Aviation News

A U.S. Marine Corps F-35B completed its first shipboard vertical landing on Tuesday, touching down on the deck of the USS Wasp in the Atlantic during preliminary phases of ship suitability testing. The Joint Strike Fighter will continue shipboard testing during the next two weeks, striving to complete a planned 67 landings on the Wasp […]

The National Transportation Safety Board has begun its investigation into what caused a Bell JetRanger to crash in Manhattan’s East River on Tuesday, killing one passenger and sending three others to the hospital. NTSB chairman Mark Rosekind said at a press briefing that investigators had recovered the helicopter’s GPS receiver and also collected video of […]

LightSquared is threatening legal action against the Federal Communications Commission if the agency does not grant the company approval to build a planned nationwide network of around 40,000 broadband towers that many experts warn will cause interference with GPS receivers. LightSquared argues that any interference with high-precision GPS receivers from the company’s planned network is […]

Rockwell Collins has announced a new version of its touch-screen Pro Line Fusion avionics system for the turboprop and light business jet market. The system will be available for new airplanes and as a retrofit for airplanes equipped with Rockwell Collins’ Pro Line 21 avionics suite. With all the Pro Line 21 equipped airplanes on […]

While in some people’s minds it might stretch the definition of a “hybrid,” Eurocopter’s electric/turboshaft AS350 helicopter a few days ago successfully completed a flight with an electric backup motor. In this case, the motor doesn’t power the main blades for normal flight but assists during autorotation, which, according to Eurocopter, took much of the […]

The Nextant 400XT has received FAA certification, Nextant Aerospace announced on Wednesday, marking the final step in the approval process for one of the most extensively refurbished business jets on the market. The Nextant 400XT is a remanufactured Beechjet 400A upgraded with Williams FJ44-3AP turbofan engines and Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 avionics. The jet […]

An ultralight Cheetah S200 crashed into a Ferris wheel at a festival on the eastern coast of Australia this weekend, leaving the mangled airplane, its two occupants and two children riding the Ferris wheel trapped as emergency crew worked to bring everyone down to the ground safely. The Ferris wheel held as the Cheetah crashed […]

The nearly 4,000 FAA workers who were furloughed during a two-week partial shutdown of the agency over the summer will receive back pay for the time they missed, according to the Department of Transportation. The pay will show up in the workers’ Oct. 18 paychecks, said an e-mail sent to worker’s from Transportation Secretary Ray […]

The United States military is continuing its quest for a greener aircraft fleet and the Navy has now completed the first biofuel flight in an unmanned helicopter – an MQ-8B Fire Scout. Powered by a blend of JP-5 aviation fuel and a plant-based fuel, the helicopter took off from the Naval Air Station Patuxent River’s […]

Moller International announced last week the 50th anniversary of the development of the Skycar, a product that is the brainchild or idea of Paul Moller. The Skycar is not intended as a roadable aircraft, claims the company, but rather as a kind of Jetson’s style replacement for automobiles; hence, the “Skycar” name. The vehicle, which […]