Aircraft

Kurt Robinson, president of Robinson Helicopter and son of founder Frank Robinson, said the FAA was well represented Monday among the 300 attending certification ceremonies for the company’s new turbine-powered R66. He said, “A lot of the FAA guys were saying, ‘We used to do this all the time, but now, certifying a new aircraft […]

Though known for its helicopters, Sikorsky has a legacy that includes some iconic fixed-wing aircraft dating back to the 1930s. Now, the company is back in the fixed-wing business. During the NBAA Convention in Atlanta last week, Sikorsky signed an agreement in principle to invest in Eclipse Aerospace, the company that has acquired the rights […]

The 50th Anniversary Baron is a fitting tribute to the archetypal piston twin and makes clear that even after all these years, the Baron is still a relevant design.

Sitting in the glass cockpit of the 50th anniversary edition of the Beechcraft G58 Baron, its precision-engineered Teledyne Continental Motors engines ticking away effortlessly, I’m struck by a thought: This airplane was introduced when President Dwight Eisenhower was still in office. It’s a hard notion to reconcile. With a bright and colorful flat-panel avionics suite, […]

After conversations with some 3,000 aircraft operators, Hawker Beechcraft Corporation decided that its next Beechcraft Premier model wouldn’t be a Beechcraft after all. “The Premier II should be a Hawker,” is the message HBC got from customers — and that’s what it will be, the Hawker 200. Shawn Vick, HBC Executive Vice President delivered the […]

Bombardier introduced two new members of its ultra-long-range family of Global business jets this week. And from the size of the party, it’s clear the Canadian manufacturer has confidence in the economic turnaround. The two new jets are each priced at $65 million (2010 dollars). The Global 7000 and Global 8000 are not scheduled for […]

Aiming to retake the title of fastest bizjet and breathe new life into an airplane that, while still fast, is showing its age, Cessna announced an all new flagship, the Citation Ten, the new version of which will now be spelled out in a way that eliminates 20 years of confusion in the general media […]

In a pre-NBAA event, Gulfstream gave journalists a sneak peek at its remarkable G650 flagship, currently undergoing certification flight testing. Serial number 4 was on private display at Peachtree DeKalb Airport. The airplane was as spectacular as the hype suggests. On the outside, while clearly a Gulfstream, the 650 is much longer, with much larger […]

Piper has totally redesigned the PiperJet airframe, and given the single-engine jet a new name — Altaire. The old fuselage on the proof-of-concept PiperJet was the same as the PA-46 Mirage/Meridian — round on top and flat on the bottom. It is now a circular cross-section, making it easier to increase the cabin volume of […]

When it comes to transportation flying, speed might not be everything, but it’s pretty darn close. So when Gulfstream pilots recently flew the company’s under-development G650 flagship to Mach .995, it effectively flew the jet as fast as you can go without creating a sonic boom. It was the fastest reported speed of a bizjet. […]