Aircraft

You can find the question posed on just about every well-trodden aviation message board on the Internet: Why can’t we just use fuel-efficient and cheap car engines in our airplanes? The answer, in a nutshell, is that the best automobile engine in the world is usually still a poor aircraft engine. Here are the reasons […]

Take an engine from a 1970s Ford, Toyota or Chevy and put it next to one built today, and the differences are easy to spot. Dig down into the performance and economy figures, and there’s no comparison between the 30-plus-year-old technology and today’s — the newer engines are better in almost every way imaginable, with […]

Paul Redlich dead-sticked a newly restored P-40 into Ohio’s Clermont County Airport (I69) from 6,500 feet this winter. The Allison engine suddenly blew on a test flight of the rare and iconic World War II fighter about six miles east of I69, and Paul found himself flying a glider with the sink rate of a […]

As Gulfstream’s G150 fleet recently flew past the 100,000-flight-hour mark, the company also completed the initial production phase of its 100th G150, Gulfstream recently announced. The milestones come approximately 6.5 years after the midsize-cabin speedster first entered service, breaking a number of speed and range records in its bizjet class along the way. Since then, […]

Italian manufacturer Tecnam announced the addition of the new Rotax 912 iS fuel-injected engine across its light sport and ultralight product line. Due to enter mass production next month, the 100 hp 912 iS will fly in the Tecnam P92, P2002 and P2008 models. Selection of the newest Rotax engine by Tecnam continues a flurry […]

We at Flying know airplanes pretty well, but when it comes to flying cars (or “roadable aircraft” as the manufacturers prefer to call them), we have questions just like you. So on the eve of the New York International Auto Show, where Terrafugia is bringing its flying . . . er . . . roadable […]

Diamond Aircraft has made the first flight of its new all-composite twin-engine model, the DA52. First flight, made by Diamond Chairman Christian Dries and Diamond test pilot Ingmar Mayerbuch, went off without a hitch. In fact, after the flight Dries said that the DA52 was “the best prototype aircraft I have ever made a maiden […]

Start up LSA manufacturer Terrafugia reached an important milestone the other week with the first flight of the production prototype version of its roadable airplane, called the Transition. The short sortie — it lasted but eight minutes and went only as high as 1,400 feet agl within the vicinity of the Plattsburg, New York, airport […]

Employees at one of GA’s largest airplane manufacturers recently put their collective might together for a good cause, raising $25,000 in a fundraising effort benefiting the Veterans Airlift Command, a non-profit that transports injured veterans and their families with the help of volunteer pilots and aircraft owners. Cessna made the donation on behalf of its […]

Paul Poberezny was the founding president of the Experimental Aircraft Association from its creation in 1953, until he resigned in 1989. He then became Chairman of the Board, until 2010. Though he wasn’t the first person to build and fly his own airplane, he inspired tens of thousands of others to do what he had […]