Rob Mark

Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic has once again sent a spaceship aloft. The new SpaceShipTwo craft, named VSS Unity, fired its rocket engine on Thursday for a limited burn following a drop-launch from its mothership, WhiteKnightTwo. Virgin Galactic plans to fly paying space tourists into the microgravity environment of space to enjoy stunning views of […]

With only 112 days left until opening day at this year’s AirVenture in Oshkosh, the EAA just released details of a special tribute coming up focused on both the warbirds and the pilots of an often-overlooked time in history, 1918, the final year of the “War to End All Wars.” EAA said, “This year’s World […]

NASA yesterday chose Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Skunk Works in Palmdale to build the next X-plane to serve as a low-sonic boom demonstrator test vehicle. The Skunk Works facility is where aircraft such as the famous Blackbird, the U-2 and the F-117 first took shape. The contract translates into $247.5 million for Lockheed to build the […]

As part of Siemens Innovation Day held recently in Chicago – created, in part, to highlight the company’s progress to date in the world of electric and hybrid electric aircraft – the German industrial giant offered a first U.S. look at its electric GA aircraft, a Magnus LSA fitted with a 55-kW Siemens electric motor. […]

Two people died in the collision of a Cessna Citation CJ and a Cessna 150 at the Marion Indiana Municipal Airport (MZZ) last night about 5 p.m. local time. Marion is located about 50 miles northeast of Indianapolis. While the details are still preliminary, the FAA believes the Citation was still rolling out after landing […]

ANA Holdings Inc., parent company of ANA, Japan’s largest airline and Honda Aircraft Company have signed a memorandum of understanding for a strategic partnership to expand the business jet market by using Honda Aircraft’s HondaJet. ANA will use the HondaJet for its charter and feeder flights to connect passengers with the airline’s existing network at […]

During initial interviews with NTSB officials, the pilot of the Airbus AS350B2 that crashed into New York’s East River on March 11 was unable to recall how many photographic flights he had conducted on the day of the accident. He could only remember that his duty day began about 11 a.m. local time and that […]

If R.A. Bob Hoover was still with us, he’d be proud to see the long list of notable people who gathered in Washington last week for the third annual award ceremony named in honor of the late aviation master. The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, along with aviation industry leaders and elected officials from Capitol […]

The first delivery of mail from an airplane is often credited to Earl Ovington after he dropped a sack of letters and postcards from an airplane still 500 feet above the ground. That was in the fall of 1911. The U.S. Postal Service says a small group of Army pilots initiated the world’s first regularly […]

There’s something to be said for simplicity when teaching people to fly or merely checking out in a new aircraft. Simplicity was Cirrus’ motivation behind this month’s feature, the combined throttle and propeller control that’s standard on both the Cirrus SR20 and SR22. In complex aircraft, a throttle controls engine acceleration, while a separate blue […]