Aircraft

The first production-conforming version of the much-anticipated Cirrus Jet is slated to roll out by the end of this year, with flight testing to begin in 2014. Since the first Cirrus Jet prototype was unveiled in 2008, the program has completed more than 600 flight hours. Cirrus is currently building the newest prototype — the […]

View our Global 6000 photo gallery here.| When I saw the it on the ramp at Bradley International Airport (BDL) in Connecticut, my first impression of the Bombardier Global 6000, the company’s latest ultra-long-range wonder, was simply that it is a staggeringly beautiful airplane. The one I was looking at, and which I’d shortly get […]

The ailerons of my homebuilt aircraft, Melmoth 2, are quite similar to those of a 1918 Fokker D.8. You would think that a great deal might have changed in nine decades, but apparently not. Perhaps it’s true, if not in biology then at least in aviation, that “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny” — that is, the development […]

FedEx has donated a retired Boeing 727-200 to the Sun ‘n Fun campus, which is used by the Central Florida Aerospace Academy and its partner Polk State College. Polk State College’s Aerospace Program Director Eric Crump, who is also a regular contributor to Flying, said the airplane will be parked permanently and mounted on stilts […]

Amid slow sales and an $8 million first-quarter loss, Cessna will pause production of several entry-level business jet models and seek to trim its workforce, the company said yesterday. Cessna delivered 32 jets in the quarter, down from 38 in the same period last year. Cessna parent Textron’s CEO, Scott Donnelly, noted that light jet […]

Operators of Continental Gold Standard engines built or factory overhauled after February 2012 have an extra 200 hours of recommended time between overhauls (TBO). If they fly at least 40 hours a month, that figure is doubled to 400 hours. The new published TBOs are effective immediately. Engines with serial numbers 1006000 and higher are […]

Photography by Jay Miller| On May 14, 1946, Larry Bell, the founder of Bell Helicopter, said: “We are now on the eve of the helicopter era. … We believe that one of the most necessary requisites to the development of the helicopter age is to provide the best possible training for men and women who […]

Cessna announced this week that the first updated production Citation X has emerged from the factory hangar in Wichita, Kansas. More than 675 flight hours have been logged on the two test platforms Cessna has used during the certification effort for its fastest business jet. Cessna hopes to certify the new X and deliver the […]

In an effort to grow its network of Beechcraft Bonanza, Debonair, Baron and Travel Air instructors around the country, the American Bonanza Society’s Air Safety Foundation has launched a new Flight Instructor Academy to support its BPPP Online+Flight and BPPP LIVE programs, which provide the ground portion of the organization’s type-specific training program. “ABS created […]

Lancair announced a new kit pricing format for the Legacy two-place single, choosing an “all inclusive” model that includes everything needed to build one. The revised pricing is intended to take the guesswork out of budgeting and allow builders to better manage their time. The hope is that more kits become finished airplanes. The Legacy […]