Recent Updates

Image: Delta Former Delta Air Lines executive Steve Dickson has been nominated by President Trump to become the next FAA Administrator. Recently retired as senior VP of flight operations at Delta, Dickson will, if approved by the Senate, take over an agency whose aircraft-certification procedures are under tremendous scrutiny after the second fatal crash of […]

Department of Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao has asked the DOT’s Inspector General to audit the FAA’s approval of the Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. This closely follows a detailed investigative piece by the Seattle Times revealing mischaracterizations of the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS), preliminarily thought to be a component of the two fatal crashes of […]

Time waits for no one and, certainly, no machine. But even with that in mind, light-aircraft aficionados might be surprised to know that a few popular aircraft designs are having significant anniversaries at Oshkosh this year. Baby Ace, 90 years. The high-wing homebuilt was first offered as a plans-built design in 1929. Of course, nine […]

To be certified as a factory-built LSA, Texas Aircraft Manufacturing’s Colt is set to debut at Oshkosh this year featuring an aluminum airframe, chromoly steel-tube “safety cell” and a ballistic parachute. If you think it looks a lot like the INPAER Conquest 180, you’d be right; Caio Jordo, who led the Brazilian lightplane manufacturer, is […]

Some of the Air Force’s most expensive and strategically sensitive aircraft have been evacuated from Offutt Air Force Base in Omaha, Nebraska, after it was flooded by the Missouri River over the weekend. At least nine aircraft were flown to other bases and crews were working around the clock to try to protect facilities that […]

The future of package delivery has arrived in Reno, Nevada with the FAA’s approval of beyond-visual-line-of-sight drone operations by Flirtey. The company’s drones will first be able to deliver automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to medical emergencies. The drones will be operated by pilots using onboard cameras to maneuver the aircraft. The medical deliveries are a […]

Ethiopia’s transport minister told reporters on Sunday that preliminary data from Ethiopian Flight 302’s flight data recorder showed “clear similarities” to data pulled from a similar Lion Air Boeing 737 MAX 8 that crashed off Indonesia last October. Dagmawit Moges said the FDR, which appeared significantly damaged from the Ethiopian crash, is actually relatively intact. […]

The Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation (MCAS) system at the center of investigations into two fatal crashes of the Boeing 737 MAX 8 was misunderstood and mischaracterized in a flawed certification process as Boeing and the FAA rushed to bring the new jet to market, a Seattle Times investigation published Sunday alleges. Citing named and unnamed sources, […]

Perhaps it’s my imagination, but I think long-term relationships in the workplace aren’t as common as they once were. Because of the work we do at AVweb and the predilection of our management, we tend to attract and retain marathoners rather than sprinters. One of those was our dear colleague Mary Grady, who died this […]

Flight 1549 Capt. Chesley Sullenberger has weighed in on the MAX 8 discussion but from a crew training and experience perspective. The pilot who deadsticked an A320 into the Hudson River after a dual engine failure 10 years ago with the help of First Officer Jeff Skiles said in a Facebook post on Saturday that […]