Aviation News

Piper Aircraft on Tuesday announced sales and revenue were up as much as 9 percent over the course of 2011, attributing the positive numbers to the success of the company’s flagship, the Piper Meridian. According to Piper, new aircraft sales totaled more than $131 million in 2011, up from $120 million in 2010. Sales of […]

Amidst all the numbers and trends reported at the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) annual press event in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, the recurring message was, “it could have been worse.” It could have been. GAMA member companies delivered 1,865 airplanes in 2011, a 3.5 percent decline compared to the 1,932 delivered in 2010. Dollar […]

A Cessna 182 allegedly carrying approximately 40 pounds of marijuana was intercepted by F-16s on Thursday after busting restricted airspace shared by Marine One. According to the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the incident occurred around 12:30 p.m. local time over Los Angeles. The fighters followed the 182 until it landed safely at Long […]

In remembrance of the 50th anniversary of John Glenn’s first American space orbit on Feb. 20, NASA produced the documentary “Friendship 7 50th Anniversary.” Actual footage and audio recordings of Glenn inside the capsule of Friendship 7 during the historic 1962 flight are blended with narrations by space shuttle astronaut Steven Lindsey, astronaut Scott Carpenter, […]

LightSquared said on Tuesday that it will lay off nearly half of its employees after the Federal Communications Commission last week blocked the company’s plans for a nationwide 4G network that testing shows interferes with GPS signals. LightSquared said it will layoff nearly half of its 330 employees, calling the move a “prudent and necessary […]

A Beechcraft Bonanza and a Robinson R22 collided in midair near Rio Vista Airport on Sunday night, but both pilots managed to land the aircraft without sustaining serious injuries. The R22 pilot, a 29-year-old commercial pilot who was working on accumulating night hours for her helicopter rating at the time, said she saw the Bonanza […]

A Chinese-Russian manufacturing consortium has pledged more than $1 billion to produce a line of four- to 12-seat general aviation airplanes in China, according to the country’s People’s Daily newspaper. The report said a signing ceremony for the China-Russia general aviation aircraft production project was held recently in Beijing. At the ceremony, China Oriental Sciences […]

A Pipistrel Virus SW 914 Turbo piloted by Matevž Lenarčič has completed the 2,000-nm flight from Concepcion, Chile, to Easter Island – the longest leg of Lenarčič’s GreenLight WorldFlight – a journey that crisscrosses around the world to showcase the Virus’ performance capabilities and bring awareness to environmental issues. And the challenging over-water flight from […]

Last week Flying photographed Aurora, or at least what looks to be strong evidence of Aurora, the much rumored, never-acknowledged U.S. military spyplane. I snapped the pic not because I thought I was catching a peek at Aurora but because I thought the contrail was evidence of some strange meteorological phenomenon. The contrail was odd […]

Robinson Helicopter is looking at making the Aspen Evolution Flight Display (EFD) a factory installed option, Robinson head Kurt Robinson said at Heli-Expo. During his remarks, Robinson praised the compact form factor and low cost of the Aspen option, while stopping short of giving any firm promises or timetables for availability as, he explained, the […]