Recent Updates

AVweb’s weekly foray into the latest aviation news uncovered news of a new president at MicroAerodynanics, a special aircraft sale by Quicksilver, no delay CFI insurance and staff additions at the EAA. After several years as the Flight Test Director and Vice President at Micro AeroDynamics, Ms. Anni Brogan has become President of the company. […]

The FAA is warning drone operators that overflying sports venues could lead to jail time. In a posting Monday on its TFR website, the FAA states ” … unmanned aircraft and remote controlled aircraft” are prohibited within three nautical miles and 3,000 feet AGL over “any stadium having a seating capacity of 30,000 or more […]

Solar Flight has released plans for the SunStar, a solar-powered airplane designed to act as an unmanned telecommunications platform, able to remain in flight for months at a time. Eric Raymond, president of Solar Flight, said, “What we are designing is known as an atmospheric satellite, which operates and performs many of the functions as […]

A Hawker Hunter owned by Airborne Tactical Advantage Company (ATAC), a civilian tactical airborne training organization, crashed Wednesday on approach to Naval Base Ventura County, near Point Mugu, California. The pilot was declared dead at the scene. No one on the ground was injured. An investigation into the cause is underway. ATAC’s website says it […]

The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery (TIGHAR) is reporting that it is increasingly confident that a piece of aluminum it found on Nikumaroro Atoll in the south Pacific is from the Lockheed Electra flown by Amelia Earhart and Fred Noonan on their ill-fated circumnavigation attempt in 1937. In a carefully worded statement, TIGHAR personnel […]

Surf Air, which calls itself an “all-you-can-fly private membership airline,” is expanding its service from its base in Santa Monica, California, to include Carlsbad and Oakland, the company has announced. The added service coincides with the arrival of three new Pilatus PC-12NG aircraft, the first in an order of 65 airplanes to be delivered over […]

The job of aircraft dispatcher may not get much attention, but dispatchers are essential to flight departments around the country, and the FAA has decided it needs to be more vigilant about how they are trained. There are 44 FAA-approved dispatcher certification courses in operation, the FAA said last week, but the FAA has no […]

Friday’s world-record high-altitude skydive by computer scientist Alan Eustace pioneered a new space suit and life support system and the data collected from the jump may inform the design of a six-person capsule now in the works. Eustace, a Google senior executive, established the new record by exiting a balloon at 135,890 feet over Roswell, […]

In January 2012, Bell Canada applied to the FAA for an exemption from the FARs that would allow it to increase the gross weight of its Model 429 by 500 pounds to 7,500 pounds as had been approved in Canada and a number of other countries. The FAA denied the petition in August 2012. Bell […]

In an exclusive, Reuters is reportingthat Lockheed Martin and the Defense Department have inked a $4 billion deal for an eighth series delivery of 43 F-35 single-engine, all-weather, stealth fighters. According to the report, the hard-fought contract will lower the price of the jet by about 3 percent-and it includes aircraft to be built for […]