Aviation News

The EAA Board has announced that president and CEO Rod Hightower has resigned effective immediately. In apparently related news, former Cessna president and CEO Jack Pelton has been named chairman of the EAA board of directors. EAA said that issues with Hightower’s family relocating from St. Louis to Oshkosh were behind the change. Pelton delivered […]

The aviation world is mourning the passing of FlightSafety founder and industry luminary Albert Lee Ueltschi, who died yesterday at the age of 95. For many years the personal pilot of Pan Am founder Juan Trippe, Ueltschi is best remembered as the father of modern business aviation training for his pioneering work creating FlightSafety International […]

Monte Mitchell, the former longtime president of the Aircraft Electronics Association and a legendary figure in the avionics industry, died on Oct. 16 in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. He was 83. Mitchell served as AEA president from 1977 to 1996 during a 40-year career in the avionics industry. After serving in the Korean War, Mitchell joined […]

British aviation enthusiast David Cundall expects to begin excavation later this month to recover 60 or more Supermarine Spitfire Mk XIVs in Myanmar. Cundall discovered the cache of Spitfires earlier this year after searching for them for 16 years, but only signed a deal with the Myanmar government on Tuesday. The aircraft were packed in […]

A wayward yachtsman is thanking his lucky stars this week after being spotted by crew and passengers of an Air Canada Boeing 777. The small sailboat left from near Sydney two weeks ago, headed for ironically named Eden on the south coast of New South Wales to the north. The boat experienced trouble and an […]

Hawker Beechcraft today announced that it is planning to move forward from bankruptcy as a standalone company, negating a deal that was in the works with China’s Superior Aviation Beijing Co. While the company is walking away with a $50 million non-refundable deposit from Superior, Hawker Beechcraft’s CEO Robert S. “Steve” Miller said: “We are […]

At AOPA Summit last week, AOPA announced a plan to help grow the national network of flying clubs, an initiative that is one of the first launched by the newly formed Center to Advance the Pilot Community. (See our story on the reach that flying clubs can have.) The goal is not only to create […]

The varied training scenarios were developed by SAFE in cooperation with Redbird Flight Simulations, and are available for download at the SAFE website. The scenarios are the same ones used at the SAFE booth at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh and last week at AOPA Summit in Palm Springs, California. SAFE Executive Director Doug Stewart said, “Given […]

With sales of new aircraft gone sour, the light aircraft refurb industry finds itself in a bit of a sweet spot. At AOPA Summit, for example, Todd Peterson of Peterson’s Performance Plus reported he cannot keep up with demand for his Cessna 182 Skylane upgrade. The “King Katmai” conversion includes upgraded engines (260-hp or 300-hp), […]

On October 14, Brigadier General Charles “Chuck” Yeager completed a celebratory flight to mark the anniversary of his historic first supersonic flight. In pure Air Force fashion, Yeager, now 89, broke the sound barrier 45,000 feet over the Edwards Air Force Base at 10:24 a.m., 65 years to the minute after his original flight. But […]