Search Results for: general aviation inc

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 […]

These pages regularly urge new private pilots to go on to earn their instrument rating. Especially if you ever want to use a personal airplane for regular, reliable transportation, the rating is pretty much mandatory. If you’re content to only fly on good-weather days in search of expensive hamburgers and to abandon the peace-of-mind the […]

Personal aviation opens up a world of interesting and beautiful places to visit and recreate, places that reward us for the time, training and skill to get there. Some places would be inaccessible except by horse, foot or airstrip, like the canyons, rivers and vistas of the Mountain West. Some places beckon because they offer […]

A turboprop-conversion Beech Bonanza crashed during an attempted night approach in IMC, killing the pilot and two passengers. Forget for a moment that the NTSB’s investigation revealed the pilot was using unapproved medications and was not even instrument-rated. Lost in the details of the accident report is that even if the pilot was IFR-rated and current, […]

Anyone who’s taken more than a couple of flying lessons has been exposed to simulated failure of a single-engine airplane’s powerplant. For ab initio students, the first engine-out drill often is a demonstration that the airplane won’t fall out of the sky and that the situation can be managed to successfully get on the ground […]

While the data just released from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) showed trends that weren’t unexpected, the degree of downturn for the industry points to a more significant slump than most people prepared for. The total number of aircraft shipped to date in 2020 declined 21.5 percent from the same period last year. Billings […]

One hundred years ago today, on September 8, 1920, airmail pilot Randolph Page set off from Long Island to fly the first of 15 legs of the first US Airmail service transcontinental relay flight. Flying by the seat of their pants, with only visual references as their guide, a series of airmail pilots transferred mail […]

In “When to Give Up,” an article from several years ago, I recommended giving serious thought before every takeoff about how to handle an emergency. Rather than trying for a “miracle save,” it was usually better to accept the unpleasant certainty of bending some metal but probably surviving. The classic example is losing an engine […]

The Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand says an amateur built Van’s Aircraft RV-7 broke up in midair during a January 1, 2018, VFR flight, killing the pilot and passenger. The CAA believes the pilot lost control of the aircraft after possibly conducting an aerobatic maneuver that far exceeded the RV-7′s never-exceed speed (VNE). The […]

In a milestone that marks the first certification of a modern autoland system on a light, personal jet, Cirrus Aircraft and Garmin Aviation announced the approval of Safe Return on the Cirrus Vision Jet. Cirrus also celebrated the 200th delivery of the Vision Jet in July, solidifying its position as the best-selling general aviation jet […]