Aviation News

Roy LoPresti, never at a loss for innovative designs, has joined Larry Gordon in forming the LoPresti Gordon VTOL (LoGo) company to help develop a pair of vertical takeoff and landing vehicles, the Guardian and the TurboHawk. The Guardian, an “inclined thrust angle aircraft” (ITAAC-“eye tac”), designed to require no configuration change to transition between […]

For 2003 Cirrus Design is upgrading its SR20 to an all-electric airplane. According to Alan Klapmeier, president of Cirrus, the change will eliminate the vacuum pump and put the airplane in a better position to take advantage of advanced avionics. The electrical system is a single alternator (dual alternators are optional), dual battery/dual bus fault-tolerant […]

A 337 breaks up and rains down from 27,000 feet. Amazingly, the right seat passenger lives to tell how it happened.

Early every year the National Aeronautic Association recognizes some of the most memorable flights of the previous year, and 2001 had a number of unusual and exceptional flights to note. Interestingly, two of the flights that made the list for 2001 were made by aircraft without a pilot onboard. The solar-powered AeroVironment Pathfinder I, or […]

The National Aeronautic Association has named as winner of the prestigious Collier Trophy the integrated lift fan propulsion system (ILFPS) that makes possible the short takeoff/vertical landing (STOVL) variant of the Lockheed Martin Joint Strike Fighter (JSF). The STOVL JSF, which will be flown by the United States Marines, is one of a number of […]

A security system that uses biometrics embedded in an identification smart card has begun beta testing at FlightSafety International’s training academy in Vero Beach, Florida. Sponsored by the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) and dubbed the National Air Transportation Security Identification System, the system uses a “SkyGuard” card that contains a 16K computer chip that […]

||| |—|—| | | | The FAA proposed the broadest changes to existing pilot and light plane certification standards in decades, when it published its proposal for the new Light-Sport Pilot and Light-Sport Aircraft rules. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) was published in late January. The public has 90 days to comment on it […]

In a revision of its annual forecast presented shortly after the September 11th attacks, Honeywell says that it foresees a “modest decline” of seven to eight percent in bizjet deliveries in 2002 when compared to 2001. Deliveries are expected to increase again in 2003, rising to the record level of deliveries in 2001. In the […]

||| |—|—| | | | The most unusual introduction at the NBAA gathering in New Orleans, maybe at any NBAA gathering, was made by AeroCopter. The Andover, Massachusetts, company announced the Humming, a unique aircraft that combines jet engines and helicopter aerodynamics to create a new kind of tiltrotor aircraft. A relatively traditionally configured delta-wing […]

||| |—|—| | | | Think driving is cheap? Think again. Runzheimer International, a management consulting firm, added up the costs for several trips of around 500 miles and found that driving, which obviously doesn’t save any time on a trip of that length, doesn’t save money either. Once all the costs were figured (fuel, […]