Aviation News

The top-secret Boeing X-37B space plane that has been orbiting the Earth for the last 15 months is scheduled to descend on Vandenberg Air Force Base “during the early- to mid-June timeframe,” according to a statement issued by the base. The landing will constitute the second for the unmanned spacecraft, following the completion of the […]

Boeing’s hydrogen-powered Phantom Eye UAV made its maiden autonomous flight last Friday, staying aloft for 28 minutes after taking off from Edwards Air Force Base in California. During the flight, Phantom Eye reached an altitude of just over 4,000 feet and a cruising speed of 68 knots before coming in for a rough landing that […]

Three GA aircraft were intercepted by F-16s in the past two days after busting a presidential TFR in the airspace surrounding Los Angeles, marking the latest in a growing string of TFR busts in the area since February. On Wednesday night, the offending airplane was a single-engine Cessna, which was intercepted northwest of L.A. around […]

The Aviation Fuel Club is urging anyone who can fly to Oshkosh next month using unleaded autogas to do as part of an event it’s calling “Unleaded to Oshkosh” to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the FAA’s approval of the first autogas STC. Dubbed U2OSH by event organizers, the effort is being led in part […]

Eurocopter is bringing its X3 experimental hybrid helicopter demonstrator to the United States this month for a summer tour that could include a visit to a town near you. The first stop will be American Eurocopter’s headquarters in Grand Prairie, Texas, on June 20. Where it heads from there is anybody’s guess. The X3 is […]

Ray Bradbury, a writer whose science fiction novels were loved by many aviators, has died at the age of 91. Bradbury received many awards during his long writing career, including the National Medal of Arts in 2004 and the Pulitzer Prize Special Citation in 2007. Bradbury published nearly 50 books, hundreds of short stories and […]

When Voyager circled the globe non-stop and unrefueled in 1986, it sounded for all the world like the kind of record that could never be bettered. We should all have known better than to think there’s any such thing in aviation. The next mountaintop to conquer: around the world without a drop of fuel. Today […]

The FAA has issued a document clarifying the rules regarding the use of seat belts for part 91 operations. It is still permissible under 14 CFR 91.107 (a)(3) to share seat belts and to allow children under the age of two to be held on the lap of an adult without any restraining system. But […]

After seeking bankruptcy protection just last month, Hawker Beechcraft is exploring a variety of options to improve its position, including a sale of the company, according to a recent report in the Wichita Eagle. Potential buyers have until Thursday to submit their bids, in anticipation of Hawker Beechcraft’s submission of a detailed restructuring plan to […]

Investigators on Tuesday announced that they have found the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder of the MD-83 that crashed on Sunday afternoon into the heavily populated city of Lagos, Nigeria, killing all 153 aboard and a number of others on the ground. Recovery workers had found 150 bodies as of Tuesday afternoon. They […]