Recent Updates

The last plane to undergo maintenance inside Boeing Wichitas facility, an E-4B, started its engines and took off Thursday. It flew to the south, then gracefully turned back north for a final goodbye pass before disappearing from sight. A fixture in Wichita, Kan., since 1927, Boeing once employed as many as 40,000 people there. It […]

Textron Aviation rolled out the first production CJ3+ Thursday and it may have set a record for the time between its announcement and the pictures in front of the hangar. The aircraft was “first announced on March 20 of this year and is expected to receive FAA certification during the second half of the year,” […]

Virgin Galactic, the privately funded space company owned by Sir Richard Bransons Virgin Group and Abu Dhabis aabar Investments PJS, and Spaceport America announcedthat they have signed a joint agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration that helps clear the path for commercial flights of SpaceShipTwo. The agreement sets out the parameters for how routine space […]

AVwebs weekly review of whats new in aviation turned up news that Bose Aviation will become a sponsor of the Air Race Classic, the original King Air is being restored for a flight around the world, Scheme Designers has unveiled a new website for aircraft paint schemes and Pro Star Aviation has received Brazilian approval […]

Federal border security agents have sharply reduced intercepts of general aviation aircraft, following complaints by pilots that excessive police action at small airports is restricting the freedom to fly and a meeting with AOPA President Mark Baker according to a report by National Public Radio. An official with U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of […]

As spring moves towards summer our weekly review of what’s going on in aviation on SocialFlight reveals more and more events, especially pure, grassroots, small airport fly-ins. The first one we ran across, right in the heart of the country, is in Central City, Neb., where there will be a fly-in breakfast and lunch, on […]

Honda Aircraft has taken delivery of its first two production model HF120 engines from the GE plant in Lynn, Mass. The engines are now in full production at the Massachusetts plant after getting FAA certification late in 2013. Production will be moved to Honda’s plant in Burlington, N.C. later this year. The engine is billed […]

After several years of playing second fiddle to the rest of the world, the U.S. has reportedly reclaimed the top spot in terms of business jet sales. Oliver Stone, of U.K.-based brokerage firm Colibri Aircraft, told Business Jet Investor that in some market segments, 80 percent of the buyers are American.After years of aircraft leaving […]

Letter of the Week:UAV Technology Won’t Wait for FAA A UAV (or any remotely controlled air vehicle) flown under 400 feet still has the potential to easily take down a manned aircraft, particularly if flown near final approaches to airport runways. I’d imagine that the 400-foot altitude limitation would also make low-flying manned aircraft vulnerable, […]

Business jet and airliner manufacturers tend to dominate news about aviation in China but a California kit builder is also doing a major deal with the Chinese. Quicksilver Aircraft has sold 77 aircraft thanks to a distribution agreement it signed with JH Nanning Group. The kits will be made at Quicksilver’s Temecula plant and shipped […]