Aircraft

Continental announced on August 11 that it has received European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) type certification on its CD-170 diesel engine. The latest jet-A burning powerplant will be used in the upcoming Tecnam P2010 TDI—the latest version of the single-engine piston cruiser. The nod from EASA comes as part of a program that Continental […]

As Bye Aerospace continues its never-ending march toward the certification of its Part 23 eFlyer 2 trainer, Bye Aerospace CEO George E. Bye this week announced in a news release that the company had chosen Aviation Safety Resources, Inc., (ASR) to “design, prototype, test and deliver a recovery system specifically for the eFlyer 2.” ASR […]

The second flight test article for the Cessna SkyCourier program took flight in Wichita on August 11. In Textron Aviation company parlance, the first conforming prototype is referred to as “P1,” and it was this component of the SkyCourier program that made its first flight from Wichita’s Beech Factory Airport (KBEC). Piloted by engineering flight […]

Cirrus Aircraft’s new VisionAir program plans to make the ownership of a new single-engine Vision Jet a complete turnkey operation designed especially for people who might be new to owning a turbine aircraft, or might not even be pilots. But VisionAir is more than simply covering the tricky parts of aircraft ownership like maintenance and […]

What should an aircraft manufacturer do with a talented engineering team that just wrapped up the successful certification test program for a jet that would go on to win the Collier Trophy and Flying Innovation Award in the same year? One option would be to put them straight back to work developing the next iteration […]

Long before I became a pilot, I read something somewhere about the extreme dangers of shock cooling a piston aircraft engine. The article didn’t specify which engines. It tossed a large, wet blanket over every Lycoming and Continental ever made. The idea of cylinders cracking on a steep descent with all that cold air passing […]

When Southwest Airlines reported its quarterly earnings last week, the company included a $428 million payment received from Boeing to cover a variety of ongoing issues surrounding the grounded 737 MAX aircraft. The MAX has been grounded since March 2019 following two accidents, one in 2018, the other in 2019. Southwest had already accepted delivery […]

In a week of updates for the company, Embraer unveiled a medevac version of the Phenom 300 series—aptly called the Phenom 300MED—on August 4, and it presented its second-quarter financial results on August 5. Embraer talked to Flying about the proposed medevac model during our flight test of the newest 300E back in March—and the […]

Virgin Galactic Holdings on August 3 announced—in collaboration with Rolls-Royce as the powerplant provider—the creation of a new Mach 3 commercial aircraft. Virgin Galactic Holdings includes a spaceship manufacturing arm. There’s no small amount of irony that Virgin Galactic made its announcement of its futuristic travel machine within hours of sister Virgin empire organization, Virgin […]

In a response to customer feedback—and a desire to push well-loved members of its product line forward—Textron Aviation announced on August 4 the new flagship of the Beechcraft line, the King Air 360 and 360ER. With autothrottles, better pressurization, and increased cabin comfort, the latest King Air aims for easing pilot workload, and turning a […]