by Isabel Goyer

Are we close to the day when every airliner has on its list of standard equipment, along with TCAS II and radar altimeters, a laser gun? Could be. This month Raytheon announced that it had successfully developed a laser-powered missile jamming device small enough to fit inside the Army’s most compact helicopter but powerful enough […]

(June 2011) I recently asked FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt about the tough time that applicants have been having on FAA Knowledge Testing (the tests that many of us still refer to as the “writtens”). Many test takers are failing the tests because the FAA has included a lot of new, previously unpublished questions that are […]

In many regards light airplanes are more forgiving than jets. This is one reason that pilots of jet aircraft are trained to approach each flight in a very regimented fashion. There are just so many different systems in a jet, and if mismanaged some of those systems have the potential to kill you. Flaps and […]

Hawker Beechcraft Corporation has earned FAA approval for the latest iteration of its popular turboprop twin, the King Air 250. FAA approval came after an extensive development program for a series of mods that make the 250 the fastest and most capable 200-series model yet. ** ** The airplane, featured in a Flying 2011 cover […]

On Wednesday a new reliever airport for the Austin, Texas, area had its official grand opening, with hundreds of local pilots, media and government officials in attendance. Austin Executive (KEDC) is located approximately 12 miles northeast of Austin and just 3 miles from downtown Pflugerville. The $33 million project is the baby of Texan Ron […]

(June 2011) We’d just landed, taxied in and shut down the one-of-a-kind King Air 250 on the Atlantic FBO ramp at my home airport of Austin Bergstrom. We’d made our fuel order, closed up the big airstair door and started into the FBO when my flying buddy, Hawker Beechcraft’s Mark Mohler, spotted a pretty King […]

Dassault Falcon Jet has released new information about the trim runaway incident last week that precipitated the grounding of the fleet of the company’s flagship Falcon 7X tri-jets. The airplane — Falcon declined to identify the operator — was on its way in to Malaysia descending through 12,000 feet when the airplane began an uncommanded […]

What’s bigger than “jumbo?” An Australian news outlet has reported that Airbus is ready to pull the trigger on development of a stretched A380 — an airplane that is already the largest capacity airplane ever to fly. Not surprisingly, Airbus has yet to comment on the report, which one would classify either as a leak, […]

Scott Ernest, a veteran of GE Aviation, has been named president and CEO of Cessna Aircraft by parent company Textron. Ernest replaces former Cessna Chairman and CEO Jack Pelton, who retired only weeks ago. Ernest faces an extremely tough bizjet market that, despite recent hopeful signs, remains mired in a three-year slump. Single-engine business, likewise, […]

When I was getting ready for a check ride the other day, I mentioned to my primary instructor, Bill Ball, that I’d been nervous about it for the past day and a half. He nodded. After all, he’s a pilot too. It’s too easy to forget that that the person with the clipboard has to […]