Aviation News

The development team at German airplane manufacturer Flight Design is getting ready for a significant milestone in its four-seat airplane program, named the C4. Flight Design USA’s president Tom Peghiny said the composite airplane is expected to take to the skies for the first time by the end of the month. Members of a technical […]

Peter Siebold, the test pilot who survived the crash of Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo on October 31, shed further light on the mission’s final seconds after telling investigators he didn’t know that his copilot had unlocked the space plane’s feathering re-entry system earlier than planned. The spacecraft broke apart high over the Mojave Desert, killing copilot […]

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 […]