Aviation News

The space tourism venture launched by billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson is looking to test fly SpaceShipTwo outside of Earth’s atmosphere before the end of this year, the company said earlier this week. To date, the carbon-composite spacecraft has completed 16 glide tests, as well as 15 tests while attached to its mothership, WhiteKnightTwo. ** Virgin […]

A P-51 Mustang landed safely at Mobile Downtown Airport on Sunday after one of aviation’s living legends helped the pilot through a problem with the airplane’s landing gear. The P-51, known as The Brat III, is owned by the Cavanaugh Flight Museum and was touring the Southern United States along with the B-29 FiFi at […]

A new documentary will give viewers an up-close, 3D look at the Reno Air Races, taking audiences both into the depths of the event’s 48-year history as well as into the cockpit as some of today’s top pilots vie to be the world’s fastest. The film, titled Air Races 3D and narrated by Fast and […]

A United Express Embraer 170 made an emergency landing at Newark Liberty International Airport on Monday evening after the airplane’s nose gear failed to deploy, closing the busy New York-area airport for about 30 minutes as emergency crews dealt with the incident. Passengers and crew aboard the flight evacuated safely on the airplane’s emergency slides. […]

Remember the old joke about helicopters being a loose collection of parts flying in formation? Well here’s an example of a helicopter on the ground whose loose collection of parts suddenly decided to become a lot looser. The self-imposed destruction of this Helibras-built AS350 AStar happened in Brazil on Feb. 23. Ground resonance is thought […]

Despite a tumultuous year that saw the company pushed to the verge of bankruptcy, Diamond Aircraft‘s sales increased by a healthy 33 percent last year, according to Q4 numbers released by the company. Diamond said it made a total of 185 deliveries last year, a substantial leap from the 139 deliveries made in the year […]

The FAA National Kit Evaluation Team recently gave a thumbs up to Sonex Aircraft‘s single-seat kitplane known as the Onex, granting Onex builders access to approved checklists for the foldable-wing design that will allow them to show compliance with the 51 percent rule. Powered by an 80 hp AeroVee engine and small enough to fit […]

Remember that runway overrun by an F-16C at Oshkosh last summer (see it on video here)? Plenty of armchair pilots speculated about why it might have happened, with possible causes centering on what many presumed was a brake problem or perhaps too high an airspeed on final. It turns out that not a single one […]

You can’t beat a front-row bleachers view of a stellar aerobatic performance from a group like the Black Diamond Jet Team, unless of course you’re actually in the cockpit. The majority of us may never get that chance, but this video is perhaps the next best thing. With footage shot from a GoPro Hero 2 […]

Cirrus Aircraft said it delivered more airplanes in the fourth quarter of 2011 than any since 2008, handing the Duluth, Minnesota, manufacturer its strongest performance of the last 12 quarters and reason for optimism heading into 2012. “Several factors came together in the fourth quarter to make it one of the strongest in recent memory,” […]