Recent Updates

Boeing’s stretched version of the 787 Dreamliner is now certified by the FAA and the European Aviation Safety Agency, Boeing announced this week. The 787-9 adds an extra 20 feet to the fuselage length and has proved popular with customers, Boeing said. Twenty-six operators have ordered 413 of the airplanes, accounting for 40 percent of […]

Lithium-ion batteries, which have three times the power of lead acid aircraft cells, are starting to find their way into new aircraft. Mid-Continent Instruments and Avionics has formed a new division called True Blue Power to serve this market. In this AVweb video, MCI’s Todd Winter discusses the new battery products. view on YouTube

It was a good week for Boeing as it picked up an unexpected new customer and one of its biggest clients dealt a blow to rival Airbus. Late last week China Eastern Airlines announced it was buying 80 Boeing 737s, including the latest 737 MAX models. China Eastern is state-owned and it placed the $7.4 […]

I was scrolling down my newsreader app this morning and saw a story about George H.W. Bush jumping out of a helicopter. Odd, I thought, thats an old story, why are they running it again. Not. For his 90th birthday, the senior Bush did another tandem-his seventh-to celebrate. The story also noted that the former […]

Part of the proposed House funding package that will keep the FAA going was an unusual last-minute amendment that would stop an airline from offering budget fares between Europe and the U.S. Norwegian Air established a subsidiary in Ireland to serve the U.S. with low-cost flights in a fleet of Boeing 787s. The airline says […]

AVwebs weekly survey of whats new in aviation uncovered an expansion of the long-running Citation Special Olympics Airlift, election of there new board members of the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators, a Fly First Year Free promotion for one Diamond DA40 XLT and the scheduling of a Heavy Bomber Weekend in Milwaukee just prior […]

Bombardier Aerospace announced that its Challenger 350 aircraft has been awarded Transport Canada Certification. Bombardier expects certification from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration to be received shortly. According to Bombardier, the Challenger 350 will carry as many as eight passengers 3200 nm and cruise as fast as Mach 0.80 under optimal conditions. Power is provided […]

The U.S. House of Representatives Tuesday voted to provide $15.7 billion to the Federal Aviation Administration in fiscal year 2015, representing a slight increase from the current $15.6 billion funding level. AOPA is reporting that the bill prohibits the imposition of aviation user fees and also fees for digital navigational charts. The bill also directs […]

Airbus’s A350 XWB carried passengers for the first time earlier this month, taking two loads of Airbus employees and “cabin experts” from Toulouse back to Toulouse on shakedown flights. Those on the flights to nowhere were urged to press all the buttons and generally push and pull anything a regular airline passenger might encounter on […]

The FAA on Tuesday approved, for the first time, commercial operation of an unmanned aerial system over land. Previously, the agency had OK’d flights only over remote areas of the Arctic Ocean. The new approval will allow energy company BP and UAS manufacturer AeroVironment to fly a Puma AE for aerial surveys in Alaska’s Prudhoe […]