Recent Updates

The Citation Latitude, the first in the line of new midsized business jets that Cessna hopes will challenge Embraer in that market, made its maiden flight on Tuesday and it went well according to Cessna. The aircraft, which was announced a little over two years agoat NBAA 2011, flew for 2.5 hours, climbed to 28,000 […]

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association is holding its annual luncheon today to announce the sales numbers of its members from last year but some companies just couldn’t wait to spread their good news. On Tuesday, Piper jumped the gun with a news release saying its sales and revenue increases were in double digits in 2013, […]

Business jet activity is showing a steady increase in Europe and the biggest jump is being recorded by the smallest aircraft. WingX Advance, a German research and consulting company, says very light jets recorded (PDF) a whopping 23 percent increase in flights in January of 2014 compared to January of 2013. The Cessna Citation Mustang […]

The FAA has formally retired its last DC-3 and the faithfully restored N34 has made its last flight to the Texas Air & Space Museum in Amarillo. The aircraft was acquired by the agency in 1958 and it flew around the U.S. as a navaid inspection platform. It retired from that duty in 1981 (King […]

It has beenreported that Santa Monica’s lawsuit against the Federal Aviation Administration seeking to clarify ownership of its municipal airport in order to close it was thrown out today by a federal court judge in downtown Los Angeles. U.S. District Judge John L. Walter dismissed the case, ruling that one of the lawsuit’s claims was […]

A review of press releases this week found one issued after Republic Airways Holdings announced that it would hire half the pilots it expected to because of a lack of candidates that meet new FAA experience rules. Craig Moffatt, President of Teamsters Local 357, which represents the more than 3000 pilots who fly for the […]

In the world of military aviation, the piston engine was left for dead sometime in the 1950s and it would still be thus if drones hadnt come along. But piston engines swinging old-school props give unmanned aircraft something that jet engines cant: unrivaled mid-altitude efficiency and endurance. So as unlikely as it seems, drone technology […]

The FAA has announced that it will be hiring 10,000 controllers over the next decade, with 6,000 in the next five years. It is accepting applications now. Successful applicants must be U.S. citizens, able to start training before their 31st birthday, and willing to relocate to to an air traffic facility based on the FAAs […]

The thousands of airline pilots who are furloughed or working overseas when they would prefer to fly for a U.S. airline and live in this country makes it clear that no shortage of trained and qualified airline pilots currently exists in the United States, according to the Air Line Pilots Association, Intl (ALPA). There may […]

The House Transportation Committee has approved a bill that would ban passengers from talking on their cellphones in flight. The bill, which still must be debated by the full House, would ban only voice communications and would allow passengers to text, go online and email while on aircraft. A similar bill has also been proposed […]