Recent Updates

Update: On Feb. 7, the FAA announced that it has appealed the dismissal of its civil penalty action against commercial drone operator Raphael Pirker to the full National Transportation Safety Board. The appeal has the effect of staying the law judge’s decision until the full Board rules. NBC Newsreported that a National Transportation Safety Board […]

Garmin International Inc. announced new capabilities for G1000-equipped King Air 200/250/300/350 series aircraft. These enhancements provide a number of new features and optional equipment upgrades that offer King Air owners and operators more capability. These new upgrades include several key NextGen components like Automatic Dependence Surveillance- Broadcast (ADS-B) compliance, as well as customer-requested capabilities such […]

With more than 70 employees now employed at its Kerrville, Texas, facility, and about to restart the assembly line to produce the first M20TN Acclaim Type S, Mooney has announcedthat its management leadership team is in place. CEO is Dr. Jerry Chen, who has extensive experience in the aviation and aerospace industry and holds two […]

Ten out of every 100 Army helicopter pilots are women – but they account for only three out of every 100 accidents. Thats the bottom line in an Army report that, in an effort to study the impact of women on the front lines, compares accident rates of men and women flying U.S. Army helicopters […]

Global business aviation activity grew by 4 percent in 2013 according to Jet Support Services Inc.’s (JSSI) annual report. While the solid increase was in itself encouraging, the company noted the uptick outpaced the 2.9 percent the International Monetary Fund’s predicted the global economy would grow last year. “The global growth in flight hours is […]

A new federal budget plan released by the White House on Tuesday includes a proposal to “establish a surcharge for air traffic services of $100 per flight.” NBAA President Ed Bolen said similar proposals in the last three budgets were stopped when the aviation community mobilized and asked elected officials to oppose the fees. “There […]

I think people who have been in wars not only think about the experience differently than those who have not, but their views of it change as they grow older. I thought of this the other day when I was in the local YMCA waging my own daily war against gravity. You know, came a […]

A British company has parlayed a $300 million project abandoned by the U.S. Army into a media spectacle that might launch a commercial airship business. Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) had originally partnered with Northrop Grumman to develop the Long Endurance Multi-Intelligence Vehicle, a lighter-than-air vehicle with aerodynamic properties that nominally put it into a new […]

A new report released this week by the Government Accountability Office offers a mixed view of whether the much-discussed airline pilot shortage actually exists, but it does confirm that regional airlines are having trouble finding qualified pilots. The GAO report (PDF), which was done at the behest of Congress, found that the projected need for […]

I can rightly-but not necessarily proudly-claim dual citizenship in two Villages of the Damned: journalism and aviation. Journalism, that noble guardian of the public trust and traveler of the moral high road, has been utterly disrupted by the rise of countless internet news services and a young generation that doesnt read. In aviation, an asymptotic […]