Aviation News

On the first day of Sun ‘n Fun, Avidyne President and CEO Dan Schwinn announced that his company was pursuing a number of certifications for its DFC90 digital autopilot. In addition to the Cirrus SR20 and SR22, for which Avidyne earned STC approval last year, the company will pursue certification for the Cessna 182, Beech […]

Hands down, the most buzz-worthy new product introduced on the opening day of Sun ‘n Fun was Sporty’s Stratus wireless weather receiver for the iPad. Designed to overlay color weather graphics and more on the ForeFlight Mobile app, the $799 receiver combines ADS-B and GPS receivers into a single unit that wirelessly streams Nexrad radar […]

A video showing footage of a U.S. Army AH-64 Apache crash that took place in the mountains of Afghanistan last month has made its way onto the web. The footage, captured in the village of Marzak, shows the helicopter flying low and fast over a U.S. outpost before pulling up, doubling back and descending sharply. […]

Embraer’s newly opened facility in Melbourne, Florida, is already about to expand. The Embraer Engineering and Technology Center, a 67,000-square-foot aviation research, development and design center, will be built adjacent to Embraer’s 80,000-square-foot Phenom assembly plant and 58,000-square-foot customer center, both of which opened last year. Construction on the new facility will begin immediately and […]

SpaceX recently gave NASA astronauts their first real glimpse inside the craft that will eventually ferry them to and from space if the company’s bid to provide one of the first commercial space shuttles is successful. The prototype interior of the Dragon, a spacecraft that has already been awarded a $1.6 billion NASA contract to […]

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) and Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) have filed a joint request with the FAA seeking to allow many private pilots to use a driver’s license and medical self-assessment in place of a third-class medical certificate. Current FAA regulations require pilots to hold at least a third-class medical to exercise […]

The leaders of five aviation organizations have sent a letter to Congress urging support for the development of** alternatives to leaded avgas** in the FAA’s fiscal 2013 budget. The EPA is considering curtailing the use of leaded aviation fuel, and environmental groups have stepped up legal action designed to outlaw avgas. In their letter, the […]

The supersonic aircraft of the future could look quite different from that of designs past, if the recent findings of one MIT researcher and his colleagues hold true. Assistant professor of aeronautics and astronautics Qiqi Wang has developed a supersonic biplane design that he says could reduce drag and consequently fuel consumption and sonic boom, […]

GlobalNavSource, a Florida company that does certification and testing of the iPad for aviation use, has reported that the latest iteration of the tablet computer, which Apple is just calling the iPad, has passed rapid decompression testing to 51,000 feet. The test is necessary, says the company, in order to confirm that the pilots have […]

Cirrus Aircraft has told Flying that it won’t be at next week’s Sun ‘n Fun fly-in in Lakeland, Florida. The company knows that the decision will prompt rumors, and it’s right. We’ve already started hearing them. Any time a major single-engine airplane manufacturer skips one of the country’s major airshows, the result is often suspicion […]