Briefing

SUPERSONIC DESIGN FLOATED Virgin Galactic has jumped into the supersonic aircraft business with a Mach 3 intercontinental jet that will seat up to 19 people and cruise at 60,000 feet. The company’s subsidiary, The Spaceship Company, has also signed a deal with Rolls-Royce to develop “engine propulsion technology for high speed commercial aircraft.” The company […]

PILOT DATABASE EXPANSION OPPOSED NBAA is fighting a proposed FAA pilot record database that will require airlines and so-called “gateway operators” to keep files on pilots, including written and practical tests for ratings and endorsements and even training notes during flight instruction. The proposal is an expansion of the Pilot Records Improvement Act enacted in […]

FLIGHT DIRECTOR “CONFLICT” LED TO CRASH The struggle to find balance between pilot input and autonomous control of aircraft added another chapter with the revelation that the crash of a state-of-the-art military helicopter in April happened during a “conflict” between the pilot and the aircraft’s flight director. The Royal Canadian Air Force is investigating the […]

AIRVENTURE 2021 ALSO IN QUESTION To no one’s surprise, EAA cancelled this year’s AirVenture and there’s no guarantee the big show will go ahead in 2021, either. Chairman Jack Pelton said that there was no option to shutting down AirVenture this year even though it might have technically been legal to hold the show. Within […]

PAX GRABBED BAGS DURING EVACUATION A video distributed by Russian government investigators showed passengers escaping a burning Aeroflot Superjet 100 leaving the aircraft with carry-on luggage, laptops and even items heavy enough that they struggled to lug them across the ramp. The surveillance video also shows that it took 11 seconds for the cabin crew […]

206 DOOR AD MAY BE COMING A longstanding design issue with the Cessna 206 might end up resulting in an AD after it was implicated in the death of three passengers in a crash in Canada in  2019. The forward of two rear cargo doors, which also serve as the emergency exit for rear seat […]

BRYANT CRASH RAISES HELICOPTER EQUIPAGE QUESTIONS Crashes that kill celebrities tend to be a catalyst for safety changes in aviation and the tragic crash of a Sikorsky S-76B that killed Kobe Bryant, his daughter and seven others may follow that trend. The helicopter crashed north of Los Angeles while on a Special VFR transition of […]

Fuel Dump Raises Questions The FAA says it will “thoroughly investigate” the circumstances of an emergency landing by a Delta 777 at LAX that involved dumping thousands of gallons of fuel over the city. Photos shown by local media and social media suggest the aircraft jettisoned fuel for about six minutes as it set up […]

Harbour Air flew a De Havilland Beaver on floats on pure electric power for the first time in early December as the first step in its program to fully electrify its fleet of historic seaplanes. The Vancouver-based airline serves dozens of communities off British Columbia’s west coast and most of its flights are 30 minutes or less so the company believes new advances in battery technology will enable it to safely carry out the dozens of commercial passenger flights it operates every day. The December flight was a demonstration of the motor in a plane near its gross weight with batteries and lasted about 15 minutes. CEO Greg McDougall lifted the almost-70-year-old airframe off the Fraser River and later reported that it flew like a Beaver. He said newer, lighter batteries that are becoming available will allow room for passengers and cargo and the savings on maintenance and downtime will ultimately pay off.

The final report on the first of two catastrophic crashes that led to the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX was released by Indonesias air safety board in late October and it painted a damning picture of missteps at every stage leading up to the downing of Lion Air 610 in the Java Sea. From poor basic design, to pilot error and faulty design, the report listed at least nine causal factors for the crash, which killed all 189 people on board. From what we know, there are nine things that contributed to this accident, Indonesian air accident investigator Nurcahyo Utomo said in a news conference announcing the reports findings. If one of the nine hadnt occurred, maybe the accident wouldnt have occurred, he added. One of those factors was the fact that the pilots didnt react the way Boeing designers predicted pilots would respond to emergencies such as the faulty angle of attack data triggering the Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) into thwarting their attempts to keep the aircraft from diving into the ocean.