Aircraft

Greensboro, North Carolina-based Honda Aircraft Company announced it has started delivering the upgraded version of its light twinjet, the HondaJet Elite. The company announced the modifications earlier this year and is replacing the inaugural HA-420 model with the Elite version. Upgrades include an increase in the range to 1,437 nm, modifications to the flight planning […]

Late in 1932, the newborn Beech Aircraft Co. flew its first product, a five-seat biplane with a 420 hp radial engine and fixed landing gear enclosed in huge fairings. Walter Beech gave it model number 17, since the last model built by the Travel Air company, which he had founded in 1925 with an all-star […]

Embraer’s E190-E2 Profit Hunter demonstration airplane, with its distinctive shark livery, attracted a lot of attention at this year’s Farnborough Airshow in England, where the Brazilian company reported taking firm orders and letters of intent for an astounding 300 airplanes valued at $15.3 billion. After its European success, the eye-catching airplane went on a tour […]

Spend even a few minutes comparing the operation of an avgas-powered engine to a diesel—also known as a compression-ignition engine or a jet-A power plant—and a number of diesel benefits jump right out. Diesel engines don’t have spark plugs, and demand no magnetos. Jet-A-burning piston engines are water-cooled too, meaning they’re less susceptible to overheating […]

A handful of Pipistrel Alpha Electro two-seaters are operating in the United States, but because of the shortsightedness of FAA regulations for light-sport aircraft they can’t be used for paid flight training. Now, the Slovenian maker of the battery-powered airplane thinks the rule will be amended by early next year, a change that would usher […]

Epic Aircraft announced it has completed the structural testing program for the Epic E1000 single-engine turboprop. The company has been flying two test airplanes, FT1 with more than 525 flight hours and the fully conforming FT2, which started flying in January, with more than 100 flight hours. Flight testing with designated FAA test pilots has […]

Diamond Aircraft’s new DA40NG and DA42-VI, both of which burn jet fuel rather than avgas, have been chosen by Republic Airline as the new fleet training aircraft for the airline’s new Leadership In Flight Training program, according to a Diamond Aircraft news release. Republic ordered 50 DA40s and DA42s (along with Diamond Flight Simulation Devices) […]

Lancair International, which recently relocated to Uvalde, Texas, under new ownership, announced a two-seat airplane kit at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Keeping with the ocean theme of nomenclature, Lancair named the airplane Barracuda. Lancair also produces the four-seat Mako. “The Barracuda is a 2/2/2 proposition – two seats and 200 knot cruise for only […]

Bye Aerospace announced that it is in the process of installing a Siemens motor in the two-seat Sun Flyer 2 proof-of-concept, which first flew in April. The 90kW motor provides the equivalent of 115 hp, which will power the all-electric airplane to 135 knots, said Bye Aerospace’s president and CEO, George Bye. Power is stored […]

Thirteen people survived the crash of a vintage C-47 military transport plane on Saturday at Burnet Airport, 20 miles northwest of Austin, Texas. The aircraft, the Bluebonnet Belle owned by the Commemorative Air Force, was departing for AirVenture 2018 in Oshkosh when the accident occurred during takeoff. The aircraft banked right on takeoff, before turning […]