Aviation News

Following an epic journey of more than 4 billion miles spanning 10 years, a tiny lander the size of a washing machine made history by being the first spacecraft to touch down on the surface of a distant comet and start beaming back pictures to researchers on Earth. The Philae lander actually made a bounced […]

After weeks of rumors surrounding a possible new airplane design from Mooney International, the recently resurrected legacy airplane manufacturer announced at Airshow China 2014 in Zhuhai that it is developing a line of two-seat airplanes named the M10 series. The new series will start out with the M10T and M10J models, both powered by Continental […]

Just three weeks after touting an ambitious plan to develop a nationwide inflight Internet service with partner Honeywell, AT&T has canceled the launch of the 4G LTE network to conserve cash for other expansion initiatives. The coast-to-coast wireless network would have provided competition to Gogo, so far the only ground-based inflight Internet service operating in […]

A Learjet 36 hit a construction crane and crashed on approach to Grand Bahama International Airport on Sunday, killing a well-known local religious leader and eight others onboard. Dr. Myles Munroe, leader of the Bahamas Faith Ministries, his wife Ruth and other passengers and crew, had been traveling from the Bahamas capital of Nassau to […]

Bell Helicopter took its latest five-seat design, the Bell 505 Jet Ranger X, on its maiden flight yesterday, bringing the helicopter one step closer to certification. The flight took off from the company’s Mirabel, Quebec, manufacturing facility and lasted about 30 minutes. This initial test flight included hovering and two laps in the pattern flanked […]

NASA has started flight testing a new flap design that has the potential to make flying quieter and more fuel-efficient. The Adaptive Compliant Trailing Edge (ACTE) project is a collaborative effort between NASA as part of its green aviation project and the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to determine whether flexible trailing edge flap surfaces […]

The ready availability of small, light video cameras has produced an outburst of visual autobiography. Hardly anyone seems to be able to resist the temptation to strap a camera to his head and do something that he, or someone else, may later find exciting or impressive. Skiers, skateboarders and sky divers are particularly enamored of […]

Piaggio Aerospace officially opened a sprawling new factory in Villanova d’Albenga, Italy, today, where the recently restructured company is moving all its aircraft production. The maker of the Avanti Evo pusher twin recently changed its name from Piaggio Aero Industries to Piaggio Aerospace and announced a company-wide reorganization splitting the manufacturer into three units, one […]

Deliveries of general aviation piston airplanes climbed by 9.2 percent through the first three quarters of this year compared with the same time period in 2013, showing a mix of bright and not-so-bright products and market trends. According to the latest numbers released by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, a total of 806 piston singles […]

Initial customer deliveries of Cessna’s new diesel-powered 182 JT-A won’t be made until some time in 2015 as engineers continue to hone the design, the first production piston single from the manufacturer intended to run on jet-A fuel rather than avgas. Cessna last spring said certification of the 182 JT-A was “imminent” after stumbles in […]