by Isabel Goyer

(March 2012) One of the things nearest and dearest to a pilot’s heart is the freedom to move about, to explore, to discover and to see new places with fresh eyes. This element of discovery is a central part of what flying is to me and why I love it so. It’s been that way […]

Last week Flying photographed Aurora, or at least what looks to be strong evidence of Aurora, the much rumored, never-acknowledged U.S. military spyplane. I snapped the pic not because I thought I was catching a peek at Aurora but because I thought the contrail was evidence of some strange meteorological phenomenon. The contrail was odd […]

Robinson Helicopter is looking at making the Aspen Evolution Flight Display (EFD) a factory installed option, Robinson head Kurt Robinson said at Heli-Expo. During his remarks, Robinson praised the compact form factor and low cost of the Aspen option, while stopping short of giving any firm promises or timetables for availability as, he explained, the […]

The market for new helicopters might decline slightly in 2014. Then again, it might not. According to Honeywell researchers, the market for new civil helicopters over the next half decade looks to be strong, especially this year; prospective buyers are more muted in their expectations for the years following, a situation that might change as […]

Before a crowd of more than a thousand attendees on Sunday, Bell unveiled its new Bell 525 Relentless super medium model that the company hopes will revitalize its commercial helicopter sales. While the uber-cool 525 was big news, the launch itself generated a lot of buzz at Heli-Expo. Featuring lasers, advanced production and lots of […]

At the indoor static at Heli-Expo Garmin was showing off its STC retrofit of the G500H flat panel avionics into the popular Robinson R44 four-place piston powered helicopter. The STC can be applied to every iteration of the R44, including those with Spartan panels — the seven hole versions — and those with all the […]

At Heli-Expo Eurocopter launched its new light single EC130 T2, a model aimed at providing a quiet, cost-effective and profitable upgrade product to companies already operating light singles, including Maverick Helicopters, one of Sunday’s announced launch customers, which currently operates dozens of EC130s. Maverick has ordered 50 T2s for use in its air tour operations, […]

On Sunday Bell Helicopter launched its latest model, the Bell 525 Relentless, a super medium twin capable of carrying up to 16 passengers. A clean sheet design, the new model breaks new ground for Bell and for the rotary wing mark with an entire slate of innovative features, from triple-redundant fly-by-wire flight control to advanced […]

Aviation member organizations are celebrating a historic victory with Congressional passage of an FAA reauthorization bill yesterday that includes no user fees. While celebration is certainly in order, a major, troubling part of the bill has escaped largely unnoticed: the mandated opening of U.S. airspace to drone aircraft — aka, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in […]

Apparently in response to customer demand, Cessna has increased the range of its new Citation Latitude, announced just four months ago. The bump will give the airplane an extra 300 nm of range, allowing it to connect city dots in a number of cases that it previously couldn’t. The new 2,300-nm range is an impressive […]