Stephen Pope

Cessna completed its first production flight of its single-engine TTx in Independence, Kansas, reporting that the composite speedster performed exceptionally well and is ready to hit the market. Cessna’s TTx test pilot flew the airplane to 17,000 feet and achieved a speed of 213 knots. The TTx’s 310 hp Continental TSIO-550-C engine is capable of […]

The top trending search term on Twitter last night was “Rand Paul” as the Republican senator from Kentucky staged a one-man marathon filibuster in protest of an Obama Administration policy that appears to condone drone attacks on American citizens within U.S. borders under certain circumstances. Paul began speaking on the senate floor before noon yesterday […]

As you start the roundout on final approach and begin to flare, visual cues become extremely important. Where exactly should you be looking as you bring the control wheel back and prepare to place the wheels just where you want them on the pavement (or the grass, if you’re really lucky)? To give you a […]

A very special airplane made its first flight since undergoing a complete restoration at Paine Field in Everett, Washington. The Historic Flight Foundation’s DC-3 took to the skies over the weekend in its distinctive Pam Am paint scheme. The history of the foundation’s DC-3 began in 1944 as a C-47 in Asia, flying for the […]

Garmin said it has added new features and capabilities to its GTN touchscreen GPS/nacom navigators to meet the specific needs of helicopter operators. Enhancements include environmental qualification to meet stringent helicopter vibration and temperature testing standards, optional Night Vision Goggle (NVG) compatibility, optional built-in Helicopter Terrain Awareness and Warning System (HTAWS) and more. The GTN […]

As sequestration budget cuts start phasing in today, Vice President Joe Biden and members of Congress will have to find new ways to get where they’re going after the military aircraft they normally fly aboard were ordered to stay on the ground. In the case of the vice president, his decision to stop flying on […]

In a closely watched rematch, Embraer on Wednesday won a U.S. Air Force contract to supply 20 of its A-29 Super Tucano light attack airplanes for counterinsurgency missions in Afghanistan. The Brazilian company beat out Beechcraft — again — for the $428 million deal after the Air Force agreed to review the original contract awarded […]

You’ve no doubt heard and read a lot about 3-D printing in the last couple of years. Known as “additive manufacturing” in industrial-design circles, the process is used to produce three-dimensional solid objects of virtually any shape from a digital model fed into a special kind of printer. Several teams have already created 3-D printed […]

Piper has selected the Garmin G1000 integrated flight deck for its Seneca V piston twin as an upgrade over the previously available G600 suite. The G1000 system in the Seneca V includes three 10.4-inch displays integrating all primary flight information, navigation data, communications, terrain awareness, traffic, weather and engine data. The G1000 for the Seneca […]

A half-inch-long crack in a turbine engine blade prompted the Pentagon to ground the fleet of 51 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters on Friday, the latest black eye for the troubled and oft-delayed military jet program. Engineers at Pratt & Whitney planned to conduct a detailed examination of the turbine blade on the F135 engine as […]