Aircraft

Hawker Beechcraft has issued pink slips to 170 hourly and salary workers as the bankrupt company continues exclusive talks with Chinese-based Superior Aviation regarding a potential sale of the storied American manufacturer. The layoff notices – which gave the affected employees 60 days notice – were issued to workers at Hawker Beechcraft’s Little Rock facility […]

This year we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Piper J-3 Cub, one of the few cultural icons in light aviation and without much argument the single most identifiable and imitated model in general aviation history. As with many anniversaries, pinning down the exact date of the Cub is a bit of a semantic exercise. […]

One of the delights of Oshkosh is seeing new, innovative airplanes. The Lisa Akoya, an amphibious model destined for the LSA category, fits that bill to a tee. The airplane, which will sell for around $350,000, features a range of approaches never before seen in any airplane. I spent a delightful hour with the folks […]

The U.S. military is continuing to show its commitment to the integration of unmanned aircraft, a strategy that is also being adopted in the civil world and causing alarm for many general aviation pilots, including us at Flying. This past weekend, the Navy moved on to the second flight-test phase of the X-47B Unmanned Combat […]

As the economic downturn continues to stymie demand in the light and midsize business jet sectors, Bombardier has announced it is pausing production of its Learjet 60XR. The decision comes after an extended period of low sales numbers for the seven-passenger jet, which boasts a 2,405 nm range and a cruise speed of Mach 0.81. […]

Last week’s AirVenture air show in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was a big treat. As I’ve come to expect after years of attending, the show was filled with new exciting aviation products and every imaginable airplane type. And there was plenty of opportunity to learn new things at the forums and seminars. As I’ve also come to […]

There have been over 500 designs for homebuilt aircraft over the past six decades, the majority being for single- and two-place aircraft. It’s unlikely that there have been 15 four-seat designs, and not many have enjoyed any kind of success as kits. Very few have shown up at Oshkosh. Of those in production, the RV-10 […]

A federal judge is weighing whether to allow up to $5.3 million in bonuses for eight senior Hawker Beechcraft executives after the company’s union and federal regulators criticized the payouts as a money grab. The court has approved an exclusivity agreement with Superior Aviation Beijing allowing Hawker Beechcraft to sell the company to the Chinese […]

The NTSB is investigating a preflight incident over the weekend in which falling debris from a Boeing 787 engine triggered a grass fire at Charleston International Airport in South Carolina. There were no injuries as a result of Saturday’s fire, but analysts are now looking into what caused the GEnx engine failure and whether an […]

The fuel-injected, fadec-equipped Rotax 912 iS, which was introduced by BRP earlier this spring, has achieved ASTM approval. What this milestone means is that LSA manufacturers can now install the engine and meet the industry’s consensus standards without the airplane being under an experimental certificate. Engines already installed will be able to get ASTM stickers […]