Stephen Pope

A veteran airshow pilot says an unleaded biofuel gasoline undergoing testing in his Sukhoi Su-26M is providing power similar to conventional 100LL aviation fuel while greatly boosting his range. It is the latest sign that an alternative to leaded avgas may be within reach. Rick Volker of Rick Volker Air Shows in Niagara Falls, New […]

LightSquared, the company that is rolling out a nationwide broadband network operating in frequencies very near those of GPS, claims it is closing in on final approvals from the Federal Communications Commission after the successful completion of the latest round of interference testing. The company said it believes the FCC will make a decision on […]

There’s been a lot of hand-wringing in Washington after that super-secret American spy drone fell into Iranian hands last week. Tehran claims it shot down the UAV, which analysts have identified as an RQ-170 Sentinel. The White House has asked for it back. The Iranian government has responded with the diplomatic equivalent of, “In your […]

Cessna has launched a safety initiative to educate owners of 100- and 200-series single-engine piston aircraft about new supplemental aircraft inspection procedures that will soon be added to Cessna service manuals. The supplemental inspections will cover more than 145,000 Cessna single-engine airplanes produced between 1946 and 1986. The inspections will be incorporated into the service […]

A Eurocopter AS350 operated by Sundance Helicopters crashed during a tour over Hoover Dam near Las Vegas on Wednesday evening at around 5 p.m., killing the pilot and four passengers, according to the National Park Service. The helicopter went down in mountainous terrain about 4.5 miles west of Southern Nevada Water Authority in the Lake […]

Anybody can submit an online petition to the White House on any topic they choose — and that’s just what somebody has done in the wake of FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt’s abrupt departure from the agency this week, in an attempt to build public support for an intriguing potential replacement: Capt. Chesley Sullenberger, known better […]

The grass strip where I learned to fly in a Piper J-3 Cub in the late 1980s served as an ideal training environment for a new pilot — for about nine months out of the year, that is. In winter, the 1,900-foot turf runway would usually be covered in snow, ice, mud or sometimes a […]

Many pilots have a list of favorite airports where they know they can get a decent hamburger or engage in some friendly banter with the locals. If you fly a minimum number of hours a year and tend to stay in your local area, however, it’s easy to lose the skills you attain by varying […]

Citing the “fragile global economic situation,” Hawker Beechcraft has decided to slow development of the Hawker 200 light business jet, known originally as the Beechcraft Premier II, until market conditions rebound. “As you are aware, our industry is facing one of the most challenging markets in its history,” noted Hawker Beechcraft chairman and CEO Bill […]

Embraer on Monday officially opened its Global Customer Center in Melbourne, Florida, cutting the ribbon on a sleek and modern customer design center and 80,000-square-foot factory that will eventually have the capacity to turn out nearly 100 airplanes a year. Hundreds of Embraer employees and customers attended the grand opening along with several Florida politicians […]