Recent Updates

A researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has flight-tested a drone that can detect obstacles and avoid them in fight without any input from an operator, MIT said this week. Andrew Barry, a graduate student in the school’s artificial-intelligence lab, has tested the system in a tree-filled field at speeds of about 30 mph. […]

The industry task force convened to advise the FAA on its plan to require registration of most small drones got together today in Washington to figure out which of the millions of little aircraft to keep tabs on and how to do it without driving everyone crazy. And they need to do it by Nov. […]

The hypersonic Sabre engine under development by Reaction Engines has attracted an investment of about $30 million from global aerospace company BAE Systems, the companies announced on Tuesday, and they also said a $90 million research grant from the British government is expected to be finalized soon. The injection of cash will accelerate development of […]

Even as the FAA struggles to formulate drone regulations, Internet giant Google says it will begin delivering packages by drone sometime in 2017. David Vos, who leads Project Wing for Google’s parent, Alphabet, said the company is in discussions with the FAA to set up an air traffic control system for drones that would use […]

Somewhere in the not-that-distant past, the rollout of a new airliner morphed from a simple tow out of the hangar to polite applause into industrial theater with a cast of thousands. Give China’s COMAC—the government-owned consortium responsible for commercial aircraft—credit for nailing the theater part, albeit with a slight party twist not of the balloon […]

Letter of the Week:Correcting the Imbalance Regarding Paul Bertorelli’s blog about gender imbalance: Aviation, as a profession, seems to have set the modern standard on “imbalance,” an ironic fact given the physical principles on which it is based. Does it make sense to address the subject of gender imbalance without including wage imbalance, race imbalance, […]

The first Chinese airplane designed for the large-airliner segment rolled out of the factory on Monday morning. The C919 jet, built by the state-run Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China (COMAC), can seat up to 168 passengers. COMAC said it has orders for 517 aircraft from 21 customers, most of them based in China. The jet […]

Days after throwing a $1 billion lifeline to struggling aircraft manufacturer Bombardier, the Quebec government is now asking the newly elected Justin Trudeau federal government to match the investment in one of the province’s biggest employers. The new government, which swept to power two weeks ago, will decide Wednesday whether to give the company money […]

Flight Safety International and the City of Wichita have reached an agreement on disposition of the former Flight Safety facility, which was heavily damaged when a King Air crashed into the building. As we reported last year, four people, including three Flight Safety employees in the building, were killed when the aircraft crashed. Since then, […]

Faulty design and manufacturing of engine components were among likely causes of the Orbital Sciences rocket explosion a year ago, according to a report (PDF) this week from a NASA-appointed review team. The unmanned Antares rocket, carrying cargo to the International Space Station, exploded at a commercial launch site in Virginia on Oct. 28, 2014. […]