Aviation News

The Financial Times caused a stir with a report that Cessna parent company Textron has reached an agreement to buy Beechcraft for $1.4 billion. Neither company has commented on the story, which sent Textron’s stock soaring after the news first leaked on Friday. According to the report, Beechcraft hired Credit Suisse in October to identify […]

On the 110th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight, owner-pilot John Magoffin pushed the throttle lever forward on his rare 1933 Lockheed Vega, the aircraft of choice of pioneer aviators, including Amelia Earhart (who flew one on her solo transatlantic record flight) and Wiley Post, who flew a Vega around the world twice. Magoffin’s […]

National Business Aviation Association President and CEO Ed Bolen welcomed a bipartisan budget agreement approved by the House and Senate this week that he said “appears to lessen the likelihood of another near-term government shutdown,” according to an NBAA statement. The measure sets funding for all federal agencies, including the FAA. When the government shut […]

A new experimental airplane, the two-tandem-seat Thatcher CX5, has taken its maiden flight. Glen Bradley, who helped build and design the airplane together with the main designer, Dave Thatcher, was at the controls when the CX5 took off from the Jack Edwards Airport near Gulf Shores, Alabama. Bradley used one word to describe the visibility, […]

Bombardier achieved certification of its Learjet 70, a super-light-jet stalemate of the Learjet 75 that earned its approval papers a few weeks ago. Validation of the airplane, a revamped version of the Learjet 40, clears the way for immediate deliveries of the Model 70, which Bombardier launched in May 2012 amid a slowing market for […]

Alan and Dale Klapmeier, the brothers who co-founded Cirrus Design in the mid-1980s, are among six people who will be inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, next year. The other individuals honored by the Hall of Fame include Emily Warner, who flew for Frontier Airlines in the 1970s; the late […]

Investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are combing through debris trying to find the cause of a fiery business jet crash on Tuesday night in Atlanta in which two people were killed. The Beech Premier I departed from Fulton County Airport at the western edge of the city around 7:22 p.m. […]

GE Honda Aero Engines has earned Part 33 certification process for the HF120 turbofan engines, receiving the sign-off from the FAA last week. The news puts the much-anticipated HondaJet on a clear path to certification. A spokesman for HondaJet said now that the engines are certified, an update on the progress of the certification of […]

On Thursday, GAMA President and CEO Pete Bunce and NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen both testified at a House of Representatives aviation subcommittee hearing on the state of American aviation. Bunce cited six bullet-point recommendations for the lawmakers to consider when moving forward on aviation issues. He also called for “clear and consistent leadership […]

The Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center, a 760,000-square-foot facility that houses airplanes belonging to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum’s vast collection of aviation artifacts, celebrated its 10th anniversary over the weekend. Named after Steven F. Udvar-Hazy, a Hungarian entrepreneur who donated millions to the National Air and Space Museum, the facility is home to […]