Aircraft

Pilatus Aircraft delivered its 100th PC-24 business jet to Jetfly Aviation, the largest European fractional operator of Pilatus PC-12s and PC-24s. Jetfly, based in Luxembourg, now operates 10 of the versatile light jets—and one that apparently punches higher than its weight. Pilatus delivered the first PC-24 in February 2018, and the now 100-strong fleet has […]

Of the roughly 100,000 active single-piston-engine airplanes in the FAA registry, a quarter are amateur-built. A person shopping for a used airplane might want to take a look at them. The difference between buying a factory airplane or choosing a homebuilt is something like the difference between getting a chair and getting a dog. A […]

Textron Aviation recently delivered a mission-ready Beechcraft King Air 350CER turboprop to the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Marine & Aviation Operations (OMAO). NOAA’s mission is to understand and predict changes in climate, weather, oceans and coasts and conserve and manage coastal and marine ecosystems and resources. The new […]

The popularity as well as the utility of Cessna’s Caravans—operating on both land and sea—is well known, with nearly 3,000 having been produced since the model series was introduced nearly 40 years ago. It makes sense, then, that a number of companies chose the Caravan as the platform around which to create a supplemental type […]

Accident and incident chains usually follow a similar pattern when a number of innocent errors stack to create an event. Despite 4,400 hours of total flight time, nearly three quarters of which had been logged in Cessna Citation CJs, a US-registered aircraft N680KH nearly got away from its pilot during an April 2019 incident near […]

“Everything we do here has to meet five criteria,” Kermit says as he whisks me through a full-scale set of a B-17 bomber awaiting a pre-dawn departure for a raid over Germany. I step past a snowbank outside the wooden briefing shack, shivering in the dark and robustly air-conditioned display area as I strain to […]

Piper Aircraft announced the certification of the Pilot 100 series flight training aircraft, with the first 8 Piper 100i models to deliver to American Flyers by the close of 2020. The most basic models in the Piper fleet—targeted to flight schools—round out the manufacturer’s lineup as an attempt to address the need for a reduced-cost […]

The zero-emissions solution proposed and under development by startup company ZeroAvia has attracted the attention of a cadre of interesting players that have now signed on to deliver a substantial round of funding to the program. New investment from the Amazon Climate Pledge Fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures (established by Bill Gates in 2015), Ecosystem Integrity Fund, Horizons Ventures, Shell Ventures, and Summa […]

Daher, Safran, and Airbus announced on December 10 they had completed the preliminary design review phase for the consortium’s EcoPulse Demonstrator, which uses a distributed hybrid-electric propulsion system. The review “freezes” the aircraft’s configuration, and it positions the demonstrator for its next steps, which include mounting Safran motors in preparation for the first flight. The […]

Ampaire last month flew its Electric EEL aircraft on a 20-minute flight from Maui’s Kahului Airport across the island to Hana and back on a single battery charge. The company is now flying the route regularly in a one-month demonstration program with Hawai’i-based Mokulele Airlines, one of 15 airlines that signed a Letter of Interest […]