Aviation News

A totally new helicopter from a completely new company made its first flight in Mollis, Switzerland, recently, kicking off the certification program for the single-engine SKYe SH09 built by Marenco Swisshelicopter. With chief test pilot Dwayne Williams at the controls, the SKYe SH09 performed five short hover flights on October 2, logging 20 minutes in […]

Sikorsky revealed the first two S-97 Raider helicopter prototypes, giving the world a glimpse of what future direct-fire-support rotorcraft may look like. The words stunning and lethal spring to mind. Based on Sikorsky’s record-setting X2 rigid-rotor coaxial demonstrator, the S-97 features next-generation technologies in a faster and smaller package than traditional helicopters, a combination that […]

Steve Lagergren of Litchfield, Minnesota, got the surprise of his life this week. While flying his experimental Van’s RV-7 he took delivery of a brand new airplane — a fully restored 1963 Beechcraft Debonair that was a gift from the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. AOPA’s president Mark Baker and AOPA Pilot editor at large […]

Cessna on Tuesday announced to a small group of aviation journalists that its Citation Latitude midsize jet is on track for certification and first deliveries early next year. Announced just two years ago, the Latitude is a clean-sheet airplane designed to compete in a new supercharged midsized market characterized by airplanes with bigger cabins and […]

Facing “growing skepticism” among the aviation community about the FAA’s ability to successfully modernize the nation’s airspace, two top lawmakers are calling for reforms that could spark significant changes to the agency’s organizational structure. Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster (R-Pa.) and Aviation Subcommittee Chairman Frank LoBiondo (D-N.J.) issued a call for reform at […]

Major airworthiness directives related to aircraft systems aren’t all that uncommon, but a new AD issued by the FAA yesterday that calls for the replacement of the primary flight displays in certain Boeing 737 and 777 airliners raises eyebrows not just for what must be replaced but also the reason why. The FAA on October […]

The FAA says air traffic levels at Chicago O’Hare were the busiest in the country yesterday as technicians continue around-the-clock work to restore computer systems at the Chicago En Route Center in Aurora, Illinois, that were badly damaged by fire last Friday. Officials are closely monitoring weather forecasts for the Chicago area for the next […]

The Enstone Flying Club, a flight school and flying club in Enstone, U.K., is making progress on an ambitious project to create a squadron of 12 90-percent replicas of the Supermarine Spitfire, one of the most famous Allied warbirds of World War II. Named the “City of Oxford,” the squadron is expected to include not […]

The Dream Chaser, a reusable crewed space shuttle currently under development by Sierra Nevada Corporation, may one day carry people into space with the help of Stratolaunch’s massive carrier plane, the brainchild of aviation legend Burt Rutan and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. The news comes on the heels of Sierra Nevada Corporation’s announcement that it […]

On a Thursday in March 2013, the 500-hour pilot of a Mooney M20E arrived at Angel Fire, a ski resort east of Taos in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. With him were his girlfriend, his sister and his sister’s 13-year-old daughter. They came from San Antonio, stayed with a cousin of the […]