Aviation News

Cessna parent company Textron reported third quarter growth yesterday, with revenues totaling $2.8 billion. The gains constitute an increase of 13.5 percent from the same period last year and include a 15 percent increase in manufacturing revenues. According to Textron Chairman and CEO Scott Donnelly, the gains were buoyed by “good execution and cost performance” […]

While the numbers were still modest compared to shows during the boom years a while back, the latest edition of the National Business Aviation Association Convention, which finished up in Las Vegas last Wednesday, enjoyed solid numbers, this according to the NBAA. Association president Ed Bolen called it “a highly successful show.” It seemed that […]

We don’t normally report here on personnel announcements from aviation non-profits, but this one is from a new association,**** the**** Recreational Aviation Foundation, whose reason for being is to protect and preserve backcountry strips, a mission we at Flying believe in strongly. The new guy, Carl Hicks of Gig Harbor, Washington, becomes the group’s first […]

Think you’re a hot pilot? Compared to other humans, maybe you are, but if you need a little dose of humility, check out this video of an owl coming in for a landing aimed directly at a high-speed camera, which is said to be capturing the scene at 1,000 frames per second, compared to around […]

Jeppesen has joined the Lindbergh Foundation’s Aviation Green Alliance as a founding member. The group’s aim is to tackle environmental challenges facing the aviation industry, including emissions, noise and operational efficiency. “Jeppesen fully supports the collaborative effort led by the Lindbergh Foundation Aviation Green Alliance to develop solutions for addressing environmental challenges facing the aviation […]

In a touching speech at NBAA last week, Bill Frist accepted the annual Al Ueltschi Award for Humanitarian Leadership. A pilot, surgeon and former U.S. Senate Majority Leader, Frist received the award for his extensive humanitarian work in all corners of the world. Frist credited his brother, with whom he shares four major passions — […]

The U.S. Government Accountability Office released a report last Friday highlighting what it called a steady upward trend in runway incursions at towered airports. The report cites the large increase in runway incursions at towered airports in recent years, a number that has risen from 11 incursions per million operations in 2004 to 18 incursions […]

Virgin Galactic has signed a deal to provide NASA with three charter flights on SpaceShipTwo, the suborbital spaceplane slated to take future tourist travelers into space. The deal provides for one full charter flight on SpaceShipTwo, with the option for two additional flights, giving the agreement a potential value of $4.5 million. According to Virgin […]

The Veterans Airlift Command (VAC) has received a donated Eclipse 500 that will aid in the organization’s mission of transporting wounded veterans and their families, according to an announcement at the NBAA Convention last week. To complement the donation, Eclipse Aerospace has vowed to provide the upgrades necessary to keep the jet in service. The […]

China is emerging as the world’s fastest growing market for business jets sales, with industry watchers projecting deliveries of hundreds of large-cabin business airplanes worth billions of dollars over the next decade. Evidence of the Chinese market’s sudden strength was on display at last week’s NBAA Convention in Las Vegas, as Embraer racked up a […]