Aircraft

I was talking not long ago with a relatively new pilot and Cirrus owner who also is the founder of a very successful software company. This fellow enjoys flying his airplane immensely but, like all of us, is concerned about the accident rate in piston-powered airplanes. What frustrates this pilot is how many light-airplane accidents […]

The FAA and Europe’s EASA have approved Hawker Beechcraft’s latest King Air 350 variant, the 350i. The updated turboprop twin features HBC’s “FlexCabin” configuration — able to be swapped easily for various missions. The 350i also boasts a quieter cabin with sound levels reduced to an average of 78 dBA. The standard cabin management system […]

Piper had planned to make an announcement at the U.S. Sport Aviation Expo in Sebring, Florida, today. Piper did not reveal any details of the planned announcement before hand, but the fact that the announcement will be made at the fourth annual U.S. Sport Aviation Expo has ignited all manner of speculation that Piper will […]

Larry Turley first decided he wanted to be a pilot when he was a teenager, working the line for an FBO in Augusta, Georgia, and the Master’s Golf Tournament came to town. “Arnold Palmer and the other pros landed their jets and pulled out gas credit cards,” Turley remembers with a laugh. “I’d never seen […]

Composite construction makes Dornier Seastar a practical seaplane for all sorts of missions.

GE has begun certification testing on its 800 shp H80 turboprop engine, with the first production engines to go into the Thrush 510 crop-duster. GE expects the H80 to be certified by the middle of the year, around the same time as Thrush’s new model. An outgrowth of the 600 shp Czech-designed Walter M601 engine, […]

Just before the new year, Cessna delivered the first Model 162 SkyCatcher to Rose Pelton, the wife of Cessna President and CEO Jack Pelton. Rose planned to use her new 162 to — what else? — learn to fly. The delivery took place across the field from Cessna at Yingling Aircraft, where the first SkyCatchers […]

With the emergence of Embraer’s two clean-sheet bizjets, the bar in the midsize world has been raised substantially.

What a world. I had just landed the Dornier Seastar flying boat in the Gulf of Mexico a few miles off the Florida coast. We shut down the engines and were sitting on top of the Seastar cabin enjoying the view and wishing for a fishing pole when Dornier Seaplane Co. CEO Joe Walker called […]

Following certification in mid-December, Embraer Executive Aircraft delivered the first customer Phenom 300 business jet before year end. The timing enabled Tug Hill, Inc., a Texas-based oil and gas investment firm, to qualify for bonus tax depreciation on aircraft delivered in 2009. The Phenom 300, serial number 5, replaces a Cessna Conquest I twin turboprop […]