Aircraft

Today there are over 30,000 homebuilt aircraft on the FAA’s registry. It’s estimated there may be another 30,000 under construction. When it comes to the question of how to build an airplane, there are a number of different routes individual builders can take. Some builders opt to just buy a set of plans and then […]

The FAA and EASA have signed off on Gulfstream‘s new cockpit upgrade for GIV, GIV-SP, GV, G300 and G400 airplanes. Called PlaneDeck, the new upgrade provides pilots with geo-referenced electronic charts and maps, in-flight XM weather and video displays for the six-screen Honeywell system. Pilots should notice better clarity as the previous cathode ray-tube DU-880 […]

The GE 80 turboprop engine added to its growing list of type certifications this week and further signaled its global appeal by gaining approval from both the Brazilian Civil Aviation agency and the Argentine aviation authority. The South American type certifications follow approval from the FAA in March as well as the go-ahead granted by […]

For that special buyer who demands nothing less than the ultimate in luxury and comfort aloft, Eurocopter has put the EC 135 in the gifted hands of the designers at Hermès, the French fashion house known best for its ultrahigh-end leather handbags, shoes and accessories. The result is an interior space dominated by rich brown […]

Cessna Aircraft on Saturday launched the inaugural “Cessna Discover Flying Challenge” during an open house in Independence, Kansas. The event kicked off a five-week flying tour for a group of selectively chosen ** Cessna Skycatcher** pilots that will include visits to various fly-ins, airshows and other aviation gatherings, all done in the name of raising […]

Eurocopter is making a grand U.S. tour with its X3 hybrid developmental heloplane, which features a pair of conventional looking turboprops in addition to a conventional looking rotar. The craft, which Eurocopter developed in just three years’ time, is nearly 100 knots faster than the fleetest comparably sized conventional helicopters. The X3 has achieved better […]

A recent patent awarded to Airbus by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office indicates engineers at the industry giant have quite a unique design up their sleeves – a double fuselage airliner, to be exact. Design drawings associated with the patent, filed in 2008, show the fuselages connected by way of two forward-swept wings, with […]

Gamera II, a giant human-powered helicopter developed by students at the University of Maryland’s Clark School, has been vying this week for both new world records and the $250,000 Sikorsky Prize. On Thursday, the team made an unofficial 40-second human powered flight, shattering the group’s previous 11.4-second record set with a flight of the Gamera […]

As investigators continue to probe the fatal 2011 crash of a Gulfstream G650 test aircraft, the NTSB recently voiced some harsh words regarding Gulfstream’s handling of the investigation. In a letter dated April 4, 2012, NTSB Chairman Deborah Hersman outlined a number of offenses committed by the bizjet giant, including information withholding, noncompliance with NTSB […]

The upcoming integration of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into the National Airspace System within the next few years has local, county, state and federal agencies pining for drones, this according to a story in the Christian Science Monitor. The story points to the public’s conflicted view of drone operations — they like them for hunting […]