Aircraft

A half-inch-long crack in a turbine engine blade prompted the Pentagon to ground the fleet of 51 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighters on Friday, the latest black eye for the troubled and oft-delayed military jet program. Engineers at Pratt & Whitney planned to conduct a detailed examination of the turbine blade on the F135 engine as […]

“I’d never scared off a mountain lion before using a helicopter,” said Monty Emery, a pilot with the California Highway Patrol based near the town of Colfax. But on Saturday, he got his chance. He and copilot David White received a dispatch call about a hiker on nearby Stevens Trail. David Nash had called 911 […]

Testing components of supersonic aircraft in flight can be problematic, and the refined wing design of Aerion’s developmental supersonic business jet (SSBJ) is a case in point. The 40-inch by 80-inch redesigned airfoil section is attached to the belly of a NASA F-15B to test for aerodynamic and temperature effects at speeds up to Mach […]

Bombardier has released its financial results for 2012, and while the order backlog for Bombardier Aerospace products continues to grow, the report delivered some bad news as well. The all-composite Learjet 85, which was slated for entry into service this year, has now been delayed until the summer of 2014. Bombardier cited “several new technology […]

A look at how composites enable the kit Evolution.

You may think an airplane as complex as the Evolution doesn’t belong in the amateur-built world. But for a company like Redmond, Oregon-based Lancair International, which has decades of experience producing complex airplane kits, the concept makes total sense. With the Evolution, Lancair has incorporated Part 23 certification procedures into its successful kit business to […]

Considering that kit airplanes often take many years to complete, if they ever do take to the skies, it is difficult to imagine that builders of an airplane as sophisticated as the Evolution can meet the 51 percent rule in a matter of months. What makes this possible is the simplicity of composite construction and […]

British farmer and aviation enthusiast David Cundall was living out his dream of digging up more than 100 crated World War II Supermarine Spitfires, but that dream has turned to a nightmare. Funding for the expedition has been cut off after none of the aircraft were found buried near the runway of Myanmar’s (formerly Burma) […]

Officially out of bankruptcy after a tough 10-month stretch, Beechcraft will now shift its focus to reestablishing its battered brand, supporting its customers and developing new piston and turboprop airplanes as the foundation of the company’s future. “Today marks the rebirth of an 80-year-old American aircraft manufacturing business with a globally recognized brand,” said Beechcraft […]

Italian police arrested the current and former CEOs of helicopter maker AgustaWestland on Tuesday, charging both men with bribery stemming from an Indian helicopter contract. Giuseppe Orsi, the chairman and CEO of Finmeccanica and former CEO of AgustaWestland, was taken into custody by police while current AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini has reportedly been placed under […]