Aviation News

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, […]

Word came at 9:55 P.M. to the Chinle, Arizona, office of an air ambulance service that a patient needed transport from Alamosa, Colorado, 192 nm to the east-northeast. Forty minutes later, a King Air C90 with a pilot, a paramedic and a nurse aboard was airborne. It never arrived. The airplane struck a ridge 37 […]

Word has leaked that Google is planning to unveil some hardware later this year that will get pilots dreaming and developers drooling. Google’s sunglasses are designed to house a head-up display. The glasses, according to a report in the New York Times and on several tech websites, will cost several hundred dollars, feature Wi-Fi and […]

According to Hawker Beechcraft Corporation Chairman Bill Boisture, the Air Force has decided to restore the company’s failed bid to win the potentially lucrative contract to build 20 light air support (LAS) aircraft for delivery to Afghanistan with potential follow-on business worth up to a billion dollars. The Air Force had previously announced that Sierra […]

Microsoft made its highly anticipated, new-generation flight simulation game available for free download a day earlier than originally announced, but that only seemed to ensure the negative reaction to Flight, available for the PC, came early as well. Pilots generally are giving the game a thumbs down for taking a big step backward from the […]

After a decade-long hiatus, Santa Monica Airport’s Museum of Flying, which was originally founded in 1974, opened its doors last weekend. Located on the south side of the runway adjacent to a large DC-3 monument maintained by the City of Santa Monica, the exhibit area houses a theater, several interactive displays and about two-dozen airplanes […]

For those operators who have several pilots flying for them, or even a changing cast of characters, the use of electronic charts, principally iPad charts, has offered great savings over the past couple of years. Now ForeFlight, which has developed the best selling charting app, ForeFlight Mobile (the winner of a 2011 Flying Editors’ Choice […]

The FAA has shot down a proposal that sought to expand driver’s license medicals to all pilots flying aircraft weighing 6,000 pounds or less – but that hasn’t stopped AOPA and EAA from continuing to push for the change. The agency denied a 2009 petition calling for the switch that received more than 1,000 supportive […]