Aviation News

A pair of industry surveys by engine-makers Honeywell and Rolls-Royce point to continued decline in the turbine rotorcraft market through next year. Long-term outlooks continue to be optimistic, though Honeywell predicts the uptick might not arrive until 2014. The declines in sales are blamed on high inventories and tight credit conditions. One bright spot in […]

At a meeting in Baltimore next month, the FAA will take a fresh look at research dedicated to softening the sonic boom of supersonic aircraft. Supersonic flight over land in the U.S. is not permitted, largely due to the impact of the loud sonic boom associated with it. But several projects delving into supersonic flight […]

CitationAir (nee CitationShares) is now a wholly owned entity of Cessna Aircraft. The manufacturer recently acquired the final 8 percent of the financial interest. The program began in 2000 as a fractional share company, half owned by Cessna and half by TAG Aviation. In the years since, the program has grown and evolved to include […]

To date, the most vehement anti-GA headline to make the Internet rounds was an AP piece headlined “Texas Plane Crash Exposes Gap in US Air Security.” It led with enumerating airline anti-terror measures since 9/11, then opined, “Yet little has been done to guard against attacks with smaller planes.” It quoted an aviation security consultant […]

The AOPA Flight Safety Foundation has released its latest Joseph T. Nall Report on general aviation safety (click here to access the report online). This year’s report covers 2008 accident data, the most recent available for complete analysis. And new for this year, the report now covers helicopters and for-hire GA operations involving aircraft weighing […]

Aspen Avionics has partnered with a pair of third-party shops to earn several supplemental type certificates for helicopter applications. Announced at Heli-Expo in Houston, the STCs include those for installing Aspen EFD1000H flight display systems in Bell 206 and 407 models. As with fixed-wing applications, the EFD1000H replaces the six fundamental mechanical flight instruments with […]

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) has announced plans to partner with Swift Enterprises to switch to lead-free renewable fuel in its fleet of 45 Cessna 172 training aircraft. Swift developed the biofuel that was tested by the FAA Technical Center “with promising results” according to ERAU. The university chose Swift fuel because it has already passed […]

With more than 50 helicopters on display, this year’s Heli-Expo bucked the worldwide recession in its own peculiar way. The rotorcraft industry has always been an economic enigma. It is fragmented into many diverse elements, including: training, corporate transport, emergency medical services (EMS), offshore oil support, electronic newsgathering, law enforcement, and utility (logging, pipeline work, […]

The 68-year-old, 600-hour pilot of a Lancair ES — a 310 hp four-seat composite kitplane that he himself had built — had had an instrument rating for almost seven years. Though he had logged 176 hours of simulated instrument time, however, he had spent only four hours in actual instrument conditions. On an August morning […]

At its Annual Industry Review and Market Outlook Briefing on Tuesday, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association delivered expected bad news about last year. It was awful. “One of the toughest years ever for general aviation manufacturers,” according to a GAMA statement. Overall industry billings dropped 21.4 percent to $19.5 billion from $24.8 billion in 2008 […]