Recent Updates

Since I’m not the guy for writing apologias for anything, I have to be honest about this: Every year I walk through the main gate at Sebring’s Sport Aviation Expo, I wonder if this show has enough economic momentum to survive for another year. For those accustomed to the size and energy of Oshkosh or […]

It’s been my good fortune to work and socialize with a number of test pilots during my career. There has been a lot of publicity and hype about test pilots ever since the Montgolfier brothers made the first flight of an aircraft in 1783-some of it has even been true. My own perspective is that […]

The Air Force is moving ahead with plans to triple the size of the Powder River MOAs over the northern Plains.In a statementissued Friday, the Air Force said the expansion would allow training flights for the B-1 Lancer and B-52 Stratofortress to operate closer to the bases at Ellsworth in South Dakota and Minot in […]

AOPA President Mark Baker has pointedly urged Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx for action on proposed third-class medical reform. In what AOPA describes as a “strongly-worded letter,” Baker says the delay in acting on the three-year-old proposal is “incomprehensible” to most of its members. “On behalf of our members and the aviation community we must ask, […]

Bombardier has “paused” development of its mostly composite Learjet 85 business jet saying the market is too soft both for that product and for light-to-midsize jets. The suspension will result in the layoff of a total of 1,000 workers at production facilities in Wichita and Queretaro, Mexico. About 620 of the layoffs will be in […]

AVweb’s search of news in aviation worldwide turned up a new safety product for cabin pressure in aircraft, a STOL kit from Just Aircraft, a new ADS-B suite for King Air 200s, and an aviation scholarship program at Nova Southeastern University. The AltAlert personal cabin pressure monitor has been created to provide a new level […]

Tecnam has invested in a major new assembly and support facility for its aircraft at the Sebring, Florida, airport. As part of our Sport Aviation Expo 2015 coverage, AVweb took a tour of the new facility. view on YouTube

While the FAA creeps toward releasing regulations for unmanned aerial systems, plenty of entrepreneurs and designers are moving ahead with new products. One new design, the X PlusOne, aims to combine the usual VTOL multi-rotor design with the ability to fly horizontally at high speeds. xCraft, a start-up company, is just wrapping up a successful […]

The FAA is deputizing police forces across the U.S. in the fight against illegal drone use. The agency has issued a 12-page guide to law-enforcement agencies enlisting their help in stemming the “considerable increase in the unauthorized use” of small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS). Of course, the police don’t really have the authority to enforce […]

Although you don’t see it as much, the kind of nose art that reached its zenith during World War II is still with us. I recently saw a shot of some pretty risqu art on the nose of an A-10. It’s still out there. Another military tradition also popular during World War II was the […]