Aviation News

(June 2011) The Recreational Aviation Foundation (RAF) and the Montana Pilots Association (MPA) have joined efforts to build Russian Flat Airstrip, the first backcountry airstrip to open on United States Forest Service (USFS) land in more than 46 years. The 3,000-foot runway is located in a large, grassy meadow 69 miles southwest of Great Falls, […]

Government officials and business execs alike work to keep Wichita’s aviation industry alive and well. Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback and other officials convened with aviation business leaders on Monday to discuss the industry’s future in the state and explore ways to both keep and grow Wichita’s standing as one of the world’s leading aviation hubs. […]

A Minnesota appeals court has reversed an earlier ruling that held Cirrus Design Corp. liable for a 2003 SR22 crash that killed two men on a trip to see their sons play in a hockey tournament. The new ruling nullifies the $14.4 million verdict awarded to the families of the two men by a jury […]

While the Los Angeles City Council has no legal authority over the Santa Monica Airport (SMO), it voted unanimously last Wednesday to close six operational flight schools at the airport and alter departure procedures. The vote will have no effect on current operations, although the moves have angered pilots, who wonder why a city council […]

Rockwell Collins’ Pro Line Fusion next-gen avionics system has earned FAA TSO approval, the first and biggest step toward putting it in the cockpits of new bizjets. The system represents a huge leap for Collins, which has in Fusion created a scalable, fully digital upgradable suite that is certain to be the basis for numerous […]

An award-winning NASA simulation tool, Future ATM (Air Traffic Management) Concepts Evaluation Tool, or FACET, for short, is being used to create simulations of air traffic, allowing researchers to create elaborate computerized models of airplane traffic around the United States. With as many as 5,000 airplanes in the air at any one time, the effect, […]

A group of private U.S. investors led by aviation market analyst Brian Foley now appears unlikely to submit a formal counter bid for the assets of Cirrus Design prior to its sale to Chinese interests. “The initial investor response was swift and encouraging,” Foley said in a statement to the press. “We’ve since had time […]

The lingering recession continues to make life difficult for airplane manufacturers, and Wichita giant Cessna Aircraft is no exception. Revenue at Cessna rose about 26 percent in the first quarter compared to the same period last year, but low production and delivery levels contributed to an operating loss for the quarter of $38 million. On […]

Innovation during down times continues to be a differentiator, and GE Aviation has made clear where it stands on this point. This week the Fortune 100 company broke ground on $51 million R&D facility on the campus of the University of Dayton in Ohio. GE calls the center the Electrical Power Integrated Systems Research and […]

Aircraft flight data resource ARG/US has released flight activity results for March and the news couldn’t be much better. Activity in nearly every sector is up, some by as much as almost 20 percent over the same period last year. Overall, business aircraft flight activity for the month was up 17.2 percent compared with the […]