Rob Mark

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration said Richard “Dick” Gordon, the pilot on the 1969 Apollo 12 lunar mission, died on Monday. During that 31-hour lunar surface stay nearly 50 years ago, astronauts Pete Conrad and Alan Bean proceeded to the moon’s surface while Gordon remained in orbit aboard Apollo 12’s command module, “Yankee Clipper.” […]

Despite questions about the precise definition of the aircraft, Goodyear’s new Wingfoot Two arrived in the Los Angeles area last week headed for its temporary home at Long Beach airport. Although the technical definition of a blimp calls for a craft that does not include a rigid framework, Goodyear’s sticking with the term. Goodyear has […]

The Navy says Paramount’s 1986 classic fighter-pilot flick Top Gun persuaded men and women to join up in numbers not seen before or since. Over a cup of coffee near St. Maarten’s famous Maho Beach (pre-Hurricane Irma), Rob Ceravolo told me the film worked some of its magic on him and was at least partially […]

There are times when breaking a promise isn’t as bad as it sounds at first, like when a company delivers a product or service that outperforms expectations. Gulfstream’s been on the road the past few weeks telling people the new G500/G600 series of airplanes will fly further and faster than the company than originally planned, […]

A number of photographers on Sunday, some on the ground at Salzburg Airport in Austria and another on the aircraft, captured video from different perspectives during a near catastrophic arrival of an Enter Air Boeing 737-800. The crew of the Polish airline was attempting to land on the airport’s single 9,000-foot runway 15-33 with winds […]

Dr. Leo and Dr. Fairfax Windecker, working closely with Dow Chemical Company, in 1969 brought the first all composite aircraft, the Eagle I, to FAA certification. According to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, the four-place, low-wing monoplane received FAA certification, “only after building in a 20 percent over-designed airframe to make up for […]

As colder temperatures begin infiltrating the northern portions of the U.S., aviation businesses in Florida are again bracing for the Potus Mar-a-Lago TFR, an airspace restriction certain to freeze out some companies in the Palm Beach area. The TFR is effective whenever President Trump visits his Mar-a-Lago estate and takes aim at both Palm Beach […]

For a few days last week, San Antonio International airport became home to more TBM aircraft than any other place on Earth when the TBM Owners and Pilots Association opened its 2017 convention. The TBMOPA said 117 aircraft of all the versions produced, including the TBM 700, TBM 850 and TBM 900-series, were counted, more […]

The FAA and Air Canada are investigating why the two pilots aboard an Air Canada flight ignored repeated calls from controllers at San Francisco tower to go around due to insufficient runway separation from another arrival. The incident occurred last Sunday night after the Air Canada Airbus A320 had previously been cleared to land on […]

The ticking clock toward the FAA’s ADS-B Out compliance date hasn’t slowed one iota. Come January 1, 2020, aircraft that today require a Mode C transponder, but do not by that date have ADS-B Out installed are no longer legal to fly in that same airspace. The avionics industry is of course bracing for a […]