Aviation News

In the early morning hours on April 29, Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo (SS2) completed its first rocket-powered flight, breaking the sound barrier over the Mojave Desert and taking a major step toward the age of commercial space flight. “Today’s supersonic success opens the way for a rapid expansion of the spaceship’s powered flight envelope, with a […]

Earlier this week at a Cessna Citation owners conference in Wichita, Cessna President and CEO Scott Ernest responded to a blog in Tuesday’s Flying eNews entitled “Cessna CJ Hiatus: End of the Niche Jet.” The article wondered what Cessna’s slowdown in Citation production, announced earlier in the week, might mean in the long run for […]

With 13 airplanes on the production line, Cessna’s jet-A-burning Turbo Skylane JT-A is on schedule for certification and first deliveries before the end of June. “We are on track,” said Jeff Umscheid, business leader for the project. “We have been taking orders since [EAA AirVenture 2012 last summer].” The JT-A’s SMA diesel engine is exhibiting […]

A story in the Arizona Republic has revealed a disturbing incident at the Prescott campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. The article reports that an explosion was set off in a parking lot at the campus on Tuesday morning. In the wake of mass shootings at schools and public places around the country and the recent […]

The WWII B-25 bomber Panchito received potentially thousands of dollars of damage at this year’s Sun ‘n Fun, according to Lakeland police, who are currently seeking information about the incident. The damage to the warbird included a deep scratch about 18 inches long, located on the left-side exterior near the fuselage. Police believe it occurred […]

The sleek Pipistrel Panthera piston-single prototype made a surprise journey over the Alps from its home in Slovenia to the Aero Friedrichshafen show in Germany yesterday. As soon as the airplane landed around 1 p.m. local time, it began drawing crowds wanting a closer look. The Panthera is a four-seater that its maker claims will […]

A 44-year-old pilot crashed his Van’s RV-4 kitplane at Laughlin Bullhead International Airport in Arizona on Saturday, and the subsequent autopsy revealed he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. The airplane crashed near the runway, and a 9-mm pistol was found in the wreckage along with the pilot’s body. The incident occurred […]

Diamond Aircraft is showing an intriguing mockup of the DA50 Turbine at the Aero Friedrichshafen show in Germany this week. The proposed model would be an upgraded version of Diamond’s developmental DA50 Magnum piston single, with power coming from a 450 shp AI-450S turbine engine built by Ukrainian company Motor Sich JSC. Diamond is showing […]

After hinting at the release of a new LSA design named Astore a few weeks ago, Costruzioni Aeronautiche Tecnam officially unveiled its most recent offering this week at the Aero Friedrichshafen show in Germany. And, as promised, the new design has a low wing. The only commonalities between the Astore and Tecnam’s other low-wing LSA […]

As the impact of sequester-related controller furloughs begins to put a chokehold on air travel around the country, the FAA is implementing a special traffic management program to deal with a “wide range of delays” that the agency said is hitting New York, Los Angeles, Dallas and Las Vegas today. Automatic federal spending cuts forced […]