Aviation News

The promise of carbon fiber’s great strength and low weight has never been fully realized, at least when compared with aluminum. But a research project at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology may be on the verge of a breakthrough that could deliver on that potential. It has long been known that carbon fibers coated with […]

It can be tough to get a flying club off the ground, and that’s why a group known as Ground Effect Advisors is addressing the problem. Today, GEA announced that Zachary Piech of Wilmington, North Carolina has won $3,500 in donated products and services to help launch his flying club, Cape Fear Flyers. GEA will […]

Russian daredevil Valery Rozov recently broke the record for the highest BASE (Buildings, Antennas, Spans or Earth) jump as he stepped off a steep cliff at an elevation of 23,688 feet on the north face of Mount Everest. Due to the thin air, Rozov spent more than the usual time freefalling before gaining control of […]

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 […]