Recent Updates

Multiple investigations into two accidents of Boeing 737 MAX 8 aircraft will inevitably focus on a much misunderstood FAA program called ODA for organization designation authorization. And Pete Bunce, president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, says that may ultimately be a good thing for both the aerospace industry and general aviation manufacturing specifically. We […]

With the current EPA administration seen as unlikely to issue a finding of endangerment against the tetraethyl lead used in aviation fuel, its eventual demise may have to come at the hands of consumers. That was one message from a 100LL briefing held at Aero in Friedrichshafen, Germany, this week. Conducted by Shell’s Tim Shea […]

At Sun ‘n Fun 2019, Daher Aircraft introduced a first for turboprop singles: autothrottles. The system is integrated within the TBM940’s Garmin G3000 integrated flight deck, providing an additional layer of envelope protection, including automatic descent mode. The company also introduced a new automatic deicing system for the TBM910 and TBM940 models. Larry Anglisano took […]

Honeywell Aerospace has announced that it will be partnering with Volocopter to jointly develop and test navigation and automatic landing systems for Volocopter’s electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) air taxi. Honeywell says it will be bringing its autonomous sensing and flight technologies—including inertial measurement units and attitude heading reference solutions—to the table for the […]

While the NTSB and FAA do what most of us consider a diligent job in tracking accidents and reporting rates, it’s just the reverse in Europe, according to GAMA. The association is trying to remedy this by surveying GA pilots to determine the all-important hours flown necessary to calculate risk. At a briefing at the […]

Japan’s Air Self-Defense Force is confirming that one of its 13 F-35 fighter jets crashed into the Pacific during a training exercise. The pilot signaled that he was aborting the training exercise minutes after departing Misawa Air Base in northern Japan. His was part of a four-ship flight. Contact was lost with the aircraft and […]

Even as it announced new a new initiative into the piston training market last week, Piper reports that sales of its big-ticket M-Class airplanes continue to show growth, with strong interest coming from Europe. At a press conference on the opening day of the Aero exhibition in Friedrichshafen, Germany, Piper CEO Simon Caldecott said sales […]

China, the first country to ground the Boeing 737 MAX after the fatal crash of Ethiopian Flight 102 last month, is set to join the FAA’s review panel. Former NTSB chairman Christopher Hart is running the program, which is expected to run for about three months. The FAA agreed to create an international review board […]

And then there were none. The last surviving member of the Doolittle Raiders died today at the age of 103. Retired Lt. Col. Richard E “Dick” Cole was Jimmy Doolittle’s copilot in the lead bomber during the 1942 raid on Tokyo. He was there by chance, as Doolittle’s original copilot became ill before the mission […]

Boeing released sales data for the 737 MAX line that reveal there were no new orders for the troubled jet in March, and simultaneously said that deliveries and orders for all 737 models fell in the first quarter. Overall orders were down by nearly half, to 95 from 180 in the first quarter of 2018. […]