Recent Updates

Cessna has been working for a while now on offering diesel power for its 172 and 182 single-engine aircraft, with certification of the JT-A variants expected maybe last year, then maybe this year, but this week the company said the certification timeline is “undefined,” at least for the 182, and production on the avgas-powered 182T […]

Pilatus flew its PC-24 twinjetfor the first time, about 10 a.m. Monday morning, from Buochs airport in central Switzerland. The airplane flew for 55 minutes, and the company said “the flight went exactly as planned with no problems whatsoever.” The jet used less than 2,000 feet of runway for takeoff, and climbed to 10,000 feet, […]

United Airlines has defended itself publicly and will likely get the chance to do so in court against allegationsit discriminated against an autistic passenger and her family by ordering them off their flight to Portland May 5. Juliette Forbes, 15, and her mother, brother and father were escorted off the aircraft by police after the […]

CNN has talked the FAA into letting it use a tethered drone to shoot news footage almost wherever it wants, up to an altitude of 400 feet. At the AUVSI show in Atlanta, AVweb got a look at this intriguing machine. view on YouTube

Kitplanesmagazine recently flew the SubSonex, the world’s only currently available single-seat personal jet. In this video, Kitplaneseditor Paul Dye talks about what it’s like to fly this unique aircraft and air show veteran Bob Carleton describes the engine and airplane development. view on YouTube

There were dozens of UAVs at this year’s Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International show in Atlanta. AVweb took a few minutes to capture some on film. (Well, pixels, anyway.) view on YouTube

Not to be left behind in the disruptive wave of unmanned aircraft, Sikorsky Aircraft has developed a kit to convert its UH-60 Black Hawk to pilot-optional flight. At the AUVSI show in Atlanta this week, AVweb took a look at the new hardware. view on YouTube

AVweb’s search of aviation news around the world found a new UAS cybersecurity program at Kansas State, a new helicopter service in Chicago, GAMA’sAviation Design Challenge winners and NATA’sIndustry Excellence Awards.K-State Salinais adding an unmanned aircraft systems cybersecurity concentration to its Professional Master of Technology and is currently enrolling students for the inaugural class beginning […]

The brief test flight of an unmanned SpaceX capsule on Wednesday was the first trial for a system that will allow astronauts to abort their launches should something go awry. It also marked progress for NASA’s plans to once again transport astronauts, replacing the retired space shuttle program with commercially made spacecraft. “I think this […]

At the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International show in Atlanta, a company called Panoptes was demonstrating its cool new ultrasonic-based obstacle avoidance add-on for DJI Phantom drones. It’s retrofittable, too. Donnie Rogers gave us a tour of the product. view on YouTube