Aircraft

(April 2011) TAKE A CLOSE LOOK at the inner workings of a modern turbofan engine and you’ll be glimpsing mankind’s ultimate triumph over that most fundamental of untamed ancient natural elements — fire. The science behind basic turbine engine design, after all, represents simplicity at its minimalist best: A single moving part compresses the air […]

Over the past decade Cirrus has changed the nature of light GA with a host of innovative features and other approaches — not without controversy.

Cirrus creates a limited-edition model to celebrate a decade of innovation.

The Cirrus SR series of single-engine airplanes has been controversial since the beginning. The beginning, as some of you might recall, came in 1995 when Cirrus, which had before then been a kit manufacturer, announced the existence of “Hangar X,” the secret facility in which it was building its mysterious to-be-certified entry. When the mystery […]

When you look back at the historical arc of light general aviation, a few airplanes stand out as being so important that their introductions changed the way we flew and the way we looked at flying. At the certain risk of leaving out a few favorites, you can’t talk about the history of light aviation […]

Finally, Beechcraft G36 Bonanza pilots can fly with the peace of mind of having ice protection. The FAA has awarded a new Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for the G36 to CAV Aerospace in Salina, Kansas, for its TKS Flight Into Known Icing (FIKI) system. The G36 STC is an amendment to CAV’s STC for the […]

In an interview with British magazine T3, Virgin Galactic chairman Richard Branson again did what we love about him: he waxed optimistic about the future of private commercial space flight. The launch a decade ago of a civilian manned space program in the United States seemed at the time to be a starry-eyed and quixotic […]

(April 2011) WEIGHT MATTERS. EVEN in the light-sport aircraft world. As I wrote in last month’s column about the LSA categories, the maximum gross weight is one of the key factors in determining whether or not an aircraft meets the FAA’s LSA definition. How did the FAA come to that final 1,320-pound figure? Well, it […]

The Sport Pilot certificate turned out to be my perfect re-entry to flying. Here’s how it worked for me. Would it work for you?

(March 2011) — I’M ONE OF THOSE people you might have heard about who’ve made their first certificate a Sport Pilot certificate. I wasn’t new to flying either. I had taken a break from the beginnings of a passion that, as a teenager, I thought would blossom soon enough. The day of my first solo […]