Aviation News

According to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association first quarter tally, deliveries of new piston aircraft were off by about 28 percent compared with Q1 numbers from last year. Manufacturers delivered only 399 piston-powered aircraft in the first three months of this year, compared with 544 in last year’s first quarter. Cirrus’ numbers were down by […]

“It’s a one-G maneuver. It’s absolutely nonhazardous, but it’s very impressive.” So Tex Johnson explained himself to Boeing president Bill Allen after performing an impromptu barrel-roll in the 707 prototype before a Seattle gathering of IATA bigwigs. Equally impressive, but more subtle, was Bob Hoover’s demonstration, watchable on YouTube, that he could smoothly pour water […]

Either it’s really early for next winter, or really late for last winter, but the FAA has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking that would disallow pilots from taking off with so-called “polished frost” on their aircraft’s wings. Part of the reason is the ambiguity of when frost can be considered smooth enough to be […]

The National Aeronautical Association (NAA) awarded the 2007 Robert J. Collier Trophy not to an airplane, company or individual, but to a technology, automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast, or ADS-B. The NAA also recognized a number of companies and organizations, private, nonprofit and governmental, for their part in the development of ADS-B. Even if you don’t know […]

The U.S. Army has ordered three new Twin Otters from Viking Air Limited, the Canadian company that is putting the venerable de Havilland twin turboprop back into production. The Army will use the high-wing Twin Otters as jump planes for its Golden Knights parachute team. The Army orders bring the total to more than 40 […]

Diamond recently announced that it would upgrade the Williams FJ33 turbofan on its single-engine D-Jet to a more powerful version on all of its production airplanes. The new powerplant, a 1,900 lb thrust Williams FJ-33-4A-19, will replace the 1,564 lb thrust Dash-15 variant. Several factors drove the decision to make the switch, says Diamond, but […]

The first prototype of Cessna’s light sport aircraft entry, the model 162 SkyCatcher, made its inaugural flight recently from Cessna’s R&D facility in Wichita. Cessna test pilot Dale Bleakney was at the controls for the one-hour flight, during which he checked out the airplane’s basic controllability and stability. Cessna planned to continue development flight testing […]

Embraer’s entry into the light jet market took a giant leap forward last week with the first flight of the company’s Phenom 300. The first flight was reportedly at least two months ahead of schedule, and the computerized design format is credited with the advanced stages of the program. Three more test articles are planned […]

While most eyes are on smaller and smaller jets, Cessna has taken a leap forward with its CJ program. The first CJ4, the largest of the series at eight seats, took place last week from Cessna’a Pawnee engineering facility adjacent to McConnell Air Force Base outside Wichita, Kansas. The two hour, 22-minute flight incorporated some […]

Littleton, Colorado-based JETTECH, which has developed reduced vertical separations minimums (RVSM) solutions for early Citations and Cheyenne turboprops, has a new product. Teaming with Sandel, JETTECH is now offering glass cockpit capability to operators of those aircraft. The core of the system is Sandel’s SA 4550 LED primary attitude unit working with the SA 4500 […]