Aircraft

After losing out twice before, Beechcraft is again protesting the U.S. Air Force’s decision to award a contract for light attack airplanes for the Afghan military to Brazil’s Embraer. Embraer and its U.S.-based partner, Sierra Nevada, won a $427 million deal on February 27 to supply 20 Super Tucano turboprops to be used in Afghanistan […]

Three people are dead after a Northrop Grumman EA-6B crashed in eastern Washington state Monday morning during a routine low-level training flight. According to base officials, the airplane was assigned to Naval Air Station Whidbey Island and went down shortly before 9 a.m. local time approximately 10 miles outside the city of Harrington, which lies […]

OEMs and show organizers at Heli-Expo this week appear to be on cloud nine as the helicopter industry continues on a strong growth path. More than 13,000 people pre-registered for the show this year, and, by Thursday morning, Helicopter Association International reported more than 20,100 attendees, breaking the attendance record for the sixth consecutive year. […]

One of the most surprising announcements coming out of Heli-Expo this week was the introduction of a new turbine version of the Bell 47 — the 47GT-6 from Scott’s-Bell 47 — a company that also refers to itself as SB47. The new version of the 1940s bubble-canopy helicopter design will be based on Bell’s 47G-3B-2A […]

Sikorsky has many reasons to celebrate at this year’s Heli-Expo in Las Vegas with the 90th anniversary of the company and impressive order announcements valued at more than $800 million. On the first day of the show, Sikorsky announced an order from Houston-based Bristow Group for up to 26 S-76D helicopters used for offshore oil […]

At this week’s Heli-Expo show in Las Vegas, AgustaWestland introduced an unmanned “technology demonstrator” version of an electric-powered tiltrotor. Far from ready for production, the “Project Zero” aircraft was fabricated and flown in six months by the Italian company’s Advanced Concepts Group. Though no plans for a manned version were mentioned in the company press […]

Federal investigators are looking into the unmanned aircraft sighting reported by an Alitalia pilot landing at JFK on Monday afternoon, an event that has evoked larger fears of the planned widespread integration of unmanned aerial vehicles into American airspace. The 777 was on final approach to Runway 31R around 1:15 p.m. when one of the […]

Cessna completed its first production flight of its single-engine TTx in Independence, Kansas, reporting that the composite speedster performed exceptionally well and is ready to hit the market. Cessna’s TTx test pilot flew the airplane to 17,000 feet and achieved a speed of 213 knots. The TTx’s 310 hp Continental TSIO-550-C engine is capable of […]

The top trending search term on Twitter last night was “Rand Paul” as the Republican senator from Kentucky staged a one-man marathon filibuster in protest of an Obama Administration policy that appears to condone drone attacks on American citizens within U.S. borders under certain circumstances. Paul began speaking on the senate floor before noon yesterday […]

At a press conference at the Heli-Expo in Las Vegas, Rolls-Royce senior vice president, helicopters, Greg Fedele introduced the newest member of the M250 engine family — the M250-C47E. The more powerful version features a dual-channel full-authority digital engine control system, which Fedele said may soon allow for on-condition maintenance. Fedele said the fuel burn […]