Recent Updates

Slovenian planemaker Pipistrel says its new electric-powered training aircraft will slash training costs while pleasing the neighbors of the small airports it’s designed for. The WATTsUP two-seat trainer flew for the first time on Aug. 22 and will be unveiled publicly at the Salon de Blois airshow in France Aug. 30-31. “Technologies developed specially for […]

NASA has flown its tilt-rotor hybrid electric concept aircraft and hopes it will result in a practical VTOL unmanned aircraft. Greased Lightning flew for the first time Aug. 19 (tethered) and it represents a new take on an old design first pioneered by Canadair in the 1950s and used by the V-22 Osprey. The wings […]

A SpaceX Falcon 9 reusable rocket was intentionally exploded over the company’s Texas proving grounds on Friday after onboard systems detected an unspecified “anomaly.” The spacecraft disappeared in a fireball shortly after launch.”During the flight, an anomaly was detected in the vehicle and the flight termination system automatically terminated the mission,” the company said in […]

Model aircraft hobbyists, research universities and commercial drone interests filed lawsuits Friday challenging a government directive that they say imposes tough new limits on the use of model aircraft and broadens the agency’s ban on commercial drone flights. According to ABC News, the three lawsuits asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of […]

A Chinese Su-27 fighter made several “dangerous” and “unprofessional” passes at a U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon this week-coming as close as an estimated 20 feet at one point-in what the White House calleda “deeply concerning provocation.” The incident, which is reportedly in violation of international law, occurred Tuesday in international airspace in the South China […]

AVweb’s weekly review of what’s going on in aviation turned up news of everything from Beech’s delivery of new airplanes to the Mexican Navy, through word of CTI Professional Flight Training’s new training approval, to a new national commander of the Civil Air Patrol, to PlaneLogiX going live with its maintenance backup program. Beechcraft Corporation, […]

The aviation industry has been warned about the possibility of flight disruptions caused by activity at Iceland’s largest volcano system. Intense seismic tremors have been recorded at Iceland’s Bardarbunga volcano for the past several days, although there are no signs yet of an eruption. Iceland’s Met Office has raised the risk level to the aviation […]

A helicopter tourism pilot used his Robinson R44 helicopter to scare a shark away from a calving whale along the west coast of Australia last week. Sean Blocksidge, proprietor of Wild Blue Helicopters of Margaret River, Western Australia, was on a flight with his friend and company pilot Brett Campany to do some aerial photography […]

Lockheed Martin has successfully completed a test mission involving resupply, reconnaissance, surveillance, and target acquisition, all of it conducted completely by autonomous vehicles, the company said last week. The test, at Fort Benning, Georgia, was designed to simulate a mission to resupply soldiers defending a village. The K-Max unmanned helicopter delivered an autonomous military ground […]

Textron Aviation is closing former Cessna fractional operator CitationAir and selling the remaining airplanes. CitationAir was started in 2000 as CitationShares, a division of Cessna. Cessna stopped selling shares in new aircraft and jet cards two years ago and it’s ceasing flight operations Oct. 31. “We previously communicated with our customers regarding the decision to […]