Aircraft

A startup endeavor backed by Google cofounder Larry Page has tested an electric-powered vertical takeoff and landing drone in New Zealand. The company, Silicon Valley based Kitty Hawk, revealed released a video of the prototype in flight. The Cora autonomous craft is targeted at the nascent airborne taxi market that some experts predict could explode […]

Most general aviation pilots dream at some point about owning an airplane. There are no substitutes for the ability to jump into your own airplane and take off wherever, whenever, without any scheduling, time restrictions and costly minimum daily requirements. Or are there? If you’re not flying at least 100 hours per year, full ownership […]

Textron Aviation’s Cessna Citation Longitude has broken its own distance record, going just beyond the promised 3,500-nm range. During a recent demo tour, the airplane flew from the Seletar Airport in Singapore (XSP) to Sydney, Australia (SYD), a distance of 3,504 nm. The trip was not set up as a record setting flight. The super-midsize […]

Some pilots believe a great aircraft, like a fine wine, only improves with age. Others turn up their nose at the thought of flying an airplane based on a decades-old design. Passing up a Beechcraft Baron G58 simply because the first Baron flew in 1962 would be a major mistake. The G58 is definitely not […]

Bell launched the upgraded Bell 407GXi at Heli-Expo 2018 this week featuring the Garmin G1000H NXi avionics system and new Fadec-controlled Rolls-Royce engine along with an upgraded executive cabin. The 407GXi gained its Transport Canada type certificate on January 19 and will begin reaching customers this spring, Bell said. The new model replaces the 407 […]

Dassault Aviation, seeking for a way to revive its ambitions in the super-midsize category after the cancellation of the Falcon 5X development program last year, yesterday introduced the Falcon 6X, a new 5,500-nm twinjet that is due make its first flight in early 2021 and begin deliveries in 2022. Dassault has selected Pratt & Whitney […]

The LSA market got a good surprise this week as Woodinville, Washington-based Vashon Aircraft announced the Ranger R7. With two airplanes already complete, this LSA is getting ready for delivery to its first customers. The company promises to have five airplanes ready to be delivered at EAA’s AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, at the end of […]

The single-engine four-seat Part 23-certified high-wing is back. While the design had been just about forgotten in the modern world of aviation — Cessna introduced its latest version about 50 years ago with the 177 Cardinal — Italian airplane-maker Vulcanair is the second to have recently certified a similarly configured airplane after another Italian manufacturer, […]

When we think of drones we tend to conjure images of miniature quadcopters flitting across the sky. That’s what makes the new FLYOX Mark II amphibious cargo drone so unusual. First, the thing is massive, with a ramp weight of 8,800 pounds and a 35-foot wingspan. It’s also the only drone we know of that’s […]

Textron Aviation is no longer selling the Cessna TTx, bringing to an apparent close production of the sleek high-performance piston single that originally drew its inspiration from a kitplane and grew into a fully Part 23 certified model that for a time was considered one of the best light airplanes in the world. Textron Aviation […]