Aviation News

Details of the 50th edition of the National Championship Air Races, planned for September 11 to 15 at the Reno-Stead Airport outside Reno, Nevada, were released this week. “We are planning for our biggest event yet and are excited to highlight and commemorate 50 years of Air Racing and the sport of aviation as a […]

Oregonian seaplane and other motorized watercraft operators have lost a long-fought battle to use Waldo Lake, located at 5,414 feet in the Cascade Mountains, deep in the Willamette Forest about 70 miles east of Eugene. After the State Senate and House of Representatives voted in favor of Senate Bill 602, which prohibits most inboard and […]

As the busy summer flying season kicks off, the FAA is taking a slightly different approach to safety by asking pilots, well, to fly safely. In an open letter to the general aviation community sent just before the Memorial Day weekend, FAA Administrator Michael Huerta implored aviators to “make sure you’re ready – really ready […]

Back in another era when flying was expensive and only the very wealthy could afford Wacos, Stinsons and Travel Airs, a new class of low-cost, low-power airplanes lowered the financial bar for aircraft ownership. With newly developed engines in the 50 hp range, lightweight Cubs, Taylorcrafts and Aeroncas brought flying within range of a whole […]

In a logical extension of the “those things just about fly themselves” line of thinking, a European study is exploring the possibility of single-pilot airline operations. Launched in January, the $40 million, 42-month research project is called ACROSS, an acronym for “Advanced Cockpit for Reduction of Stress (and workload).” The research is funded, in part, […]

Ten years after the destruction of Meigs Field in downtown Chicago, a new heliport is about to open. The facility is being billed as a “vertiport” since it is designed to accommodate VTOL aircraft such as the Agusta AW609 tiltrotor. Plans are for the facility to open early next year on a 10-acre piece of […]

It was a sad day for volunteers of Angel Flight Northeast after a Piper Seneca on a mission for the group crashed in Upstate New York on Friday, killing a cancer patient, his wife and the pilot. The airplane had taken off from Hanscom Field near Bedford, Massachusetts, with the brain cancer patient — whose […]

At the end of February, the National Transportation Safety Board released the findings of its investigation of the crash of a Bell 206 JetRanger into New York’s East River in October 2011. The helicopter, with five aboard, had just taken off from the riverside East 34th Street Heliport when it began to yaw out of […]

Challenger 300 and 350 operators will have new avionics capabilities available to them as Rockwell Collins has upgraded its Pro Line 21 system for these super-midsize jets. Bombardier calls the upgraded system Pro Line 21 Advanced. The new system will be included in all new Challenger 300s and Challenger 350s once they start to come […]

The Nextant 400XTi, Nextant Aerospace’s remanufactured business jet, was on display at this week’s EBACE show in Geneva, and the company came away with orders for three to be used as air ambulances in India. In addition, Aviators (the name of the Indian company) will become the exclusive sales agent for Nextant in India. The […]