Recent Updates

The main stage from SpaceX’s successful launch of a NASA spacecraft intentionally missed its attempt to land on a barge bobbing in rough seas off Florida by 30 feet Wednesday but everything else seemed to work right. “Rocket soft landed in the ocean within 10m of target & nicely vertical! High probability of good droneship […]

The European Space Agency had a successful test of its unmanned mini-spacecraft Wednesday, launching theIntermediate eXperimental Vehicle and recovering it after splashdown in the Pacific Ocean. The design of the IXV spaceplane, as the ESA calls it, will ultimately result in a reusable spacecraft. The big push now is to develop re-entry capability and data […]

General aviation supplied 1.1 million jobs and contributed $219 billion to the U.S. economy in 2013, according to a study (PDF) conducted for eight major GA groups. The General Aviation Manufacturers Association released the study Wednesday at its annual news conference in Washington.The study, conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers, examined GA-related industries and their direct and indirect […]

GA manufacturing saw ups and downs in the past year with most of the positive numbers coming from piston airplanes, followed by business jets, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association said Wednesday in its annual review. Airplane shipments rose overall in 2014 from the prior year, although turboprops and the overall rotorcraft sector saw declines. Total […]

The team that founded Surf Air, known as an “all-you-can-fly private membership airline” in California, is now starting up a new venture, called Beacon, to provide a similar service between Boston and New York. The service is offering unlimited flights for $2,000 per month. Former Surf Air CEO Wade Eyerly says he has learned a […]

DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, has posted a video online that illustrates how it expects to deliver payloads of up to 100 pounds into orbit for less than $1 million, within 24 hours of call-up, using a conventional jet fighter plane that can take off from ordinary runways. In a news release last […]

The test pilot who many test pilots acknowledge as the “Dean of Test Flight” died last week. Fitshugh “Fitz” Fulton died at his home in Los Angeles from complications of Parkinson’s Disease. He was 89. Fulton tested everything from sailplanes to the YF-12 (predecessor of the SR-71) during his 40-year career and was inducted into […]

I’ve been covering and writing about businesses of various kinds for a long time and I’m trying to recall if executives always coveted buzz phrases they way they do now. Probably they have, but I just found it less obnoxious when I was younger. (Now, everything is obnoxious. Didn’t I warn you about being on […]

For one of the most famous people in the world, the first man on the moon was notoriously private and one of Neil Armstrong’s little secrets is now in the hands of the Smithsonian. Armstrong took one last step for posterity while evacuating the Eagle lander for the trip from moon orbit back to Earth. […]

Dassault Aviation’s new Falcon 8X completed its first flight this week from the company’s Bordeaux-Merignac facility in France and is on target for certification in mid-2016. Two test pilots completed the first of a series of flight and systems tests that will be followed with a second and third 8X, scheduled to fly in the […]