Recent Updates

In 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse famously tapped out the first telegraph message, what hath God wrought? Were he an airline passenger today ruminating on the FCCs likely decision to lift the ban on cell phone use in airliners, he would text something along the lines of what fresh hell is this? None of this is […]

The Federal Communications Commission will reportedly propose lifting a ban on passenger use of cellular phone use – both for voice and data connections – above 10,000 feet. Doing so would shift the approval decision to airlines, which would still be restricted from offering that utility while their aircraft operate below 10,000 feet. The FCC […]

Dick VanGrunsven of Vans Aircraft; Joe Brown, president of Hartzell; and David Pasahow, founder of an executive search firm, have joined EAAs Board of Directors, EAA announced Thursday. The men were invited to join during EAAs fall meeting on Nov. 14-15 at Oshkosh. Each will each serve one-year renewable terms on the EAA board. Current […]

There are lots of ways for pilots to earn 30 seconds on the evening news, some good, but most not. The descriptors that begin or end with phrases like he was a good, careful pilot are the unfortunate ones, since the airman in question isnt likely to be breathing so he cant see himself on […]

Authorities allege that John Walsh, 46, has been using an unregistered LSA-type aircraft and falsified pilot certificate to fly customers near Key Largo, Fla. Walsh was charged Tuesday with felony operation of the aircraft – an M-Squared Breeze II that would otherwise be an LSA or experimental category aircraft, fitted with pontoons – in a […]

Wind tunnel testing conducted earlier this month at Moffett Field, Calif., has shown promising results for active flow control technology and its potential for reducing the size of vertical tail structures for a whole family of aircraft. NASA, in partnership with Boeing, equipped a full-scale Boeing 757 vertical fin with active flow control technology that […]

A crowd-funded campaign for the not-for-profit Perlan Project aims to raise more than $2 million to build the Perlan II sailplane and send it to a near-space altitude of more than 90,000 feet. The project hopes to use stratospheric mountain waves and the polar vortex to reach the target altitudes and to collect atmospheric data […]

Three of the four surviving members of the 80 crew members whose 1942 attack on Japan made them Doolittles Raiders met for the last time publicly at the National Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, last Veterans Day weekend. The men held a pact that the last survivor among them would open a 1896 vintage […]

That faint humming sound you hear is the media-industrial complex gearing up for the first commercial space tourism flights, which Virgin Galactic seems likely to pull off next year, if not sooner. On NBC news Friday, I saw an advance story on Virgin Galactic with an interview with Richard Branson. Its pre-promo; NBC has signed […]

An Air Force mission will on November 19 deliver into orbit a small satellite, dubbed TJCubeSat, which will be the first orbiting satellite designed and built by high school students. The launch will take place at the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport operated at NASAs Wallops Flight Facility in eastern Virginia. Students from the Thomas Jefferson High […]