Recent Updates

All flights at London Gatwick Airport (LGW) were suspended after problems arose with the airport’s air traffic control systems on Wednesday. It has been reported that the issue stemmed from tower computer systems. A total of 26 flights were diverted during the two-hour outage, with an estimated 95 flights cancelled and 298 delayed. The system […]

Rolls-Royce is working on an initiative to strengthen its hybrid electric power and propulsion research and development activities in Brandenburg, Germany, according to a company announcement on Monday. The company says the proposal will build on an established Rolls-Royce partnership with the Brandenburg Technical University (BTU) along with potentially including participation from small and medium-sized […]

Safran has announced plans to build a new production facility for aircraft carbon brakes in Feyzin, France. The company says the plant will incorporate a range of “Factory 4.0” technologies developed by Safran, which it expects to result in reduced energy and water consumption and increased use of renewable energy. Safran anticipates adding up to […]

A new issue with the Boeing 737 MAX autopilot has emerged in the European Aviation Safety Agency’s bottom-line position on returning the airliner to service. Bloomberg, citing an unnamed source, is reporting EASA listed five major issues that need resolution and four of those have been widely discussed publicly. But the European regulator has also […]

The International Civil Aviation Organization will hold meetings in Montreal next week to review pilot licensing requirements. ICAO officials said the meeting was organized to review whether current training standards are relevant for pilots of modern highly automated airliners. “Recently, with current events, people are discussing whether the minimum requirements or experience are still valid, […]

The European Aviation Safety Agency has issued a “special condition” for the certification of eVTOL aircraft up to a maximum takeoff weight of 7,000 pounds carrying up to nine passengers. The two-tiered regulation on so-called “small” eVTOLs is described by EASA as a “first building block” to integration of hybrid and electric VTOL aircraft that […]

A spokesman for the union that represents some of the workers who build Boeing airplanes claims the company’s shift to a “cost-cutting” corporate culture has isolated employees, alienated suppliers and customers and ultimately underlies the problems it’s having with its current airplanes, including the 737 MAX. Stan Sorscher, of the Society for Professional Engineering Employees […]

Virgin Atlantic Flight 138 was forced to make an emergency landing at Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) due to a fire in the cabin on Thursday night. The flight crew was able to extinguish the fire, which started at a passenger’s seat. No injuries were reported among the flight crew and 217 passengers on board […]

NASA completed a successful test of the launch abort system (LAS) on its Orion spacecraft at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday. The Ascent Abort-2 (AA-2) test involved launching a test version of the Orion crew module on a modified Peacekeeper missile to an altitude of approximately 31,000 feet, at which point the […]

The U.S. Navy has announced a $29.7 million contract with United Kingdom Ministry of Defense (U.K. MOD) for a C-130J Super Hercules to serve as the Blue Angels Naval Flight Demonstration Squadron’s next “Fat Albert” logistics cargo plane. According to the U.S. Navy, acquiring a used aircraft to fill the role was approximately $50 million […]