Aviation News

Pilots are singing the praises of ForeFlight’s latest Version 5.0 update of its mobile charting app for the iPad — and after flying with the updated software, we have to agree that it’s great. The biggest change is the addition of terrain and obstacle warnings through the Hazard Advisor feature. The add-on highlights hazardous terrain […]

The airport board for Felts Field Airport (KSFF) in Spokane, Washington, is suing the FAA to block the shutdown of its control tower, one of 149 facilities due for closure as part of agency sequestration cuts. The FAA has notified the airport that it will shut down the Felts Field tower on April 7. The […]

At AEA Aspen Avionics unveiled a lineup of ADS-B solutions designed to work with the company’s popular compact and low-profile Evolution Flight Displays. The first unit, which Aspen calls “Connected Weather,” is a Wi-Fi receiver and interface to Evolution displays that gives pilots ADS-B weather products directly on their Evolution displays. The receiver connects through […]

Garmin announced at the AEA Convention in Las Vegas that it has created an entire lineup of avionics for the amateur-built market focused around its G3X system. Over the past couple of years Garmin assembled a team of engineers, dubbed Team X, to work on these avionics components and flight-test them in their own amateur-built […]

The creator of the world’s most efficient paper airplane, John Collins, has launched The New World Champion Paper Airplane Book, a guide that explains how to make his record-breaking design, which he named “Susanne” after his wife, and 23 other “masterpieces of precision and aerodynamics.” While “Susanne” was designed for distance by maximizing lift and […]

Cessna yesterday rolled out the 400th Citation CJ3 light jet. In its ninth year of production, the CJ3 outsells its competition by 70 percent, according to Cessna. Powered by a pair of fadec-controlled Williams FJ44-3A fanjets, the single-pilot-certified CJ3 is largely owner-flown. The Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 flight deck is common among all CJs, […]

The night between March 30 and 31 marks the 10th anniversary of the bulldozing of Merrill C. Meigs Field Airport near downtown Chicago, ordered by the mayor at that time, Richard M. Daley. To commemorate that sad day in aviation history, Friends of Meigs Field is planning an event on the grounds where the airport […]

In his most recent blog, Fantasy of Flight founder Kermit Weeks has elaborated on how he believes Howard Hughes helped arrange for him to acquire the deceased aviation legend’s Sikorsky S-43. Weeks bought the airplane from the estate of well known car collector Ron Van Kregten, the man who bought it from Hughes, and he […]

A Boeing 787 completed a two-hour flight on Monday in the first test of the troubled airliner’s redesigned lithium battery system. The Dreamliner departed Everett, Washington, just after noon local time and flew along the Pacific coast into Oregon before returning to land at Paine Field. Afterward Boeing said the flight went “according to plan.” […]

The FAA has released a three-part phase-in period for closing 149 of the nation’s contract control towers. The shutdowns will start on April 7, when 24 federal contract towers will close, followed by 46 on April 21, and the remaining 79 on May 5 (see the full list below). The FAA says it is closing […]