Aircraft

Austro Engines, a division of Diamond Aircraft, has capped two and a half years of developing its AE80R rotary aircraft engine with successful bench testing. The company announced the tests yesterday, saying the new engine is a higher-power derivative of its successful 55-hp AE50R rotary. Target weight of the AE80 is less than 60 pounds. […]

The wreckage of a Brewster F2A-3 Buffalo was recently found submerged beneath a mere 10 feet of water off the island of Midway Atoll, bringing attention to the stubby-looking airplane known as a “flying coffin” during World War II due to its notoriously poor combat record. Federal divers stumbled upon the find last summer while […]

Yesterday Pilatus launched an online configurator for the iPad that allows users to create their dream Pilatus PC-12 turboprop single. One of the hottest marketing tools for carmakers these last few years has been so-called “configurators,” digital utilities that let fans of the car (and potential customers) pick out colors, body mods, trim and interior […]

Eclipse Aerospace has submitted a proposal for a U.S. Air Force request to supply a “large fleet” of very light jets (VLJ) for use as basic trainers. The Air Force is seeking to replace its 20-year-old fleet of business jets to support its Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training (SUPT) Multi-Place Training Track. Cost will be a […]

A fire broke out aboard an empty Boeing 787 Dreamliner at Boston Logan Airport on Monday after the battery powering the Japan Airlines jet’s auxiliary power unit exploded as the jet sat at the gate. A firefighter suffered minor burns controlling the small fire, which caused heavy smoke in the cabin. The flight had arrived […]

Tamarack Aerospace, which last fall introduced its “active winglet” technology, has received an order for three shipsets of the winglets from Premier Jet Aviation in Florida. Premier plans to incorporate the winglets in its “CJ Plus” retrofit of Cessna Citation CJ (Model 525) series jets. The Tamarack winglets are expected to be certified for the […]

For bad and for good, the story of Beechcraft is a classic American tale more than 80 years in the making. The iconic Wichita, Kansas, light airplane manufacturer, which catapulted to prominence with what amounted to the Depression-era bizjet, the still-sexy Beechcraft D-17 Staggerwing, rose through the subsequent decades on the fortunes of a hall-of-fame […]

As Beechcraft emerges from bankruptcy, it is crafting its future by returning to its roots.

The moon seemed to take itself so seriously that it paid little attention to us. Though less than a quarter of its full self, it looked down with indifference at our little ship as it hurtled through the cosmos. This lack of concern was a boon, it turned out, for the low moonlight allowed the […]

Working in total secrecy for the past three years, Raisbeck Engineering and Hartzell Propeller have teamed to develop and certify an all new swept-wing propeller that the companies claim offers greatly improved FAA-certified takeoff, climb and landing performance. The effort has culminated with FAA certification of the Raisbeck/Hartzell Swept Turbofan Propeller for the King Air […]