Aircraft

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 […]

Sometimes it’s the small things that matter and, if the claims of Premier Aviation out of Concord, California, are true, a simple wheel cover has achieved impressive performance improvements for the Cessna 400 twin-series of airplanes. The company recently received the sign off from the FAA for an STC to install its dome wheel cover […]

A new concept in aircraft ownership is taking flight with the launch of DiamondShare, a shared-use program that seeks to make flying more affordable by spreading the costs around. As you might have guessed, the idea is based exclusively on Diamond Aircraft products, specifically the four-place, single-engine Diamond DA40 XLS. The program matches aircraft owners […]

Van’s Aircraft celebrated a milestone this week as the 8,000th confirmed RV kit airplane made its first flight. The airplane, an RV-7A built by Stephen Watson from Santa Clarita, California, took flight on Monday. At the completion of the flight, the builder proclaimed: “She flew like an RV.” Watson, who works at the Jet Propulsion […]

While the rest of the Boeing 787 fleet remains grounded, the FAA has authorized a one-time crew-only Dreamliner flight to return one of the airplanes from a paint facility in Fort Worth, Texas, to the company’s factory outside Seattle. FAA approval for the flight was given alongside the stipulations that the flight crew take a […]