Aircraft

Named the Ultra models, Mooney’s modernized Acclaim and Ovation are now FAA-certified and rolling out of the factory at an increasing rate. As a Mooney pilot and owner, I was excited to evaluate the M20U Ovation Ultra in conjunction with Mooney Aircraft Pilots Association’s annual Homecoming Convention, which was held in late September 2017 at […]

Building on a three-decade business relationship with FedEx Express, Textron Aviation today launched a clean-sheet high-wing utility twin turboprop, the Cessna SkyCourier 408, due to enter service in 2020. Powered by a pair of 1,100 shp Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-65SC engines, the SkyCourier will be capable of loading three standard LD3 shipping containers through […]

Yakima, Washington-based CubCrafters, the manufacturer of backcountry Cubs on steroids, this week introduced two updated versions of its highly successful Carbon Cub. The two-seat taildragger is now available with increased power, speed, range and payload with the Carbon Cub EX-3 and FX-3 models. “The Carbon Cub has a well-earned reputation as the performance leader among […]

The recent end of the FAA’s fiscal year at the close of September brought good news to the amateur-built aircraft world when agency data showed a marked decline in the number of accidents in that category of aircraft. “For the 12-month period from October 1, 2016, to September 30, 2017, fatal accident totals in amateur-built […]

It has been a year-and-a-half since Mooney Aircraft’s first Ovation Ultra took flight from the company’s headquarters in Kerrville, Texas, and it hasn’t all been good news for the manufacturer since then. But Mooney is closing out 2017 on a strong note, as it recently celebrated the delivery of the first Ovation Ultra, before bringing […]

Four new Cessna Grand Caravan EX aircraft equipped with Wipline 8750A seaplane floats are expected to join the fleet in 2018 at Tropic Ocean Airways in Fort Lauderdale. Already the world’s largest operator of the Grand Caravan EX seaplane, this order will increase the size of the airline’s fleet to 15 aircraft. The order for […]

Following in the contrails of Cessna 172 and 182 models, Lancair International announced this week that the latest option to be offered for the newly-designed Mako four-seater is the BRS Aerospace whole aircraft parachute system. The single-engine piston-powered aircraft’s design features will “easily accommodate” the BRS parachute, BRS announced in a release. “We are very […]

“With the CJ3, Cessna got it right.” So I was told when I embarked on a life of flying this attractive airplane. Some 1,200 hours of CJ3 flying later, I can tell you that the airplane is more than attractive. It is amazing. If you put a gun to my head, I wouldn’t have been […]

There are times when breaking a promise isn’t as bad as it sounds at first, like when a company delivers a product or service that outperforms expectations. Gulfstream’s been on the road the past few weeks telling people the new G500/G600 series of airplanes will fly further and faster than the company than originally planned, […]

Dr. Leo and Dr. Fairfax Windecker, working closely with Dow Chemical Company, in 1969 brought the first all composite aircraft, the Eagle I, to FAA certification. According to the Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum, the four-place, low-wing monoplane received FAA certification, “only after building in a 20 percent over-designed airframe to make up for […]