Commercial Transport

A FLYING reader wonders if they should take the step, and finds out why taking it would give benefits they hadn’t thought of.

First flown on December 17, 1935, the Douglas DC-3, an iteration of the DC-1 and DC-2, married reliability with performance and comfort in a way no other airplane had before. So much greater than the sum of its parts, an apt description for an airplane that has earned the right to be called “timeless” more […]

Virgin Galactic (NYSE:SPCE) became the first space tourism company to be publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange Monday, October 28, following the completion of a merger with holding company Social Capital Hedosophia (SCH). The total SCH investment of $800 million adds to the $1 billion already invested in Virgin Galactic since it was […]

One of the most prolific aircraft types to ever fly for American Airlines, the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 series, reached the end of the line on September 4 when the carrier sent the last of its fleet on a major “sendoff” that saw 26 of what many call the “Mad Dog” on their last flights to […]

The instrument rating requirement for commercial pilots created a hullabaloo in Juneau, Alaska, that was just an early episode in the ongoing dialog about the qualifications a commercial pilot should have. For the commercial seaplane pilots in the area, it was unhappy times. The FAA had just mandated that all commercial pilots must have an […]

The European Union at long last has approved commercial operations using single-engine turbine airplanes at night or in instrument meteorological conditions in Europe. The operations take effect today with publication in the EU’s Official Journal. The publication of the new rules marks the the culmination of a 20-year effort by industry and regulators as Europe […]

What supports the manufacturing world of “just-in-time” inventory? Who do you call when you’ve absolutely got to have “it” the next day? Cargo airlines. And what makes the air-cargo industry go? Pilots — lots of them! Best of all, cargo operations are hiring. If you’re a freight pilot, your next route could be an exotic […]

Our crew began to assemble in the lobby of the Barcelona hotel. Outside on the street, pilots and flight attendants from the arriving flight collected their bags from behind the jitney bus that had driven them from the airport. They shuffled into the hotel. One of the arriving flight attendants murmured something about the electronic […]

At first glance, my schedule for the month of January indicated that I was to give a line check for the captain named on a particular date. I was wrong. The named captain was actually the one giving me the line check. I had forgotten that my check airman requirement was every 12 months as […]

When US Airways Flight 1549 splashed down on the Hudson River in January, Captain Chesley Sullenberger and Copilot Jeffrey Skiles became instant celebrities. They attended President Obama’s inauguration, made the rounds of television talk shows, and continue to be a huge draw as motivational speakers. But their best audience was probably the overflow crowds who […]