Aviation News

Announced just last spring, the latest version of Cessna’s venerable 525 CitationJet lineup, the M2 model, is already making its way down the production line at the company’s Independence, Kansas, factory. The new model features Garmin G3000 avionics, a completely updated interior scheme and Williams FJ44 turbofan engines producing nearly 2,000 pounds of thrust apiece. […]

Dennis Butler has had two careers. The first, based on his degree in physics, was working for a number of companies that were involved with NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The second was his Cozy III. The aircraft was an “endeavor” that took 20 years to build and kept him fascinated and involved all […]

Austro Engines, a division of Diamond Aircraft, has capped two and a half years of developing its AE80R rotary aircraft engine with successful bench testing. The company announced the tests yesterday, saying the new engine is a higher-power derivative of its successful 55-hp AE50R rotary. Target weight of the AE80 is less than 60 pounds. […]

The Planes of Fame Air Museum in Chino, California, celebrated World War II airplanes and combat survivors at a recent event named Luftwaffe vs. the Eighth Air Force. The museum’s own Focke-Wulf FW-190 replica wowed the crowd with several fly-bys over the museum after a two-hour presentation of speakers. The FW-190 and Messerschmidt BF-109 were […]

The wreckage of a Brewster F2A-3 Buffalo was recently found submerged beneath a mere 10 feet of water off the island of Midway Atoll, bringing attention to the stubby-looking airplane known as a “flying coffin” during World War II due to its notoriously poor combat record. Federal divers stumbled upon the find last summer while […]

Airplanes could be seen taxiing down the streets of Scottsdale, Arizona, in the early morning hours as they made the two-mile journey from the Scottsdale airport to the WestWorld special events facility where the annual Barrett-Jackson collector car auction is held from January 13-20. Lancair is one of the manufacturers in attendance with the high-performance […]

Searchers are not holding out much hope for the Florida man, Kurt Ruppert, who went missing after jumping in a wingsuit from a helicopter in a mountainous area of Washington State last Thursday. Low temperatures and inhospitable terrain mean that the chances of Ruppert still being alive if he somehow survived a hard parachute landing […]

Yesterday Pilatus launched an online configurator for the iPad that allows users to create their dream Pilatus PC-12 turboprop single. One of the hottest marketing tools for carmakers these last few years has been so-called “configurators,” digital utilities that let fans of the car (and potential customers) pick out colors, body mods, trim and interior […]

Eclipse Aerospace has submitted a proposal for a U.S. Air Force request to supply a “large fleet” of very light jets (VLJ) for use as basic trainers. The Air Force is seeking to replace its 20-year-old fleet of business jets to support its Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training (SUPT) Multi-Place Training Track. Cost will be a […]

A fire broke out aboard an empty Boeing 787 Dreamliner at Boston Logan Airport on Monday after the battery powering the Japan Airlines jet’s auxiliary power unit exploded as the jet sat at the gate. A firefighter suffered minor burns controlling the small fire, which caused heavy smoke in the cabin. The flight had arrived […]