Mark Phelps

The McMinnville, Oregon, museum housing Howard Hughes’ mammoth H-4 Hercules (better known as the “Spruce Goose”) is facing financial scrutiny, and the ownership of the historic airplane is in question. The Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum is backed by Evergreen International Airlines founder Delford Smith, 83, and along with some of Smith’s other business entities, […]

On the 110th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight, owner-pilot John Magoffin pushed the throttle lever forward on his rare 1933 Lockheed Vega, the aircraft of choice of pioneer aviators, including Amelia Earhart (who flew one on her solo transatlantic record flight) and Wiley Post, who flew a Vega around the world twice. Magoffin’s […]

National Business Aviation Association President and CEO Ed Bolen welcomed a bipartisan budget agreement approved by the House and Senate this week that he said “appears to lessen the likelihood of another near-term government shutdown,” according to an NBAA statement. The measure sets funding for all federal agencies, including the FAA. When the government shut […]

On Thursday, GAMA President and CEO Pete Bunce and NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen both testified at a House of Representatives aviation subcommittee hearing on the state of American aviation. Bunce cited six bullet-point recommendations for the lawmakers to consider when moving forward on aviation issues. He also called for “clear and consistent leadership […]

When the U.K. Environmental Agency warned of high winds in northern England earlier this month, they weren’t crying wolf. The agency cautioned of 90-mph winds in the region and parts of Scotland, forcing ScotRail to cancel train service on December 5. The pilot of an Emirates Boeing 777 trying to land at Birmingham International Airport […]

Fresh on the heels of reports that partner Brad Pitt has bought himself a Spitfire, actress-pilot Angelina Jolie’s name splashed across page 6 of the New York Post with an aviation-related story. “Angelina’s Plane Grounded by the FAA” was the headline. Lurid as that sounds, it appears to be no more than a complex paperwork […]

The Navy Blue Angels and U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds are back. Their sequestration-driven hiatus from public performances is over, and the first performance will be a T-birds fly-over during the Tournament of Roses parade on New Year’s Day in Pasadena, California. The Blue Angels will perform 68 demonstrations in 34 locations in 2014; and the […]

London’s Daily Mail newspaper has reported that actor Brad Pitt, 49, has acquired a Supermarine Spitfire for £2 million ($3.3 million), and will learn to fly it at the Boultbee Flight Academy in Oxford, U.K. The paper offered no information on who the seller is, nor what model Spitfire Pitt has bought. The actor is […]

Aerobatic ace Sean Tucker and his son Eric have launched a program that gives kids the opportunity to learn to fly. Associated with Hartnell College in Salinas, California, NASA and Gannett Newspapers, the “Every Kid Can Fly” initiative is aimed at giving troubled kids a chance to turn their lives in the right direction — […]

In 1939, flamboyant California playboy George Whittell Jr. commissioned master boat builder John Hacker to create the Thunderbird, a huge luxury yacht that matched Whittell’s polished DC-2. Inspired by that design, Embraer Executive Jets has reversed the dynamic with its Skyacht One – a luxury version of the Lineage 1000E business jet that draws on […]