Recent Updates

Video of passengers pushing an airliner where its wheels had frozen to the ground in northern Russia made news around the world this week. The video shows people pushing the Tupolev Tu-134 backwards on a tarmac in Igarka, where it was 61 degrees below zero, the Associated Press reported. The UTair Russian airliner was to […]

Cirrus’s SF50 jet program took a major step forward on Tuesday with the first flight of its second certification flight test aircraft. C1, as it has been dubbed, took off at 3:30 p.m. from Duluth International Airport for a 45-minute flight. Pilot Terry LeSage said it went the way test pilots like test flights to […]

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines took customer service to a new level in recent weeks with a five-day publicity event assisting thousands of travelers around the world. In a video released this month, the airline described the social media-based “#happytohelp” campaign as its way of reaching out to non-KLM customers. “We decided to help out everyone, […]

Continental Motors Group Ltd. has expanded its Alabama-based maintenance and service operations into avionics and aircraft interiors. Continental, a subsidiary of AVIC International Holding Corp. of Beijing, China, announced on Monday it has completed acquisition of Southern Avionics and Communications of Mobile.Southern Avionics is now a division of Continental Motors Services of Fairhope, Alabama, and […]

Rotax is well known for its line of aircraft engines, but these are just a small part of the company’s engine-manufacturing business. Last summer, AVweb’s Paul Bertorelli visited the factory and produced this engaging video of how the company builds its aircraft engines. view on YouTube

A story in Monday’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required)says the FAA’s proposed rulemaking on commercial use of unmanned aerial systems will face so much backlash that it could take years to enact. Citing unnamed sources, the Journal says the big sticking point will be the requirement for a private pilot certificate for commercial UAS pilots. […]

I’m quite certain my first encounter with the word “disruptive” was when Sister Claire used it in a note to my parents to describe my behavior in second grade phonics class. If only she knew the depth of her prescience, she could have made a killing in the stock market. Now, the word has taken […]

Airbus has filed a patent for a futuristic “flying doughnut” design for a passenger aircraft, the Daily Mail reported this week. The patent drawings show a circular cabin with seats arranged in a “doughnut” pattern, and a delta wing plan. The design aims to overcome some of the problems associated with pressurizing the traditional “flying […]

AVweb’s weekly search of the news in the world of aviation turned up new leadership roles at Honeywell Aerospace, Key Air, the board of Aero Electric Aircraft Corp. and the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems. Honeywell Aerospace has appointed Justin Ryan president of BendixKing, effective January 2015. Ryan will lead the Albuquerque, New Mexico-based Honeywell […]

Lockheed Martin and Kaman Aerospace successfully tested an unmanned K-Max helicopter in simulated firefighting exercises, the companies said this week. During the demonstration, a small VTOL Indago quad-rotor drone effectively identified hot spots, and provided data to an operator who directed the unmanned helicopter to autonomously extinguish the flames. In one hour, the helicopter lifted […]