Aircraft

Boeing on Monday delivered the first 787 Dreamliner to launch customer All Nippon Airways during a rain-soaked ceremony at the Everett, Washington, factory where workers assembled the airplane. More than 500 employees involved in the 787 program strode alongside the all-new jetliner as Boeing Commercial Airplanes president and CEO Jim Albaugh presented an oversized, ceremonial […]

Cirrus Aircraft has delivered its 5,000th airplane, and if you ever have a chance to see it, you’ll know immediately what it is you’re looking at. The Cirrus SR22 – N5000J – has a unique yellow-and-gray paint scheme with shiny black-and-white accents. Its tail is adorned with a large numeral 5 and the word “thousand.” […]

Lisa Airplanes, a young French company started in 2004, recently announced the commercial launch of the Akoya, an amphibious airplane reportedly able to land on snow, water or ground without any additional modification. The two-seater aircraft is made entirely of composite materials and relies on a 100 hp Rotax engine powered by unleaded gasoline. It […]

The Bristell, an all-metal, low-wing LSA from Liberty Sport Aviation, made its debut appearance in North America at AOPA Summit in Hartford, Connecticut. Built in the Czech Republic by manufacturer BRMAero, the Bristell features a 51-inch-wide cockpit and large canopy that give it the feel of a larger airplane. Powered by a 100 hp Rotax […]

The FAA is levying a nearly $2.5 million civil penalty against Cessna Aircraft after an incident in which carbon composite components of a Cessna Corvalis wing debonded during an audit test flight last year. The incident occurred in December 2010, when an FAA test pilot flying a Cessna Corvalis experienced the separation of approximately seven […]

Cirrus Aircraft has made a change to its top leadership, replacing CEO Brent Wouters with the company’s co-founder, Dale Klapmeier. Klapmeier takes the reins just a few months after Cirrus completed its merger with the Chinese firm CAIGA. According to the company, the change in leadership was planned. Wouters, who held the position since 2009 […]

(September 2011) In 1920 it was already common knowledge among pilots that, as airplanes got very close to the ground, they seemed to slide along on a slippery cushion of air. A decade later, the phenomenon — “ground effect” — had been investigated in wind tunnels and flight tests and was well documented, even if […]

Marking a milestone in India’s first public-private partnership for aircraft development, the country’s CSIR-National Aerospace Laboratories and Mahindra Aerospace have flown their jointly developed C-NM5 piston single for the first time. Engineers from CSIR-NAL and Mahindra Aerospace spent close to three years designing the airplane before building the real thing over a 10-month period with […]

Embraer is nearing completion of the first Legacy 500 twin-engine business jet, allowing the Brazilian aircraft manufacturer to start flight testing of the $18.4 million (2008 dollars) model on schedule by the end of this year. The Legacy 500 is a slightly larger version of the Legacy 450, with which it shares 95 percent commonality, […]

In a sign that the general aviation market may be stabilizing, Piper Aircraft said new aircraft billings in the first half of the year rose 16 percent compared with the same period last year. And the company says next year is shaping up to be even better. Piper delivered 38 of its M-class airplanes in […]