Aviation News

Just over three years ago the FAA began the process of updating registrations for all U.S. aircraft. The new registrations transitioned from “permanent” registration to requiring registration renewal every three years. One of the goals of this process was to update the list of aircraft that were still active in the U.S. aviation system. At […]

Eclipse Aerospace announced this week that it has started up the engines on the first production Model 550 very light jet, the new version of the Eclipse 500, production of which ceased when Eclipse Aviation was forced into bankruptcy in November 2008. The two Pratt & Whitney PW610F engines that power the Eclipse 550 collectively […]

The FAA has signed off on night VFR operations for Yakima, Washington-based CubCrafters’ CC18-180 Top Cub. Several modifications were made to the airplane to meet the FAA requirements, including the addition of glare shields, fuel sight gauge lighting, instrument illumination and backlit placards. Some interior surfaces have been finished with non-reflective black and the taxi […]

Four men, including two inmates, face some two dozen charges in connection with a daring helicopter prison escape from the Saint-Jérôme Detention Centre about 20 miles northwest of Montreal. On Sunday, two accomplices posed as tourists and chartered a Robinson R44 helicopter from Mont Tremblant, about 30 miles north of the prison. After takeoff, they […]

Embraer is moving ahead with plans to build A-29 Super Tucano light attack airplanes in Florida after the Air Force rejected Beechcraft’s latest protest of the contract award. Embraer announced that it has signed a 10-year lease on a 40,000-square-foot hangar in Jacksonville, where the A-29 Super Tucanos for the U.S. Air Force Light Air […]

NTSB investigators have recovered the black box from a Beech Premier I that crashed into a South Bend, Indiana, neighborhood on Sunday, killing both pilots aboard the airplane and injuring three others. The black box data is being sent back to NTSB headquarters in Washington as investigators continue their examination of the airplane wreckage. Officials […]

The pilot-owner of a Cessna R172 — a six-cylinder, 195 hp version of the 172, based on the French-built Reims Rocket — was en route from ­Everett, Washington, to Albuquerque when he and his wife found themselves weathered in at Roseburg, Oregon. The pilot, who did not have an instrument rating, inquired at an FBO […]

In a startling announcement a few days ago, Jane’s All the World’s Aircraft has named an August 1901 flight by Connecticut aviation pioneer Gustave Whitehead as the first successful powered flight in history, beating the Wright brothers’ first flight by more than two years. Jane’s, which calls itself the world’s foremost authority on aviation history, […]

In the current economy, when any industry comes under negative public scrutiny, one surefire reaction from proponents is to promise it will create new jobs. Apparently to counter growing negative publicity over the increase use of drones, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) has done exactly that, releasing a study – one it […]

The NTSB on Tuesday issued five Safety Alerts that it says focus on the most frequent types of general aviation accidents and how to prevent them. “Because we investigate each of the 1,500 GA accidents that occur in the United States every year, we see the same types of accidents over and over again,” said […]