Aircraft

Have you ever wanted to design an aircraft that actually made it onto the display floor? Pipistrel is giving aviation enthusiasts just that chance with its contest for the livery design of the first Panthera. The company is calling for exterior designs of its new fuel-efficient four-seater, and plans to award the selected winner with […]

Embraer has won a hotly contested contract to build counterinsurgency aircraft in its first deal with the U.S. Air Force, marking a major victory for the Brazilian company and an important milestone in relations between the two countries. The contract award has also touched off a fierce PR and legal offensive by the losing bidder, […]

Last week a group of scuba divers came upon what is believed to be a rare World War II aircraft while diving off the coast of Jupiter, Florida. Randy Jordan, owner of the scuba diving company Emerald Charters, told ABC News that he was diving amongst a group when some frightened fish alerted them to […]

(January 2011) Last November a group of 50 members of the F37 committee gathered for its biannual meeting. No, it wasn’t to test a futuristic stealth-fighter aircraft (though, interestingly, a Google search reveals the F/A-37 Talon is one of the fictional aircraft used in Hollywood films). Indeed, on the surface F37 is seemingly much less […]

Kitplane provider Sonex Aircraft will reach a new milestone next month when it holds its 50th Sonex Builder Workshop, the company recently announced. The workshop is slated for Jan. 28-29 and will provide an opportunity for attendees to learn about the Sonex design and build a sample piece of the Sonex wing. Since 1998, Sonex […]

Cessna has launched a safety initiative to educate owners of 100- and 200-series single-engine piston aircraft about new supplemental aircraft inspection procedures that will soon be added to Cessna service manuals. The supplemental inspections will cover more than 145,000 Cessna single-engine airplanes produced between 1946 and 1986. The inspections will be incorporated into the service […]

Citing the “fragile global economic situation,” Hawker Beechcraft has decided to slow development of the Hawker 200 light business jet, known originally as the Beechcraft Premier II, until market conditions rebound. “As you are aware, our industry is facing one of the most challenging markets in its history,” noted Hawker Beechcraft chairman and CEO Bill […]

Embraer on Monday officially opened its Global Customer Center in Melbourne, Florida, cutting the ribbon on a sleek and modern customer design center and 80,000-square-foot factory that will eventually have the capacity to turn out nearly 100 airplanes a year. Hundreds of Embraer employees and customers attended the grand opening along with several Florida politicians […]

__At the NBAA convention in October, I got to be on hand to witness one of the most significant events in the 20 years I’ve been an aviation journalist: the official rebirth of the Eclipse jet. Eclipse Aerospace — the company that bought the remnants of the original Eclipse out of bankruptcy — announced that […]

(December 2011) October’s column discussed training in a light-sport aircraft for the private rating. Briefly, if the LSA is equipped for night VFR and if the manufacturer states so in the POH, you can do all of your training for the rating in the airplane. Upon learning this, I naturally wondered if, after receiving said […]