Aircraft

With a speed well-suited to its shiny new Mach number, the updated version of the Embraer Phenom 300E attained certification this week—and not just under FAA authority, but also with the blessing of EASA and Brazil’s ANAC. Embraer Executive Jets reports that the new 300E met its goals with the intercontinental range extended to beat […]

The Cessna 408—known by its marketing name, the SkyCourier—marked a new milestone in its development program on March 23, when Textron Aviation announced the completion of a successful series of initial ground tests, including engine run. The prototype of the twin utility turboprop, named for its primary mission, features two Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-65SC […]

The cover story in The New York Times magazine for September 22, 2019, was entitled, “What Really Brought Down the Boeing 737 Max?” The writer, William Langewiesche—son of the sainted author of Stick and Rudder, Wolfgang Langewiesche—is a veteran of Flying, an experienced pilot, and a thorough and technically savvy researcher of his wide-ranging articles […]

Mitsubishi Aircraft Corporation announced on March 18, 2020, that the first Mitsubishi SpaceJet M90 (FTV10)—in its final, certifiable baseline configuration—had successfully completed its maiden flight from the Prefectural Nagoya Airport in Japan. The crew performed basic aircraft performance tests during a two-hour flight conducted over the Pacific Ocean. With the completion of this first flight, […]

French airplane maker VoltAero has begun flight testing on a hybrid-electric-powered airplane series called Cassio. The Cassio 1 testbed is powered by two electric motors, mounted on the wings, and two piston engines—a pusher and a puller—on the fuselage. The testbed looks like a Cessna 337 Skymaster and has a seating configuration for six people. […]

Transport Canada and the FAA are looking for input on the operation of the cargo doors on certain models of the Cessna 206, particularly those involving floatplane installations. An August 2018 accident in the Northwest Territories, Canada, trigged the request. The pilot of the Simpson Air Limited Cessna U206G had four passengers on board the […]

Effective March 9, 2020, the FAA has released an airworthiness directive calling for the inspection of Cessna 210s in a specific model range, to determine the presence of corrosion and evidence of fatigue in the carry-through spar lower cap and carrying out mitigating preventative maintenance. The AD comes as the result of an in-flight breakup […]

If you’ve ever ridden the North 40 tram at EAA AirVenture at Oshkosh out past the Forums buildings and noticed a line of beautiful custom-painted experimental airplanes parked next to each other on the east side of the road just north of the Forums, that was aviation airbrush artist John Stahr’s flying art gallery. With […]

One highlight of last fall’s NBAA-BACE in Las Vegas was the media extravaganza created when Gulfstream Aerospace unveiled a mockup of its newest airplane, the G700, an ultra-long-range business jet able to fly as many as eight passengers up to 7,500 nm. The Vegas stage built to Gulfstream’s specification at Henderson Executive Airport included five […]

Following a well-publicized ground fire on December 27, 2019, beginning in the cabin of a Cirrus Vision Jet in Santa Monica, the company released a service bulletin (SBA5X-23-03) on February 7 to correct the problem, which was traced to a potential malfunction of the audio interface circuit card that could have resulted in the overheating […]