Aircraft

Embry-Riddle flight students will continue training in Cessna 172s for years to come after the university signed a long-term purchase agreement for 57 Skyhawks as part of a multi-year agreement. Cessna said 29 aircraft will be delivered to ERAU this year and the remaining 28 next year. The fleet will replace the Cessna 172s currently […]

Lancair has introduced a new option for the Evolution turboprop kit airplane called “rough service landing gear,” or RSLG for short. The new gear allows pilots to land the four-seat composite airplane at airports with unpaved runways without fear of damaging the gear. The new landing gear option has wide 12-ply Goodyear tires, which are […]

Embraer Executive Jets has enjoyed a very successful introduction of its Phenom line of light jets. Only a little more than five years after the Brazilian airplane maker introduced the Phenom 100, it has recently delivered the 300th version of the model. “We are very grateful to our Phenom 100 customers, with whom we share […]

Some of the booths drawing attention at the Sun ‘n Fun International Fly-In and Expo this week are those with piston-powered helicopter trainer simulators. We checked out a couple of affordable simulator versions, the Elite TH22 and X-copter flight simulators, both of which feature models from the largest helicopter manufacturer in the world — Torrance, […]

The interior of the GippsAero GA8 Airvan has received a facelift, improving the comfort for up to eight occupants of the utility airplane. Karen Nelson, the design/customer service director of Columbia, South Carolina-based Eagle Aviation, which designed the Airvan’s new executive interior, said the materials were chosen based on the known applications of the GA8, […]

Redbird Flight Simulations unveiled a full-motion helicopter skills trainer at Sun ‘n Fun called the Redbird VTO that is designed to help new students learn the art of hovering and autorotation before transitioning to the real thing. The idea behind the simulator is to provide the visual and motion cues necessary for improving helicopter-specific skills, […]

Arlington, Washington-based Glasair is taking advantage of the investment funds made available by its Chinese owners, Jilin Hanxing Group, by launching two new products, namely a new two-seat LSA and a diesel-powered version of the popular Glasair Sportsman. I took a seat in the mockup of what Glasair has named the Merlin LSA at the […]

Despite experiencing two in-flight engine failures during the months-long test program, Cessna says all development issues related to the Safran SMA diesel engine in the 182 JT-A have been resolved and certification is “weeks away.” The 182 JT-A test airplane with the new jet-A-burning SMA compression-ignition engine suffered an emergency engine failure in August that […]

Flight Design has selected the panel offerings for its new four-seat airplane, the C4, currently in the development phase in Germany. The company has branded its panel offering the Vision Touch by Garmin. While the C4 is in process of Part 23 certification, the main screens are coming from Garmin’s G3X Touch, designed for the […]

Before it has even sold its first diesel Cessna 172 conversion, Premier Aircraft Sales announced a vast expansion of the program to cover all Skyhawks from the 172F model first built in 1965 to modern 172R and S models. Earlier this year Premier announced the diesel upgrade program, which replaces the Lycoming engine in a […]