Recent Updates

Airbus has announced that it will halt production and assembly activities at its facilities in France and Spain for four days due to “the implementation of new measures in France and Spain to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.” According to the company, it is also working to maximize work-from-home options where possible for employees in those […]

Boeing is calling for the U.S. government to provide a minimum of $60 billion in “access to public and private liquidity, including loan guarantees” to help the aerospace manufacturing industry weather the economic impacts of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Boeing’s production facilities remain open with “enhanced cleaning procedures” in place. The company also said it […]

By Doug Rozendaal Photos: Joe Copalman, Mariano Rosales, Courtesy Legend Aircraft This story originally appeared in KITPLANES. “It ain’t braggin’ if it’s true.” This well-known phrase, attributed to such luminaries as Walt Whitman and Bear Bryant, applies here as well as it does anywhere else you’ve seen it. In the words that follow there may […]

NASA signed agreements with 17 aviation companies to support its Urban Air Mobility (UAM) Grand Challenge technology demonstrations on Tuesday. Each company provided a proposal in one of three categories: developmental flight testing, developmental airspace simulation and vehicle provider information exchange. The new agreements will focus on developmental testing in advance of the first Grand […]

Northrop Grumman subsidiary SpaceLogistics successfully docked its first mission extension vehicle (MEV-1) with commercial communications satellite Intelsat 901 (IS-901) on Tuesday. The maneuver marks the first time two commercial satellites have docked in orbit. MEV-1 will remain docked with IS-901 for five years, using its own thrusters and fuel supply to extend the satellite’s life. […]

Italy-based Piaggio has put out a call for buyers for its Piaggio Aero Industries branch and subsidiary Piaggio Aviation, which together operate as Piaggio Aerospace. Piaggio Aerospace is currently under extraordinary administration, a procedure designed to protect the “assets, goodwill and employees” of large insolvent companies. Potential buyers will be screened by Extraordinary Commissioner Vincenzo […]

NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson passed away today at the age of 101. Johnson was known for her work on historic missions and projects including America’s first human spaceflight (Alan Shepard—Freedom 7) and first orbital spaceflight (John Glenn—Friendship 7), syncing Project Apollo’s lunar module with the command module, the Space Shuttle program and the Earth Resources […]

Boeing has discovered foreign object debris (FOD) in the fuel tanks of several stored 737 MAX aircraft. Production of the MAX, which is manufactured at Boeing’s facility in Renton, Washington, was suspended last December pending the recertification of the grounded model. The exact number of aircraft found to have FOD in their fuel tanks has […]

Gulfstream’s new flagship G700 business jet had its first flight on Friday. The flight lasted two hours and 32 minutes and covered all the basic flight characteristics and system checks. The company says it’s on track to deliver airplanes in 2022 under an aggressive development campaign that it also managed to keep under wraps for […]

As many as eight airliners were briefly delayed at London’s Heathrow Airport on Friday to isolate and remove passengers who exhibited COVID-19 symptoms. Heathrow and local health officials refused to release details of what local media described as a “lockdown” of the airliners but United Airlines confirmed that its flight from San Francisco was involved […]