Aviation News

In a pre-NBAA event, Gulfstream gave journalists a sneak peek at its remarkable G650 flagship, currently undergoing certification flight testing. Serial number 4 was on private display at Peachtree DeKalb Airport. The airplane was as spectacular as the hype suggests. On the outside, while clearly a Gulfstream, the 650 is much longer, with much larger […]

Piper has totally redesigned the PiperJet airframe, and given the single-engine jet a new name — Altaire. The old fuselage on the proof-of-concept PiperJet was the same as the PA-46 Mirage/Meridian — round on top and flat on the bottom. It is now a circular cross-section, making it easier to increase the cabin volume of […]

They weren’t quite dancing in the aisles at the 63rd annual meeting and convention of the National Business Aircraft Association. But at least the funeral march that has prevailed the past two years seems to be a thing of the past. The show wraps up later today at the Georgia World Congress Center in Atlanta […]

When it comes to transportation flying, speed might not be everything, but it’s pretty darn close. So when Gulfstream pilots recently flew the company’s under-development G650 flagship to Mach .995, it effectively flew the jet as fast as you can go without creating a sonic boom. It was the fastest reported speed of a bizjet. […]

If you’ve been waiting for the Aircraft Electronics Association’s take on what to expect from the FAA’s plan to implement ADS-B, you’re not going to like what you hear. In an Oct. 4, memo to the FAA, the AEA didn’t mince words. The association said the FAA’s Aug. 30 memo would “stall early equipage, delay […]

It might have seemed like a small semantic point at the time, but customers of OurPLANE are finding out that the planes were never really “theirs” after all. According to the contracts, the titles to the Cirrus SR22s in the program were held by the company, and when it liquidated last week, the “owners” joined […]

Citing an increasing accident rate among air-ambulance operators over the past decade or so, on Tuesday the FAA proposed new, stricter regulations for all helicopter operators. EMS and air ambulance flights combine several risk elements, including critical missions likely to take place in poor weather, financial pressure for private companies to fly missions when their […]

“Now, the sky is no longer the limit,” exclaimed Virgin Galactic’s Sir Richard Branson with his customary overflowing enthusiasm. He spoke Sunday at the Mojave (California) Air and Space Port on the occasion of the first free flight of VSS Enterprise (nee SpaceShipTwo), the commercial spacecraft designed to take fare-paying passengers to the edge of […]

The National Business Aviation Association takes center stage next week at the Georgia World Congress Center in downtown Atlanta. For three days (Oct. 19-21) more than 25,000 business aviation professionals and many others will congregate for more than 100 seminars, classes, forums and other educational events. Attendees will walk the display halls to take in […]

A Gulfstream IV ran off the end of Runway 6 at Teterboro (New Jersey) Airport last Friday. But unlike a Challenger on an aborted takeoff in 2005, the Gulfstream stopped short of the airport fence. The Challenger from five years ago plowed through the fence, across a busy highway and embedded itself in a warehouse. […]