Aviation News

The Solar Impulse team has released its plans for 2016, including the continuation of the round-the-world flight of the all-solar-powered Si2. With new batteries installed, flight testing will begin in Hawaii toward the end of February, but the team does not plan to take off across the Pacific Ocean until April 20 at the earliest. […]

Red Bull Air Race spectators will see several new faces and airplanes battling it out around the inflatable pylons for the 2016 races. For the first time, a female pilot will join the exclusive air race club with French aerobatic pilot Mélanie Astles. Astles, who will fly an Extra 330XT, is a five-time French national […]

The 12th annual U.S. Sport Aviation Expo kicks off today in Sebring, Florida, where pilots from northern climes are escaping the cold to the kick the tires of LSAs, experimental aircraft, ultralights and more. Around 50 sport airplanes are on display through the weekend at Sebring Regional Airport, where temperatures today are on the cool […]

Quest Aircraft, maker of the Kodiak single-engine turboprop, is receiving a further cash infusion to help fuel growth at the Sandpoint, Idaho manufacturer. Japanese conglomerate Mitsui & Co. signed an agreement with Quest parent Setouchi Holdings to acquire a $10 million equity stake in the company. Under the agreement, Mitsui is receiving a 12.5-percent holding […]

As Congress prepares to debate whether to privatize ATC as part of the upcoming FAA reauthorization process, a number of general aviation groups are asking Congress to allow a full debate of a plan they argue is pushed down the nation’s throat by the airlines. Specifically, the organizations cited concerns over a proposal introduced by […]

The National Transportation Safety Board’s 2016 “Most Wanted” list of transportation safety improvements includes several items directed toward general aviation, with Board Chairman Christopher Hart saying that unlike commercial aviation, GA has been “stubbornly resistant to improvement.” Topping the list of urgently needed safety improvements again this year is loss of control accidents in general […]

Under a new final rule adopted by the FAA, aviation medical examiners will no longer issue student pilot certificates. Instead, new pilots will go through a similar process as private pilots, receiving their hard plastic student pilot certificates in the mail. As expected, the FAA dropped an earlier proposal to require photos on pilot certificates. […]

A video has just been released of a Guinness Record-breaking flight for the most drones airborne simultaneously, set in November at Flugplatz Ahrenlohe in Tornesch, Germany, a few miles northwest of Hamburg. “Drone 100” coordinated 100 UAS and provided a terrific show with multicolored aircraft creating patterns in the night skies. The patterned flight took […]

CubCrafters has made available the added safety of the BRS Parachute system to its light aircraft. Versions of the safety system are now available on the Carbon Cub SS production LSA, Carbon Cub FX Builder Assist model and the EX-2 kit version. The parachute system can also be retrofitted to light sport and experimental CubCrafters […]

NASA announced that researchers at its Environmentally Responsible Aviation (ERA) project have produced technologies that could be a major game changer for the airlines and other heavy jet operators. The agency claims the new technologies could cut airline fuel consumption in half, reduce pollution by 75 percent and drop noise pollution to nearly one-eighth of […]