Aircraft

The thought of an Extra 300 tearing up the sky in near total silence is unfathomable to aerobatic fans expecting a routine that’s part gyrating airplane and part roaring piston engine. But that was in the old days, before Siemens announced in April it was planning to hitch its new 260 kw electric motor to […]

Fifty years ago, on Aug. 12, 1966, the Lear Jet 25 made its maiden flight in Wichita, Kansas. It was the last model to fly before Bill Lear, the inventor of ADF, the 8-track cassette and 150 other things, sold the company in the midst of a crushing recession to the Gates Rubber Co. Many […]

While critics have, for decades, scoffed at the idea of flying cars, that attitude is beginning to change. Toyota jumped into the flying-car arena by filing a patent for a “shape morphine fuselage for an aerocar” in 2014. The giant autobuilder claims the new aerocar will easily morph from a road-hugging automobile to an airborne […]

The B-29 named Doc, which has been undergoing restoration in Wichita, Kansas, since it was brought there 16 years ago, is expected to fly in the next few weeks. Doc’s Friends, the organization that has spearheaded the major restoration effort, has overcome the last obstacles standing in the way of first flight, having received permission […]

The HA-420 HondaJet received FAA type certification in December and promptly entered the light jet market to much excitement and anticipation. Flying senior editor Pia Bergqvist recently got the chance to fly and review the much-hyped airplane for the June issue. Check out pictures of the HA-420’s unique design, luxurious cabin and innovative features.

Dassault Aviation’s new flagship, the Dassault Falcon 8X, achieved European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) certification. FAA certification is expected in the coming weeks, with entry into service planned for this fall. Three aircraft were used in the flight test program, which totaled more than 830 hours on 400 flights. Those airplanes will now be used […]

When Honda Aircraft Company announced it had received FAA type certification for the HA-420 HondaJet on December 9, the company’s president and CEO, Michimasa Fujino, described the document as “the crystal of sweat and tears.” The sign-off was the culmination of decades of hard work. Fujino became involved in Honda’s aircraft program in 1986. The […]

The FAA says the Terrafugia Transition can now be called a light sport aircraft despite the fact that its maximum weight is 370 pounds greater than the standard LSA 1,430-pound limit. Terrafugia petitioned the agency for the exemption to use the LSA label for a street-legal version of the aircraft back in 2014. Although the […]

Charles Bolden says now is the right time to take a serious look at a distributed electric aircraft that, if successful, will create advanced technologies to reduce fuel burn, emissions and aircraft noise. Bolden is administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. NASA’s new X-57 project, nicknamed “Maxwell,” will be the agency’s first dedicated […]

Piper’s M600 single-engine turboprop achieved FAA type certification last week, adding a new model to the Vero Beach, Florida, manufacturer’s lineup that features more power and improved avionics. The $2.853 million M600 features the same Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6-42A engine as the Piper M500, but power has been boosted from 500 to 600 shp, […]