Aircraft

Cowlings suffer an inordinate amount of abuse from rock dings, hangar rash, maintenance wear and the vibration and stress associated with doing their basic job. North Central Aircraft Products Inc. in Mankato, Minnesota, is now offering relief to owners of cowlings ready for pasture. The company is offering carbon fiber PMA replacement cowls for all […]

I have been to dozens of new airplane rollouts in the last 30-plus years, and I was amazed when the all-new Gulfstream G650 taxied into view at a rollout ceremony in late September under its own power. That just doesn’t happen. Rollout ceremonies are usually a party to show that the airplane is getting close, […]

Hollywood has it all wrong. No one in the fighter jet business, and I mean no one, gets a cool callsign such as “Maverick,” “Iceman” or “Burner” for being the Holy Grail of aviation. Callsigns come about because a young pilot commits the cardinal sin of fighter aviation … looking ridiculous in front of peers. […]

“It’s like flying an airplane without four of your five senses,” says NASA test pilot Mark Pestana. “You can’t smell the fuel, feel the vibration or hear any noises.” Pestana is sitting in the “cockpit” of the unmanned aircraft system (UAS) Ikhana — a civilian version of General Atomics’ MQ-9 Reaper, which is a follow-on […]

Connie Sue White recently joined Flying‘s editorial team as managing editor. Connie Sue, a University of Florida journalism grad, brings 20 years of magazine publishing experience to Flying, as well as a strong flying heritage (thanks to her father’s passion for aviation). Her first memory of “taking” the controls was during a family trip in […]

While I scribble this on a grocery sack from the back seat of a 172 and gaze at the lush, green ridges and valleys south of London, Kentucky, I’m thinking these hills and “hollers” probably look the same as when Daniel Boone and the settlers came through the Cumberland Gap just east of here. Even […]

My test flight in Continental Motors’ developmental Cirrus SR22 was among the most unusual and interesting of my career. That was in part because I was testing a major mod of an airplane in which I have a lot of flying experience, and in part because I was glimpsing into the future by flying a […]

If you own an SR22, Continental Motors wants your business. Well, it wants more of it anyway, so it is in the process of developing an STC to put a factory-turbocharged Continental engine in existing normally aspirated and turbocharged Cirrus SR22s. As you know, Continental and Cirrus Aircraft are not new to each other. Since […]

It was odd that, as I taxied out in the number three prototype of the Diamond D-Jet, the last thing on my mind was that there is only one engine. As with any other business jet you can’t see the engines, and the sounds and sensations of one jet engine spinning away are the same […]

On Aug. 6, 2009, I went to the Torrance Airport near Los Angeles to meet Mike Blyth and James Pitman, two guys from South Africa who were on their way around the world in what would be an LSA if this particular one had not been equipped with extra wing tanks. Holding 120 gallons, they […]