Aviation News

A Hong Kong business journal has reported that Cessna is in preliminary talks with Chinese conglomerate AVIC on the subject of a joint venture between the firms to build and distribute business aircraft in mainland China. The story in the South China Morning Post quotes Cessna’s Trevor Esling as confirming that the talks are preliminary. […]

If you’re headed to Oshkosh later this month, be sure to download Sporty’s free show app. The official EAA AirVenture 2011 Fly-In App is available for Apple devices (iPhones, iPads, iPod Touch) and Android phones and tablets. It includes everything show-goers need, from maps to guides to schedules, and can even help you get to […]

Two airshow pilots are safe after the warbirds they were piloting collided in mid air during last weekend’s Flying Legends airshow at Duxford, England. The incident involved a P-51D Mustang known as Big Beautiful Doll and a Douglas AD-4NA Skyraider. The airplanes were flying in a triangular formation along with one additional P-51 when they […]

Cessna 182 owners may now be able to get a smoother, quieter ride by converting to a newly STC’d Top Prop propeller kit from Hartzell. The company claims this new three-bladed, scimitar-shaped propeller improves takeoff and climb performance without degrading cruise speed, reduces noise by 2.5 dB(a) compared to the stock propeller, and increases the […]

VoiceFlight has received an STC for its VFS101 voice-recognition system for Garmin’s GNS 430W and 530W GPS/navcoms. The VFS101 enables the pilot to verbally enter flight-plan waypoints using the phonetic alphabet, which takes a fraction of the time of twisting the knobs on the 430W and 530W units. In addition to loading a flight plan, […]

Thousands of people from around the country gathered in Cape Canaveral last week to watch the last operational NASA space shuttle take to the skies during the program’s final launch. Arriving as early as 3 a.m., many slept in their cars for a chance to see Atlantis launch from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center last Friday […]

Three different private aircraft were intercepted by fighter jets over the weekend after busting the TFR over Camp David in Maryland.** ** According to NORAD, the command responsible for the air defense of North America, the first incident occurred on Saturday just after 12 p.m., when two F-15E fighters intercepted an unspecified general aviation aircraft […]

Diamond Aircraft, which a few months ago laid off a large number of its North America workforce, is cutting back some more. Citing the continued slow market for piston airplanes and its recent financial woes, Diamond Aircraft says that it has made the difficult decision to cancel its plans to attend the three most important […]

Honda Aircraft briefly drew back the veil of mystery surrounding its secretive HondaJet program on Tuesday, allowing members of the media to tour a gleaming, $100 million aircraft factory the company has just completed at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina. HondaJet president and CEO Michimasa Fujino led the tour through the brand […]

An all-electric, twin-motor French airplane known as the MC15E Cri Cri piloted by Hugues Duval recently reached 153 knots, breaking its own speed record for electrically powered airplanes by about 10 knots. While several power plants have been tested on the Cri Cri, the record setting airplane was powered by a pair of 35-horsepower Electravia […]