Recent Updates

The U.S. Department of Transportation will soon require registration of all drones, including hobby models, according to various reports. The ruling is expected to come down Oct. 19 and will cover every type of unmanned aerial system. The DOT issued advance notice to major media outlets by saying it will “make an important safety announcement […]

Tecnam will build three of its models in China for the growing training and travel markets there, the Italian company announced early Saturday. Under an agreement with Liaoning United Aviation, Shenyang Aircraft Co., manufacturing will start with the twin-engine Tecnam P2006T, which has been certified by China’s Civil Aviation Authority. Other models to follow are […]

Richard “Dick” Taylor, known for his decades of work on jet designs, died earlier this month at 93 at his home in Seattle. He was a test pilot and later director of engineering for Boeing, where his portfolio included the B-29 tanker, the B-47, B-52 and later, the 737. The Seattle Times noted that Taylor […]

A nonprofit corporation with a long history of developing new technology (it made the first nuclear rods, invented the foundation technology of the CD) has come up with a way to harmlessly disable drones that are flying where they aren’t supposed to be flying. The Battelle Memorial Institute has come up with a gun-like radio […]

AVweb’s search of aviation news around the world found an Amazon Fire release from Hilton Software,progress on Pratt & Whitney Canada’s new turboprop engine, updated products from Mountain High Oxygen, andKansas State’s opening of its new UAS facility.Hilton Software LLC, a leader in advanced mobile aviation technology and a United States Department of Defense contractor, […]

SkyPan International, the drone operator that was fined $1.9 million this month by the FAA for aerial photography flights, maintains it has always operated legally and safely. In a response to the FAA’s charges that it conducted unauthorized flights in New York and Chicago between March 2012 and December 2014, SkyPan says it “operates only […]

When it comes to drones—talking about them, writing about them, filming them or considering them in almost any context—I think hysteria is still the standard condition. Even we reported last month that a million of the damn things could be given as Christmas gifts. The source of this was Rich Swayze, who told an Airlines […]

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology say they have discovered a fuel additive that could reduce the intensity of jet-fuel-fed explosions when airplanes crash. The additive has no adverse affect on fuel performance, according to the team’s preliminary results. The additive, created by a team headed by Julia Kornfield, professor of chemical engineering, is […]

Pipistrel, a light-aircraft manufacturer based in Slovenia, has won a contract to supply India’s military with 194 copies of its Virus SW 80 Garud two-seat trainer. “This is without a doubt the largest contract in the entire 26-year history of Pipistrel,” said Ivo Boscarol, Pipistrel’s owner and general manager. The company will produce about seven […]

In the persistent quest to squeeze ever more passengers into the finite space of a composite tube, Airbus has patented a proposal to stack a second layer of seats above the middle rows of wide-bodies to fill those cubic feet with fare-paying cargo. The company has filed a variety of designs to accomplish the high-density […]