Aircraft

The bitter cold of a February day in Minnesota in 1999 etched itself in my memory like frost on the windshield of an old Subaru hatchback. As an assistant editor in Jeppesen’s aviation-courseware department, I’d been thinking through the mechanics of flight training every day, working to translate abstract concepts into print and onto the […]

Honda Aircraft Company announced on May 26 the new Elite S model, with a 200-pound payload increase, upgraded avionics capabilities, and new color schemes. In a virtual launch, Honda Aircraft Company president and CEO Michimasa Fujino called the model “the next iteration of the HondaJet to expand operational capability. As a result of the innovation, […]

In the early 1960s, general aviation was experiencing tremendous growth, and Beechcraft wanted a bigger slice of the pie. The competition’s ever-expanding product offerings were not going unnoticed, and Beechcraft decided to expand into new market segments. It developed a new, lower-cost training-and-touring airplane that provided stable comfort for long trips, the sturdiness necessary for […]

General aviation aircraft shipments for the first quarter of 2021 show an overall increase versus figures from the same period in 2020, but no return yet to 2019 numbers. The news, which came as part of the regular quarterly report from the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), was not surprising—and still reason for hope, according […]

The Aerion SST—the most promising effort in years to represent the next step in supersonic travel since the demise of the Anglo-French Concorde—has reached the end of the line after the company said it had run short of cash. The Reno, Nevada-based aircraft builder said Friday it is closing its doors for good according to […]

In April 2020, the world was fully starting to feel the effects of the exploding COVID-19 pandemic, with lockdowns around the globe causing both the airline industry and business aviation to abruptly come to a halt. For the preowned business aircraft market, that meant listings skyrocketed while closed transactions all but evaporated. A new report […]

To paraphrase a famous American philosopher, predictions can be hard to make, especially when they’re about the future. But seeing the future of the entry-level business jet market 20 years ago, Cessna, with the creation of its seminal CitationJet, must have been watching the future in some late ’80s version of high definition. The airplane […]

As Piper’s current new single-engine turboprop fleet—the M500 and M600—grows in numbers and capabilities, the factory, working with AeroMech, has added reduced vertical separation minima (RVSM) as a factory option on all new aircraft. Previously, RVSM could only be added to these airplanes post-production. RVSM certification is required for all aircraft operating worldwide above FL280. […]

In March 2020, Flying reported on an airworthiness directive focused on corrosion concerns on most models of the Cessna 210. On Tuesday, May 11, the FAA published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) that may broaden the scope of that original AD to include both the Cessna 210R and N models, as well as all […]

Take out your pilot logbook. Have you logged fewer hours this year? A slow economy will do that. Making the decision to pump that disposable income — don’t you love that term? — into your airplane’s fuel tank can be difficult, especially when the disposable-income pool isn’t what it used to be. Yet if airplanes […]