Aircraft

I awoke to the faded pastel orange of a rising sun. The sun’s glow was making a feeble attempt at blending into a dominant gray winter’s overcast. Only seconds into the transition from sleep to reality, my eyes began to track a pair of pinpoint amber lights. The lights moved at a rapid pace from […]

I am writing this on Dec. 31, 2014. On this day some people prepare resolutions. I catalog regrets. At this time a year ago I was racking my brain over an apparent rise in oil temperature in my homebuilt, which has an updraft-cooled Continental TSIO-360 engine. This is an airplane I designed and built and […]

With new supersonic jets, such as the Aerion AS2, in the works and several business jets teetering on the edge of supersonic flight, NASA is looking for ways to potentially ease the restrictions against such flights over inhabited areas. The agency has awarded Rockwell Collins with a contract to develop a display that would predict […]

It’s not often that a grounded airplane design returns to the skies, but such will be the case for a Windecker Eagle currently in restoration. The airplane was designed in the 1960s. It was the first composite airplane to achieve certification and one of the first, if not the first, airplanes certified under Part 23 […]

Textron Aviation achieved a timely milestone at the European Business Aviation Convention and Expo in Geneva, Switzerland, earning EASA certification for Cessna Aircraft Company’s Citation CJ3+. The light business jet has seen great success since it first got the FAA sign off in September, with Cessna delivering 10 of the airplanes already by the close […]

Aerion announced at EBACE that it is taking position orders for its AS2 supersonic bizjet project and announced pricing for the jet, along with details on the sales program. Aerion said that it is strengthening its ties with Airbus in a joint definition phase. The first 50 customers, Aerion said, will get preferential pricing and […]

Textron Aviation president and CEO Scott Ernest announced on Monday that the company’s largest airplane, the $26 million Longitude large cabin jet, was making good progress and is on track for its targeted certification in 2017. That date that will presumably protect the company from the delays plaguing Dassault in the certification program for its […]

Dassault CEO Eric Trappier told reporters at EBACE that the Safran Silvercrest engine slated to power the company’s new Falcon 5X long range jet is delayed in its certification and suggested that the delay would likely push back certification of the 5X by many months. Dassault said the delay is a result of flight test […]

On the opening day of EBACE Textron Aviation announced that the standard avionics package for its entire King Air lineup would be the Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion suite. The flagship King Air 350 and popular King Air 250 will get the new flight decks by this summer, and the C90GTX will get it later […]

Gulfstream on Tuesday made a surprise announcement at the European business aviation gathering EBACE, sharing the news that its latest big bizjet, the G500, made its first flight on Monday. As we reported in our December issue, the G500 and G600 are closely related new jets that make use of the most advanced technology in […]