Aviation News

The Red Bull capsule created to carry Austrian daredevil Felix Baumgartner to an altitude of 120,000 feet for his upcoming freefall mission is ready, developers behind the project said Tuesday. The 2,900-pound sealed capsule has been under development at Sage Cheshire Aerospace in Lancaster, California, for the past five years and comes complete with a […]

BRP Rotax has launched a new engine, the Rotax 912 iS, as an evolution of its popular four-cylinder, four-stroke line for the light-sport market. Designed to burn less gas without sacrificing performance or reliability, the engine is claimed to be as much as 70 percent more fuel-efficient than competing engines. The launch customer for the […]

A Buffalo Airways Lockheed Electra featured in the reality TV series “Ice Pilots NWT” made a successful belly landing at Yellowknife Airport in Canada on Monday after its right landing gear became stuck in the up position. The 50-year-old Electra skidded to a halt off the runway after its pilots spent more than an hour […]

The FAA is asking the public to weigh in on the criteria for six future unmanned aircraft test sites in the United States in anticipation of the larger integration of drones slated to take place in North American airspace over the next few years. The comment period, which officially opens on Friday, will remain active […]

Russian company Enterprises LLC has acquired Bend, Oregon-based Epic Aircraft. The acquisition has the potential to push FAA certification forward for Epic’s LT – a six-seat single-engine turboprop that has been sold as a kit. An Epic spokeswoman said the company expects certification in three years. Enterprises LLC, a maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) company, […]

Just a few months after Gulfstream’s flagship G650 snagged provisional certification from the FAA, the company’s newest airplane, the Gulfstream G280, has accomplished a similar feat. All that is left to finish on the Gulfstream G280 for the full FAA nod is an update to the super-midsize jet’s avionics system, the company said late last […]

All three men aboard a Cirrus SR22 died last Wednesday when the airplane crashed while attempting to land at Melbourne International Airport after a controller instructed the pilot to “cut it in tight” to avoid other traffic. ATC audio recordings show a busy traffic pattern at the time of the crash, as well as some […]

Nearly 200 bipartisan members of the House of Representatives sent a letter to President Obama opposing the $100 per-flight user fee for business jets and turboprops proposed in the administration’s fiscal 2013 budget. In the letter, Representatives note that commercial and general aviation are part of a vital industry providing millions of U.S. jobs. “We […]

Esterline CMC Electronics‘ SmartDeck integrated avionics system has its first OEM customer after Evektor of the Czech Republic this week announced the cockpit’s selection aboard the multipurpose EV-55 Outback twin turboprop. SmartDeck has had a long gestation, starting out in the mid 1990s as a project begun by Goodrich. The cockpit system has been improved […]

AOPA’s Air Safety Institute recently released The Accident Record of Technologically Advanced Airplanes — a report that concludes that the introduction of TAAs (technologically advance aircraft; the definition is extremely broad) has not decreased accident rates, as some expected to happen. In fact, newer glass cockpit airplanes had “demonstrably higher rates of accidents during takeoffs, […]