Aircraft

The Experimental Aircraft Association has gone on record urging operators of Zodiac CH601 and CH650 light sport aircraft (LSAs) not to fly their aircraft. Five in-flight breakups have led to concern for the design’s overall safety, including the areas of stick force, airspeed calibration, structural stability, wing structure and flutter. In a special review of […]

Though some projections call for fractional operator NetJets to return to profitability by the end of next year, new management has nevertheless announced plans to lower the boom on close to 500 pilots. The layoffs are expected to start as soon as mid-January. The Berkshire-Hathaway owned company has established resource centers for affected pilots and […]

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 […]