Aviation News

Airbus Helicopters answered many of the questions surrounding its X4 medium twin-engine helicopter development program today by officially unveiling a full-size mockup of the new H160 on the show floor at Heli-Expo in Orlando, Florida. A successor to the Dauphin family, the H160 features newly developed Blue Edge main rotor blades that are quieter and […]

Dubbed “The Pilot’s Bill of Rights 2,” new measures introduced last night in the House and Senate would allow private pilots to no longer hold a third class medical certificate for noncommercial VFR and IFR flights in aircraft weighing up to 6,000 pounds with up to six seats. The legislation, authored by a group of […]

The city of Santa Monica has devised a new and legally dubious scheme aimed at shutting down the southern California airport that includes lopping off thousands of feet of runway to prevent jets from landing there. At its latest meeting on February 23, the Santa Monica Airport Commission voted in favor of lease rate hikes […]

Continental’s new IO-360-AF “alternative fuel” engine has received type certification from the FAA, making it the first six-cylinder piston aircraft engine approved to run on standard 100LL avgas or unleaded 91UL gasoline. The first application will be in the Flight Design C4 carbon four seater. Continental says the IO-360-AF family offers a maximum power output […]

Burt Rutan may have retired from his aerospace company Scaled Composites five years ago, but the 71-year-old aviation legend is far from done when it comes to working on new innovations. The man behind prolific advancements in the field of flying — including the remarkably successful VariEze homebuilt, the Voyager, the first plane to fly […]

In anticipation of the upcoming HAI Heli-Expo, which is set to open its doors next week in Orlando, Florida, Garmin has announced two new ADS-B products for the helicopter market. The GDL 84H and GDL 88H will allow operators to comply with the upcoming ADS-B Out regulations, set to go into effect in 2020, and […]

As Honda Aircraft Company closes in on FAA certification for the much-anticipated HondaJet, the company has taken delivery of a simulator that will help train the operators of the light twinjet at the headquarters in Greensboro, North Carolina. The full motion, Level D simulator as well as a HondaJet-specific training program were developed by Honda […]

We’ve all seen B-roll video footage of robots busily building cars on an assembly line, spinning and whirling with impressive precision and nary a human in sight. But you’ve probably never seen anything like this. Researchers in Germany have connected a robotic arm to the cockpit section of an airplane to create perhaps the world’s […]

Cubcrafters has started delivering Aerocet’s Model 1500 amphibious floats for its popular Carbon Cub series of airplanes. For under $50,000 you too can enjoy flying in and out of lakes and ocean inlets. The carbon fiber floats are available for the factory produced Carbon Cub SS and Sport Cub S2 LSAs, and the experimental Carbon […]

Textron Aviation is continuing the integration of its Beechcraft, Cessna and Hawker aircraft product lines. Most recently, the Kansas-based mega company has started adding King Air turboprop capabilities to its formerly Citation-focused service centers. The first centers to achieve FAA authorization for King Air services are Sacramento, California; Mesa, Arizona; and Paris, France. These company-owned […]