Aviation News

When Aiden Lipscomb, a 21-month-old Virginia boy diagnosed with an aggressive pediatric cancer, needed immediate radiation treatments that are available only in a few locations, a unique partnering of general aviation and social media became the child’s best hope to receive them. Because of his weakened immune system, Aiden was unable to travel on commercial […]

Hilton Software, the maker of the WingXPro7 aviation navigation iPad app, announced it has developed an interface for Aspen Avionics’ Connected Panel product, introduced earlier this month at EAA AirVenture. Aspen’s Connected Panel allows two-way wireless communication between panel avionics and personal smart devices, including iPads and Android smartphones. The supported app from Hilton Software […]

A rare all-female crew from the 908th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron (EARS) recently completed an aerial refueling flight in a KC-10 Extender over southwest Asia. “It wasn’t about doing a ‘first,’ although this is rare,” said Lt. Jen Carter, KC-10 pilot in the 908th EARS. “We usually have no more than two females on any […]

SimCom, one of the country’s largest providers of advanced flight training, recently announced the acquisition of 14 simulators from FlightSafety International, bringing the company’s simulator tally to a total of 59 and broadening its training capabilities throughout the United States.** ** The deal will bring a variety of new piston and turboprop simulators to the […]

Five days of wind tunnel testing for the Stratos 714 very light personal jet (VLPJ) have been completed at the University of Washington Aeronautical Laboratory (UWAL) in Seattle, Washington. More than 90 tests were conducted on a one-fifth-scale aluminum, polycarbonate and composite model of the single-engine jet design.** ** Engineers are still analyzing the data […]

The FAA last week issued a final rule intended to prevent FAA inspectors from working for the airlines they previously oversaw for two years after they leave the agency. The rule applies to FAA personnel who had oversight responsibility over the airlines (as well as over fractional providers and other firms that offer commercial air […]

Most pilots know that FlightSafety International is a huge and successful training organization, but not all of them are aware that it is also a world-class simulator manufacturer. On Tuesday, the company cut the ribbon on its new manufacturing facility in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. The state-of-the-art 375,000-square-foot plant has 19 assembly positions for manufacturing everything […]

Multiple performers were killed during a tragic weekend for the airshow circuit that included three separate fatal incidents. One of the first occurred on Saturday at the Bournemouth Air Festival in England, when a Royal Air Force pilot who belonged to the elite Red Arrows aerobatic team died after the Hawk T-1 he was piloting […]

Conceding that the certification process for light general aviation airplanes has become a complicated and counter-productive morass of rules and restrictions, the FAA has formed a committee whose responsibility will focus on modernizing the design and manufacturing of entry-level Part 23 airplanes.**** FAA officials and industry leaders are hopeful the streamlined regulations will result in […]

(August 2011) It has often been said that accidents result not from one big cause, but from a lot of little ones that happen to converge in some unforeseen way. Nevertheless, many fatal accidents do arise from one simple cause: VFR pilots flying into IFR weather. This happens so regularly, and in so monotonous a […]