Mark Phelps

Spring is just around the corner, and college acceptance letters are beginning to sprout like crocuses in high school seniors’ mailboxes. If you have a student in your household who’s been accepted to an aviation college or university, congratulations. If you have a high school junior with birdmanlike aspirations, you might already be scouting for […]

They only plan to build 10 of them, so if you want one of Cirrus’s special anniversary edition SR22s, you’ll have to act promptly. The 2011 Limited Commemorative Edition SR22T has an exclusive exterior design and interior style. The package of features and accessories has been carefully crafted to mark the occasion. Cirrus calls this […]

Every year, the Lindbergh Foundation presents an award in honor of the association’s namesake, Charles Lindbergh. For 2011, Dean Kamen has been chosen to receive the Lindbergh Award — for his dedication to the foundation’s key mission of balancing technology with nature. Kamen is most famous as the inventor of the Segway motorized individual transport. […]

President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates think plans to develop a second-engine option for the fighter could waste up to $3 billion. The House of Representatives agreed, voting yesterday to kill the program to develop the second engine. (Coincidentally, $3 billion is the same amount a failed Senate bill attempted to cut from the […]

Early this week, NBAA President Ed Bolen issued a statement regarding the ongoing review by the Department of Transportation of the Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program. There has been a move to restrict participation in the program, which allows aircraft operators to conceal their registration numbers from data released to online flight tracking programs […]

No user fees, increased spending for NextGen and security for the Airport Improvement Program (AIP) are the good news. But President Obama’s proposed federal budget says nothing about assistance for GA operators when it comes to the cost of equipping their aircraft for the upcoming revamped air traffic system. Overall, the National Business Aviation Association […]

This will be my last week passing along bits of aviation wisdom. It has been an honor for you all to invite me into your email inboxes for the past three years as Flying’s Online Editor. Steve Pope will be taking over the primary responsibilities for the Flying eNewsletter with the next issue, and I […]

Automobile tailfins and leopard skin pillbox hats were in style when the iconic TWA passenger terminal opened at New York’s Idlewild Airport (now JFK) in 1962. The work of architect Eero Saarinen, perhaps the most famous of the modern school of design, TWA terminal became the symbol of the glamour of the jet age in […]

Naval Air Station Brunswick (Maine) is now officially a civilian facility. The former military base was turned over this week as planned. In April, Massachusetts-based FlightLevel Aviation is set to open an FBO on the 990-acre site, and Kestrel Aircraft, led by Cirrus Design co-founder Alan Klapmeier, has already begun moving into the former submarine-patrol […]

Blocking a tail number from the online flight tracking programs could become more difficult, if not impossible for some. The Department of Transportation is reviewing the NBAA’s Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) policy this month, and hints that criteria for participating in the program could become far more restrictive. As it is now, anyone wishing […]