Aircraft

Seattle-based Raisbeck Engineering is working with Hartzell Propeller on a new project for the King Air 350, bringing a swept blade propeller design to the largest model of Beechcraft’s twin turboprop. Two versions are in development: a five-blade composite and a four-blade aluminum propeller. Raisbeck said the four-blade aluminum prop is close to achieving FAA […]

“Swarm Man” takes to the sky — er, several feet off the ground — in a DIY super drone that sounds like an army of bees. The homebuilt flying machine is equipped with 54 counter-rotating propellers fastened in a hexagonal pattern, with a chair in the center. It’s also rigged with a polycarbonate dome, which […]

From Garmin’s latest offerings comes the GTC 580, a new touchscreen controller option for the G2000, G3000 and G5000 integrated flight decks. The high-resolution landscape display adds standby flight display capabilities while using the same GTC 570 interface that provides full flight deck management control, such as flight planning, radio and audio management, and weather […]

As the FAA gets serious about stemming the threat of UAVs mixing in airspace with general aviation and airline traffic, the agency has appointed two new executives to head its UAS Integration Office. Retired U.S. Air Force major general Marke “Hoot” Gibson has been tapped to become the senior advisor on UAS integration, reporting to […]

Van’s Aircraft has shipped the 1,000th RV-12 kit, making it one of the most successful light sport aircraft to hit the market since its introduction in 2008. Van’s said it has shipped 937 RV-12 kit empennage packages, plus a number of fly-away S-LSA RV-12s built at the company factory in Oregon. More than 400 RV-12s […]

Continuing the rollout of new avionics options, Robinson Helicopters has introduced Genesys Aerosystems’ HeliSAS (Helicopter Stability Augmentation System) and autopilot as an option for the R44. Earlier this year a flight test and FAA certification program approved the autopilot for the turbine-powered R66. The R44’s autopilot option keeps the same modes and functionality as the […]

So far it’s unconfirmed, but the FAA is taking seriously a report that a Piper twin was involved in a midair collision with a UAV over northern Illinois on August 27. Maybe we should be calling it a UFO, since the FAA’s incident report refers to a collision between the Piper Apache and an “unidentified […]

Embraer’s Legacy 450 business twinjet received FAA type certification yesterday, three weeks after notching its Brazilian approval. With the certification papers in hand, Embraer Executive Jets plans to start customers deliveries as early as next month. The “mid-light” Legacy 450 is the first in its category with full fly-by-wire technology and side-stick flight controls, which […]

Just months after its first flight, Anequim CEA-311, a Brazilian speedster built by students and professors at the Brazilian technical school Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG) in Belo Horizonte, has achieved multiple world records at the Santa Cruz Air Force Base in Rio de Janeiro. Between Friday and Sunday last week, the sleek single-seat […]

The XTI TriFan 600, a conceptual three-rotor vertical takeoff and landing airplane now in the early developmental stage, would be easy to dismiss as just another fantasy of well-intentioned aviation dreamers. Until you realize who those dreamers are. The new XTI Aircraft based in Denver is headed by a veteran leadership team that includes Jeff […]