Aircraft

The FAA has approved the type certificate for Sikorsky’s long-anticipated S-76D, opening the floodgates to a nearly half-billion-dollar order backlog from customers who have waited patiently through three years of program delays. The FAA signed the S-76D type certificate on Oct. 12, capping an intensive flight test program that originally called for certification of the […]

Van’s Aircraft introduced an S-LSA version of the RV-12 on Thursday at AOPA Summit in Palm Springs, California. The new model will come completely built, unlike the current RV-12, which is an Experimental LSA (E-LSA). E-LSAs are essentially LSAs that comes in kit form. Van’s president and CEO Dick Van Grunsven said the new model […]

Ron Alexander was born in 1942 in Bloomington, Indiana. At the age of 14, he took his first airplane ride in a military C-119 as a member of the Civil Air Patrol. Shortly after that flight he began flying with other CAP members in a PA.-18. When Ron was 16 years old, he soloed an […]

The FAA has issued the type certificate for the new Thrush 510G agplane powered by a single 800-shp General Electric H80 turbine engine. The 510G is a derivative of the original 510P model powered by the Pratt & Whitney PT6. The new model features a number of additional improvements including a total redesign of the […]

The NTSB’s official accident report on last year’s G650 test flight crash – released Wednesday – blames the fatal accident on Gulfstream’s aggressive test flight schedule and failure to rectify pre-existing flaws in the ultra-long-range business jet’s takeoff speed. According to investigators, the accident that killed four seasoned Gulfstream employees – which occurred after the […]

Seven decades after flying the Convair-built OY-1 Sentinal (the Naval version of the Stinson L-5) over Iwo Jima, 91-year-old veteran Mert P. Hansen got another ride in his exact WWII aircraft thanks to a unique twist of fate, as well as one man’s commitment to restoring the warbird. While bringing the aircraft back to life, […]

The union representing some 825 workers at Bombardier’s Learjet plant in Wichita called a strike after contract negotiations failed to reach an agreement with the company on a new deal. The current contract, which was negotiated in 2009, expired on Saturday, and workers are not satisfied with the new proposal. It calls for no raises […]

Embraer last week offered its first public glimpse of the Legacy 500 at its factory in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, ahead of the midsize business jet’s first flight, anticipated to occur later this month. Embraer was nearly finished building the first of four flight test airplanes early this year when software problems with the […]

A short video released by Israel shows what is described as an unidentified unmanned drone being destroyed, apparently by a jet fighter. The incident occurred on Saturday, Oct. 6, and was captured on ground-based video. The drone was detected as it flew along the Mediterranean coast, and then Israeli defense forces tracked it as it […]

Cessna Aircraft said it has received an order from AirSprint Private Aviation of Calgary, Alberta, for nine** Citation CJ2+** business jets in a deal valued at more than $60 million at list prices. AirSprint is a Canadian fractional ownership provider that is seeking to become a major player in the industry by expanding operations across North […]