Recent Updates

A teacher in New York City was arrested Friday on charges of flying a drone in Louis Armstrong Stadium the evening before during a U.S. Open tennis match. The drone crashed into empty seats, and no one was injured, The Associated Press reported. Daniel Verley, 26, faces charges of reckless endangerment and operating a drone […]

Although it hasn’t been officially confirmed, last week’s reported collision between a drone and a Piper PA-23 was, in fact, a bird strike. Residue on the aircraft’s de-icing boot was analyzed by the Smithsonian Institution and found to contain the remains of a small, non-predatory bird, sources familiar with the investigation told AVweb on Friday. […]

Houston was only an hour behind us, but the weather was turning out much worse than forecast. The ceilings were steadily lowering and the METAR updates said the few airports along our route were going from marginal to worse. A pop-up IFR clearance would have been great, but there was a little problem: the airplane […]

AVweb’s search of aviation news this week found award announcements from the Aero Club of Northern California and the National Aviation Hall of Fame, a new mobile job-search app from AviationCV.com, and a milestone for Van’s Aircraft RV kits. Alan Eustace, who set the world record for the highest-altitude free fall jump in October 2014, […]

The FAA on Wednesday updated its 34-year-old Advisory Circular on personal model aircraft, issuing safety and airspace rules similar to the ones it has issued on consumer drones. The new version, which triples the length of the original 1981 AC(PDF) to three pages from one, limits model aircraft to 55 pounds unless certified by a […]

Researchers from NASA have been experimenting with a 150-year-old photography technique that captures dramatic images of the shock waves created when airplanes fly at supersonic speeds. The images, which NASA posted online last week, reveal the effect of supersonic flight on the air-density gradient. Simple equipment is used to capture the images, which then are […]

NBAA this week filed its formal response to a recent announcement from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that it wants to regulate carbon emissions from airplanes. NBAA said it is not opposed to new regulations, but wants them to be standardized across the globe. The International Civil Aviation Organization already is working to develop a […]

The Legacy 450 business jet, an all-new mid-light design featuring fly-by-wire technology and sidestick controls, is now FAA-certified, the company announced on Monday. The jet was first certified in Brazil, a few weeks ago. Deliveries will start in the fourth quarter of this year, the company said. The jet has a top speed of Mach […]

While two F-16s waited outside, it was actually a cat-deprived “European model” that managed to bring down a Boeing 767 for an emergency landing in Denver on Friday. The Condor Airlines flight was on its way from Las Vegas to Frankfurt about 6 p.m. when a female passenger insisted that her “comfort cat,” which was […]

Bell Helicopter’s new assembly plant for its upcoming Short Light Single rotorcraft is open in Lafayette, Louisiana, the company announced Thursday. Based at Lafayette’s regional airport, the 82,300-square-foot leased hangar will house assembly of Bell’s 505 Jet Ranger X. Bell chose the site in 2013 and broke ground a year ago with plans to hire […]