Aviation News

After 28 flights, stage one of testing is complete for the Terrafugia ‘Transition’ roadable airplane. Woburn, Massachusetts-based Terrafugia (Latin for ‘escape from land’) now moves on to the Beta Prototype testing stage, with a second airframe to be developed based on lessons learned from the POC vehicle. First flight was March 5. First deliveries of […]

Piper announced that Jim Bass, who has led Piper to surprisingly good performance over the past four years as president and CEO, has resigned that position. Bass said that the move was a culmination of his turning the company around, preparing it for its sale last month to Imprimis. During his tenure, Piper revamped its […]

Most East Coast pilots are more familiar with flight restrictions involving Presidential travel, but a half dozen Los Angeles-area pilots will now become a lot more aware. The six were observed within Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) airspace during President Obama’s visit to L.A. two weeks ago, and directed by air traffic controllers to leave. The […]

Bell Helicopter reports it needs only software approval to notch Canadian type certification for its new Model 429. The light twin rotorcraft has completed all component trials in more than 1,800 hours of flight test involving five aircraft. Approval from Transport Canada is expected by the end of this month, with U.S. FAA approval following […]

On June 1 Bonnier Corporation purchased Flying magazine and four other titles from Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. The writers, editors and staff of Flying were all transferred to the new company so all of the familiar names and columns will continue. Bonnier is a huge media company based in Sweden. Over the past few years […]

Cirrus announced this week it is increasing production rates to eight aircraft per week and rehiring 50 furloughed employees. The production rate increase is the second in a month and a half at Cirrus, with the rate now double what it was at its low point of four aircraft per week. The ramp-up is attributed […]

There were no voice communications related to the crash of Air France Flight 447 last Sunday evening. But a spurt of telemetry data received from the four-year-old Airbus A330 indicated at least a dozen system failures, including loss of electrical power and pressurization. All 216 passengers (from as many as 32 different countries) and 12 […]

Last Friday, the Transportation Security Administration enacted a new security directive, SD-8G. The new measure replaced one that was much more restrictive, and would have required transient pilots to undergo separate background checks and acquire security badges for every airport they might visit that also has commercial airline service. (Estimates place the number of such […]

In June 2006 a Beech B36TC Bonanza, fresh out of annual inspection, lost power while cruising at 5,000 feet on the way from Kalamazoo to Ypsilanti, Michigan. Although conditions were day VMC, the 950-hour pilot had filed an IFR flight plan. He advised the controller of the situation and asked for a vector to the […]

Former FAA Administrator Jane Garvey will head a panel of three mediators in an attempt to end a long-running contract dispute between the FAA and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA). The sessions began last week and are expected to run through the first part of next month. Both feuding parties signed a process […]