Aviation News

Facing staunch opposition in the aviation industry to a plan to privatize ATC and levy user fees, Congress has opted to delay the FAA’s reauthorization spending bill until at least September. The move makes it appear increasingly likely that the FAA will require a stopgap funding bill to keep money flowing after the agency’s current […]

It’s eerie seeing what appears to be a run-of-the mill general aviation airplane starting its engines by itself and taxiing out to the active runway before taking off with nary a human onboard. UAVs are nothing new, of course, and futurologists tell us self-driving cars will be in dealer showrooms before we know it, but […]

A feat that many thought unachievable with today’s technology has been done. Last week, André Borschberg completed the most arduous leg in the planned round-the-world flight of the all-solar-powered Solar Impulse Si2, crossing the Pacific Ocean from Nagoya, Japan to Kalaeloa Airport just west of Honolulu, Hawaii. The marathon flight took nearly 117 hours and […]

To the relief of a great many pilots, Apple’s latest iOS 8.4 update for the iPhone and iPad, released this week, fixes a major bug in iOS 8.3 that has been preventing the use of many external GPS receivers with apps like ForeFlight Mobile. GPS and app makers say they have successfully tested iPads running […]

Representatives from the FAA and general aviation community gathered this week in Washington for a GA Safety Summit aimed at developing strategies to reduce the risks of personal flying for business and pleasure. The FAA noted that last year 434 people were killed in 251 general aviation accidents, a trend that has remained stubbornly flat […]

WSI has developed and installed a system that allows airplanes to collect weather data that is difficult to predict or measure by other means, namely turbulence. Called Total Turbulence, the software has been integrated into several commercial airliners, which are automatically distributing the data to provide information to other aircraft. The software has the potential […]

FreeFlight’s latest ADS-B solution, the RANGR Lite, is now shipping after the company recently received supplemental type certification from the FAA. The approved model list for the RANGR Lite includes more than 400 light GA airplane models. The RANGR Lite is based on FreeFlights earlier RANGR 978 ADS-B systems; however, the Lite is not compatible […]

A Catalina PBY being used in the filming of the Nicolas Cage movie “USS Indianapolis: Men of Courage” remains stranded off the shore of Orange Beach, Alabama, after taking on water Monday. The WWII aircraft was performing touch and goes for cameras Monday when flooding began. “It made a couple of turns and a couple […]

Bell Helicopter test pilots flew the new fly-by-wire 525 Relentless turbine twin for the first time yesterday at the company production center in Amarillo, Texas, officially christening the helicopter maker’s biggest and most capable civil model. The pilots evaluated the 525’s hover and low-speed handling capabilities during the test flight, which was made slightly more […]

The Mayo One medevac helicopter is always a popular draw when it attends public events around its home base near Minneapolis. But visitors to the Minnesota Air Spectacular in Mankato over the weekend got the surprise of their lives when a six-year-old child who was sitting inside the EC145 somehow managed to fire up the […]