Aircraft

I was introduced to the art of buying and selling flying machines on a spring afternoon in 1965, standing next to an airplane salesman who’d just closed a deal on an AT-6 at Lunken Airport. The sound from that round engine as the buyer departed Runway 21R was glorious, but when it passed almost directly […]

When the idea to create a full-motion helicopter sim in which to train EMS personnel came to Joe Brown, CEO of Hartzell Propeller, he immediately thought of Jerry Gregoire, founder of Redbird Flight Simulations. Within a matter of months, the concept turned into a product, designed not to make money but to save lives. As […]

While the FAA is still establishing rules to govern unmanned aircraft systems, the agency continues to deliver materials to educate members of the public about what they can and cannot do with their drones. Most recently, the FAA has launched a campaign to make the public aware of a No Drone Zone in the area […]

You might not even have noticed, but the Cessna 182 has been out of production for the better part of the last three years. Would-be buyers of new Skylanes are painfully aware of this fact, and now they’re finally getting their wish. Cessna is putting the gasoline piston version of the Skylane back into production […]

I’ve been an airplane nut and have longed to have one of my very own for nearly as long as I can remember. Unfortunately, I have also been an inveterate cheapskate since childhood. Aviation is a fine vocation for a tightwad; if not quite a job requirement to begin with, frugality is at least one […]

Italian light airplane maker Costruzioni Aeronautiche Tecnam is exploring a new two-seat jet design named the P JET. The sleek initial design has a side-by-side seating arrangement, tip tanks, and a twin tail. The airplane would be powered by a single jet engine mounted inside a pod on top of the fuselage — a configuration […]

Swiss airplane maker Pilatus has achieved a significant milestone in its PC-24 Super Versatile Jet program, taking the twinjet to the skies for its first flight on Monday morning at the Buochs Airport in Stans, Switzerland. During the flight, second in command Reto Aeschlimann reported: “Everything looks great so far! Beautiful handling — the PC-24 […]

In an effort to make drone operators more aware of where they can and cannot take their flying machines, the FAA is in the process of releasing an iOS app called B4UFLY. The app will tell its users whether there are any restrictions or requirements pertaining to UAS flights in the area of intended flight. […]

NASA engineers successfully tested the Greased Lightning GL-10, a battery-powered, 10-rotor remotely piloted aircraft that can take off and land like a helicopter and then transition to conventional flight in mid air. The craft was a little unsteady as it whirred to life and lifted off the ground, but it managed to rise into a […]

In the “we’ll believe it when we see it” department, a single-engine jet is being developed in Poland that is reminiscent of some single-engine jet programs that have been done here in the United States in recent years. Named the Flaris LAR 01, the jet has completed its initial taxi tests at the airport in […]