Recent Updates

The ultimate dogfighting smackdown is scheduled for July 2021 when the Air Force pits one of its top fighter pilots against an autonomous fighter controlled by artificial intelligence. Lt. Gen. Jack Shanahan, head of the Pentagon’s Artificial Intelligence Center, told a virtual conference hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies the Air Force Research […]

There was likely a lively debrief after a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) AS350 B3 helicopter and an RCMP SkyRanger R60 surveillance drone collided while on a joint mission over a rural area of British Columbia in February. Although the incident happened in February, it didn’t make it to the Civil Aviation Daily Occurrence Reporting […]

California-based electric transportation solutions company Kitty Hawk Corporation announced on Wednesday that it is retiring its Flyer ultralight electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicle. According to Kitty Hawk, a total of 111 Flyers were built and more than 25,000 Flyer flights were conducted. The company says it plans to focus its attention on its […]

By Laura Starkey Photos: Laura and Mike Starkey Years ago while we were living in Cameron Park, California, my husband, Mike, took an interest in a new design that was being spoken of. At the time, it was only a promise that it would someday come out. And when it did, it was the RANS […]

U.S. astronauts returned to space on a U.S. rocket on Saturday for the first time since the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011. NASA’s Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken rode a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in the new Crew Dragon capsule to orbit from Cape Canaveral. Bad weather threatened a second scrub of the launch […]

SpaceX is four for four on the loss of prototypes of its silo-like Starship interplanetary vehicle after Serial Number 4 (SN4) blew up on the test bed in Boca Chica, Texas, on Friday. The spectacular explosion came on the eve of SpaceX’s first manned launch of its Crew Dragon capsule at Cape Canaveral on Saturday. […]

China-based urban air mobility company EHang has received commercial pilot operation approval from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) for its EHang 216 autonomous aerial vehicle (AAV). The approval, which covers air logistics operations, was granted based on the CAAC’s Pilot Operation Rules (Interim) for Specific Unmanned Aircraft. According to EHang, it is the […]

Boeing announced on Wednesday that it will lay off approximately 6,770 employees in the U.S. due to the economic impact of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. According to Boeing, its international locations are also in the process of workforce reductions, which “will be communicated locally on their own timelines in accordance with local laws and benefit […]

Aircraft deliveries declined across all segments during the first quarter (Q1) of 2020, according to the quarterly aircraft shipments and billings report released by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) on Wednesday. Compared to the first quarter of 2019, the total number of airplane deliveries in Q1 2020 dropped approximately 20.9 percent from 511 to […]

According to the Experimental Aircraft Association, the FAA has “released a policy that will make it easier for some owners of experimental aircraft to obtain special flight permits (SFPs) for their airplanes in order to reposition them for condition inspections.” The change comes in the form of allowing certain designated airworthiness representatives (DARs) to “remotely […]