Aircraft

The man who invented the aerial spray airplane — and in doing so gave birth to the agricultural aviation industry — has passed. Leland Snow, founder and president of Air Tractor, died on Sunday while jogging near his home in Wichita Falls, Texas. He was 80. Snow designed his first aerial spray airplane, the S-1, […]

Members of New York City’s Police Aviation Unit are being hailed as heroes for their daring nighttime rescue early Sunday of two West Point cadets who were stranded for more than eight hours on a cliff ledge in freezing temperatures and high winds. The U.S. Military Academy freshmen decided to try to rappel down a […]

On Monday morning, Embraer entertained dignitaries and members of the press as it officially cut the ribbon on its $50 million, 90,000-square-foot assembly facility, where it will put the finishing touches on its Phenom 100 entry-level light jet and Phenom 300 super light jet. Embraer now builds, assembles and completes both airplanes in Brazil, where […]

They only plan to build 10 of them, so if you want one of Cirrus’s special anniversary edition SR22s, you’ll have to act promptly. The 2011 Limited Commemorative Edition SR22T has an exclusive exterior design and interior style. The package of features and accessories has been carefully crafted to mark the occasion. Cirrus calls this […]

President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates think plans to develop a second-engine option for the fighter could waste up to $3 billion. The House of Representatives agreed, voting yesterday to kill the program to develop the second engine. (Coincidentally, $3 billion is the same amount a failed Senate bill attempted to cut from the […]

My trip up and down the middle of the United States in heart of winter got me in touch with the realities of ice and snow.

We get to fly the most controversial airplane in GA history. In the process we learn a lot about the company that was there to pick up the pieces.

My first takeoff out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, in the EA500 was anything but an anticlimax. We’d just finished up our pre-takeoff check and Jerry Chambers, Eclipse Aerospace’s chief pilot, was giving me some last-minute advice on the takeoff when the tower came with a takeoff clearance, “No delay for landing 737 traffic, three-mile final.” […]

In April 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency released an announcement that it was proposing to gather data to determine if leaded avgas is an environmental health hazard. The announcement in the form of an advanced notice of proposed rule making (ANPRM) has created reactions that range from a willingness to move forward in the search […]

(January 2011) — The envelope had been forwarded twice by the time it got to me. I tore open the top seal and pulled out a worn 8½- by 11-inch color brochure, its binding coming apart, with a cryptic note paper-clipped to its top edge, asking for the brochure to be forwarded on to me. […]