, California. Airfields along the Crimson Route, partially developed in […]