Rob Mark

Virgin Galactic’s VSS Unity last week completed its seventh flight over the Mojave Desert, the first since last summer. The flight was designed to validate work completed during recent months of downtime, including transonic flight performance, stability and control to ensure the vehicle is ready for the higher loads and forces of powered test flight. […]

The Transportation Safety Board of Canada’s final report of the March 2016 crash of a U.S-registered MU2 at Îles-de-la-Madeleine Airport (CYGR), Quebec, points to a pilot who let the aircraft get way ahead of him. Plagued by a high workload and unable to manage the aircraft’s energy state, the approach became unstable and the pilot […]

With HP recently recalling 50,000 laptop computers over worries their lithium ion batteries could ignite, fires that might erupt in flight are certain to remain front page news this year. The FAA recently published InFO 17021 to clarify the use of potentially mislabeled fire containment kits and bags, as well as the procedures to deal […]

Piper Aircraft‘s M350 pressurized single-engine piston aircraft, as well as the turboprop powered M500, can now take advantage of Garmin’s updated G1000 NXi avionics suite. The Vero Beach aircraft builder plans to offer NXi as an STC retrofit on the G1000 equipped Matrix, now called the M350 and the Meridian, the current M500. The G1000 […]

Ohio-based Workhorse planned a spectacular way to open the first day of the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week, when the company intended to fly its two-seat SureFly electric hybrid helicopter for the first time. Unfortunately the weather in Vegas didn’t cooperate and the maiden flight was scrubbed. First introduced at last year’s […]

Former Navy pilot John Young, the only NASA astronaut to fly in space as a crewmember aboard the Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs, died Friday following complications from pneumonia. He was also the first astronaut to fly in space on six different occasions. Young was inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in […]

U.S. Secretary of Transportation Elaine L. Chao on Friday named the FAA’s Deputy Administrator Daniel K. Elwell to serve as Acting FAA Administrator now that Michael Huerta’s term has ended. Elwell assumed the Deputy role in June 2017. If asked to serve permanently and if approved by the Senate, Elwell’s term would last five years. […]

Since the introduction of the internal combustion engine, engineers and entrepreneurs alike have searched for ways to squeeze more horsepower from each gallon of fuel. Despite those efforts, the traditional two-magneto system that provides the spark for combustion in an aircraft piston engine has remained essentially unchanged since World War II. In pairs, magnetos have proved […]

Garmin said yesterday its GFC 500 autopilot received the FAA’s supplemental type certification for a number of less complex single-engine aircraft like the Cessna 172 and 182. When linked with Garmin’s G5 primary attitude indicator, that provides input and display of altitude preselect, heading, vertical speed target, airspeed target, as well as flight director command […]

The U.S. Coast Guard this morning reported it had not yet located a debris field for a Cirrus SR22T that was last tracked Wednesday night heading south into the Gulf of Mexico. The Cirrus was on an IFR flight plan from Oklahoma City’s Wiley Post Airport on Wednesday to Georgetown Texas just outside Austin when […]