Aircraft

Teledyne Continental Motors is doing its part for economic recovery. The company issued a release early this week indicating it will keep a lid on prices for factory new and factory rebuilt engines. Improved efficiencies and “cooperation with our valued employees and vedors,” have allowed TCM to lower costs, and it intends to reinvest the […]

Sonex Aircraft hopes to launch the first flight of its SubSonex single-engine jet as soon as acceptable weather breaks in Oshkosh, Wisconsin (the company’s home base). Its Czech-built PBS TJ-100 engine was first run on Dec. 23, 2009, and was able to hit 100 percent power — about 240 pounds of thrust. It’s larger than […]

Embraer recently revealed a number of intriguing new details on the Legacy 450 and 500, the midsize jets that it officially launched 18 months ago. The jets are still a couple of years away from first deliveries, but Embraer has already defined them in great detail. At face value, it might seem that Embraer picked […]

Cirrus Aircraft President Brent Wouters expects to return his company to profitability this year. Despite a 2009 that can best be described as challenging, Wouters also said the company is committed to continuing development of its SF50 single-engine jet. As funding ran short, work on the jet project was recently moved to the main Cirrus […]

Having invested the requisite years of considerable sweat, some blood and, yes, a few moist-eye moments building a single-seat Pitts Special, the project was trailered to an FBO’s hangar at Buttonville Airport, northeast of Toronto, Ontario. Here, tucked away in a corner, final assembly took place: installing and rigging the wings and controls, tensioning the […]

One hundred seventy-seven flight hours from now, the engines on our 1980 Piper Cheyenne will reach TBO. That’s about 13 months away, given our average yearly flying. This milestone has precipitated all sorts of careful calculations in my house. Should we pay to overhaul the engines? Why put that much money into an ancient airframe? […]

According to Airframer.com, there are 329 aviation vendors who were cheering the first flight of Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner last week. The ultimate success of the long-delayed program would mean greater prosperity for parts suppliers who also support general aviation — providing greater financial stability and greater assurance of long-term fiscal viability. Among the suppliers who […]

As promised, Cessna delivered the first Model 162 SkyCatcher to Rose Pelton on Dec. 18. She is the wife of Cessna President and CEO Jack Pelton, and plans to use the airplane to begin flying lessons. The ceremonial delivery occurred at Wichita’s Yingling Aircraft facility, where SkyCatchers are assembled after arriving from the factory in […]

Last week, Gulfstream announced the first flight of its large-cabin, mid-range G250 business jet. Classed as a super mid-size, the G250 was designed in collaboration with Israel Aerospace Industries and the first flight departed from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. It follows the first flight of Gulfstream’s ultra-long-range, large-cabin G650 just days earlier […]

Cessna will close three subassembly plants in Columbus, Georgia, including its McCauley Propeller factory and a new 100,000-square-foot facility opened in August 2008 at a cost of about $25 million. The closings will take place within six months to two years and will claim the jobs of some 315 workers in Georgia, whose numbers had […]