Recent Updates

Boeing and Embraer will work together to develop a sustainable aviation biofuel and establish the industry in Brazil, the two companies announced last week. At the Boeing-Embraer Joint Research Center in the So Jos dos Campos Technology Park, the companies will coordinate research with Brazilian universities and other institutions. Both companies will contribute toward funding […]

Well, I think we can safely kiss good-bye any hope of meaningful changes to the third class medical requirements for private pilots. I base that theory on the nasty note AOPA President Mark Baker sent to Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx last week on the topic. (PDF) But what I can’t figure out is which is […]

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk says his company will try again next month to recover a booster rocket used to launch a space payload. The company will try for a second time Feb. 8 to land a spent booster rocket on a barge in the Atlantic Ocean now that it has figured out the rather pedestrian […]

For the next while, FAA inspectors will have to line up and wait like the rest of us if they want to get to a secure area of the airport. The move comes after an unidentified inspector used his secure area identification area badge to bypass security at Atlanta Airport before boarding a flight for […]

Air India says it has suspended a pilot and is investigating further after the pilot allegedly brawled with a mechanic in the cockpit of a Boeing 787 at the airport in Chennai, India, on Saturday. According to various media reports, the pilot was apparently upset by the time it was taking to fix a fault […]

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 […]