Aviation News

Aerostar Aircraft Corporation showed up on Tuesday at AirVenture with a Pratt & Whitney PW615-powered 601P Aerostar modification. It was the first public showing of the airplane, which is undergoing early flight test and configuration. The airplane is a work in progress in many respects. There are no boots on it yet. The pressurization system […]

Embraer’s president of executive jets, Ernie Edwards, greeted journalists on a rainy Wednesday morning to present a status update on Embraer’s bizjet business. While this AirVenture appearance by a jet maker would have been unheard of a decade ago, the group of reporters on hand included several who work for outlets that exclusively write about […]

Roy Beisswenger has been awarded Flying magazine’s 2011 Bax Seat Trophy. The trophy is awarded annually to an EAA member in honor of Flying magazine’s long-time columnist Gordon Baxter. Beisswenger was selected for his extensive grassroots aviation coverage, particularly in his weekly Powered Sport Flying Radio Show – a two-hour long show in which he […]

Credit EAA president Rod Hightower for inspiring the idea for Women in Aviation Internatonal’s inaugural “Bring Your Daughter to the Convention Day,” to take place on March 10 at the WAI annual convention in Dallas. Asked to speak at the conference, Hightower said he would be happy to, and that he also planned to bring […]

Angelo Fiataruolo wasn’t even supposed to be in Oshkosh this week, but after Diamond Aircraft pulled out of AirVenture at the last minute – citing a need to focus its economic resources solely on the D-Jet certification program – the president of Diamond dealer KCAC in Kansas City stepped up to the plate by taking […]

Two unnamed aircraft manufacturers are said to be close to announcing the selection of the SmartDeck integrated avionics system under development by Esterline CMC Electronics of Montreal. The cockpit was originally a project begun by Goodrich in the 1990s and later transferred to L-3 Avionics Systems before being sold to CMC last year. Throughout its […]

Aircraft distributor SportairUSA is bringing a new LSA option to the American market, and an aerobatic one at that. On Tuesday at EAA AirVenture the company unveiled a prototype of the aircraft, which is a single-seat, 130 horsepower aerobatic LSA known as the Snap. The Snap is a low-wing taildragger manufactured in Italy by Dallair […]

Parachute maker BRS Aerospace announced it is developing a new electronic ignition system for its airplane parachute system. BRS has yet to determine the location of the activation switch or what it may look like, but BRS president Larry Williams said the system will be designed to prevent inadvertent deployment of the parachute. Williams also […]

As the 2011 AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, hit the halfway mark, Icon Aircraft had received deposits for 65 Icon A5 airplanes during the show. Crowds filed into Icon’s dimly lit booth to watch the A5’s wings fold and unfold, and to place their $2,000 show special deposits. For each deposit accepted at the show, Icon […]

Kestrel Aircraft Company has branched out into the aircraft modifications business with a new division called Kestrel Aeroworks. Kestrel Aircraft Chairman and CEO Alan Klapmeier said the purpose of Kestrel Aeroworks is to “take existing aircraft and make them into more modern, more comfortable, more pilot-friendly aircraft.” Kestrel Aeroworks is focusing its efforts on the […]