Aviation News

The U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is embracing general aviation as part of its disaster planning preparations after conducting a successful large-scale disaster drill that included private aircraft dealing with a simulated national emergency. “Our GA ‘ready fleet’ performed superbly,” said Marianne Stevenson, president of AERObridge, a group that coordinates use of private aircraft […]

House Representative Bill Shuster (R – PA) has withdrawn an amendment that some say would have further stalled a bill attempting to increase the amount of rest required for airline pilots.**** Shuster’s legislation would have required the FAA to investigate the economic effects of new rules, as well as any possible alternatives, before they could […]

Cessna announced last week that the Citation Ten is on schedule to make its first flight by the end of 2011. Deliveries of the midsize jet are expected to begin in the latter half of 2013.** ** According to Cessna, the Citation Ten has a new design and performance capabilities that allow it “to fly […]

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is looking into an incident in which two regional jets came within just a few hundred feet of each other while crossing paths at Chicago O’Hare International Airport last week.** ** The event occurred around 9:30 a.m. on Monday, May 16, when an Embraer ERJ-145 operated by ExpressJet Airlines […]

German newspaper Der Spiegel is reporting that stricken Air France Flight 447 appears to have entered a deep stall from which the Airbus A330’s crew could not recover before crashing into the Atlantic Ocean on June 1, 2009. The newspaper cites sources close to the investigation as saying cockpit voice recorder data shows 58-year-old captain […]

Members of a bipartisan group of 33 U.S. senators have signed a letter sent to Federal Communications Commission chairman Julius Genachowski urging him to overturn a frequency spectrum license waiver awarded to broadband satellite communications company LightSquared until testing can show the company’s mobile 4G technology won’t interfere with GPS signal reception. The issue has […]

This week’s eruption of an Icelandic volcano seems to be a repeat of much of last year’s drama when a larger eruption shut down much of Europe’s airspace for nearly a week, costing billions of Euros in the process. ** ** This time around, the authorities were well prepared, though how much good that preparation […]

A New York federal jury on Tuesday found Cirrus Design does not bear any blame for the October 2006 crash of an SR20 that killed New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, 34, and flight instructor Tyler Stanger, 26. The pair crashed into a high-rise apartment building as they attempted to make a turn in the […]

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) on Tuesday blamed “pilot unresponsiveness” for last August’s crash of a de Havilland Turbo Otter amphibious floatplane in remote Alaska that killed pilot Terry Smith and four passengers including former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens. The Board said a flight surgeon’s decision to reinstate Smith’s first-class medical certificate without a […]

__Eurocopter recently reported that flight-testing on the X3 is progressing nicely and its test pilots attained a sustained true airspeed of 232 knots. This number, which was achieved during stable, level flight on the third flight-testing mission after the X3’s gear boxes were modified, is significantly higher than the 220 knots the Marignane, France-based company […]