Aircraft

Manufacturers of piston-powered light singles and twins delivered 190 airplanes in this year’s third quarter (157 singles and 33 twins), a 9.1 percent decline from the 209 piston airplanes delivered in the same period last year. Total piston shipments so far this year are down 8.8 percent compared with last year’s numbers, the fourth year […]

Wow, what an eye opener! Last night I completed 1.4 hours of my 3-hour night flight-training requirement for the private certificate, single-engine rating, with First Landings Aviation CFI Chris Esposito. I shot 8 full-stop landings in the Remos GX, leaving the last two of the 10 required for my dual cross-country night flight. All I […]

The pilot of a Cirrus that crashed shortly after departure from the popular Dallas-area GA airport in Addison reported a rough running engine after takeoff for a cross country flight to Houston. The pilot asked for a return to the airport. The NTSB reported that the pilot attempted two ILS approaches but called off the […]

Thomas Senkel of the German company e-volo recently became the first to pilot an interesting craft – a so-called electric multicopter with 16 rotors. With a single seat placed in the center of those blades, the 80-kilogram (176-pound), all-electric vehicle may look a bit frightening to the risk-averse eye. According to e-volo, the multicopter is […]

The Ecuador Air Force (Fuerza Aerea Ecuatoriana or FAE) has selected the Diamond DA20-C1 as its new primary flight training aircraft with an order for 12 airplanes. The new fleet of DA20s, currently in production at Diamond Aircraft‘s London, Ontario, factory, will be operated by FAE’s Air Force Academy “Cosme Rennella” at Salinas Air Base […]

The restoration process of the B-17 Memphis Belle recently reached a few notable milestones, bringing the famous warbird steps closer to returning to pristine condition. In addition to mating the wings, restoration crews at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force recently extended the landing gear of the airplane, well known as the first […]

Hawker Beechcraft reported a loss of $42.2 million in the third quarter, but that was actually a big improvement over last year, when the Wichita aircraft maker lost $81.4 million in the same period. Overall sales were down, totaling $518.8 million in this year’s third quarter compared with $594.7 million during the same period last […]

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner lifted off on Wednesday for the first time with paying passengers on board, marking a milestone many years in the making for the world’s first “plastic” airliner. The jet, owned and operated by All Nippon Airways, carried 240 passengers from Hong Kong to Tokyo, a trip that some passengers paid as […]

After what it calls “six quarters of mostly positive news,” aviation market research firm Amstat reported on Wednesday that the third quarter of 2011 was a disappointing one for jet sales. The firm reported that the existing inventory of used business jets, considered a key marker for economic energy in the business aviation sector, had […]

I stood the autothrottles of the Hawker 4000 up straight, and like magic they came right out of my hand and set their own power as though they knew just what I wanted. I kept my left hand on the tiller along the sidewall waiting for the 60-knot callout, at which point I knew the […]