Aviation News

After combing through more than 500 applicants, Virgin Galactic has hired a pilot to take fare-paying passengers into space aboard the company’s SpaceShipTwo. That man is Keith Colmer, a former U.S. Air Force test pilot with 12 years of flight-testing experience. Colmer has logged more than 5,000 hours in 90-plus aircraft types, experience that helped […]

The restoration process of the B-17 Memphis Belle recently reached a few notable milestones, bringing the famous warbird steps closer to returning to pristine condition. In addition to mating the wings, restoration crews at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force recently extended the landing gear of the airplane, well known as the first […]

Union strikes and bad weather made this weekend miserable for the airlines and their travelers with nearly 1,800 canceled flights within, into or out of the United States, according to FlightAware. A large number of the cancellations were Qantas Airways flights as union strikes grounded the airline’s entire fleet. By Monday, Fair Work Australia – […]

A Gulfstream G150 registered to Jimmy Johnson Racing and carrying Hendrick Motorsports owner Rick Hendrick and three others crashed Monday evening after careering off a runway at Florida’s Key West International Airport. Hendrick, his wife Linda and two pilots were on board the business jet, according to a statement from Hendrick Motorsports. No one was […]

Hawker Beechcraft reported a loss of $42.2 million in the third quarter, but that was actually a big improvement over last year, when the Wichita aircraft maker lost $81.4 million in the same period. Overall sales were down, totaling $518.8 million in this year’s third quarter compared with $594.7 million during the same period last […]

Flight training providers offering FAA-approved Flight Instructor Refresher Course (FIRC) programs will need to make modifications to their courses as a result of a recently updated advisory circular (AC 61-83G). The new 33-page AC includes modified guidelines on how to develop training course outlines (TCO) and updates some of the core topics that must be […]

NBAA reported this week that the TSA is expected to release a new proposed security program for business aviation airplanes. The new proposal is expected to be significantly different from the large aircraft security program (LASP), which was proposed in 2008 and highly criticized by federal, state and local government officials as well as general […]

Add China to the list of nations conducting biofuel demonstration flights, as Air China prepares to fly a Boeing 747-400 by the end of November using a blend of conventional and hydrotreated renewable jet fuel. The flight is part of a broader agreement with Air China, PetroChina, Boeing and Honeywell to use fuel derived from […]

The Boeing 787 Dreamliner lifted off on Wednesday for the first time with paying passengers on board, marking a milestone many years in the making for the world’s first “plastic” airliner. The jet, owned and operated by All Nippon Airways, carried 240 passengers from Hong Kong to Tokyo, a trip that some passengers paid as […]

After what it calls “six quarters of mostly positive news,” aviation market research firm Amstat reported on Wednesday that the third quarter of 2011 was a disappointing one for jet sales. The firm reported that the existing inventory of used business jets, considered a key marker for economic energy in the business aviation sector, had […]