Recent Updates

Despite strict economic sanctions in place against Iran, a U.S.-registered Bombardier Challenger, N604EP, was spotted on the ramp at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran earlier this week. Who is traveling in it and who is flying it are mysteries as the jet is registered to the Bank of Utah as trustee for the investors who have […]

WTS International, the association for the professional advancement of women in transportation, has announced the selection of the winners of its seven scholarships for 2014. Each of the winners will be recognized at an awards banquet on May 15 during the 2014 WTS Annual Conference in Portland, Ore. The scholarship winners are: WTS is very […]

Our weekly survey of aviation news turned up an announcement of certification of the newest Airbus Helicopter, tighter rules regarding helicopter ambulance operators, an NTSB seminar on loss of control accidents and a new Pilot Welcome Center at Friday Harbor, Washington. Friday Harbor Airport, Washington announced the opening of its new Pilot Welcome Center in […]

Embraer reports that during the first quarter of 2014 it delivered 14 jets to the commercial aviation market and 20 to the business aviation market, for a total of 34 aircraft, compared to 29 aircraft delivered in the same period of 2013. On March 31, 2014, the firm order backlog totaled $19.2 billion, an increase […]

In the U.S. we know it as Part 23, but the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is concerned with revisions to what the rest of the world knows as CS-23. AVweb’s Paul Bertorelli caught up with Greg Bowles form GAMA at Aero in Friedrichshafen to get the lowdown on changes to the rule and what […]

Textron AirLand, LLC, a joint venture between Textron and AirLand Enterprises, LLC, announced that its prototype Scorpion has completed 50 hours of flight time since the start of flight testing in December 2013, including a recent demonstration of low-speed handling in formation with a Cessna 182. After the need for an affordable combat airplane for […]

The first autonomous combat drone for carrier operations is the winner of the 2013 Collier Trophy. The National Aeronautic Association bestowed what many consider aviation’s top prize to the Northrop Grumman X-47B. The stealthy drone first flew in 2011 and spent much of 2013 in carrier and runway recovery operations. Last week it made its […]

At Aero 2014, a German company called E-volo drew lots of attention with its unique Volocopter, a multiple rotor electric helicopter design that flew unmanned last fall. The next step is to improve battery capacity and perhaps design a hybrid version. view on YouTube

Malaysia’s government has begun investigating civil aviation and military authorities to determine why opportunities to identify and track Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 were missed in the hours after it vanished, according toReuters. The internal inquiries come as tensions are rapidly escalating between civilian and military authorities over who bears more responsibility for the initial confusion […]

Maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) industry officials are claiming that FAA employees and managers are in some cases imposing ad hoc rules on MRO companies. They claim the FAA officials are improperly using the FAAs internal online flight standards information management system (FSIMS), an electronic documentation system the agency adopted to replace the legacy inspectors […]