New Airplanes

After a fitful production start for the A5 light-sport aircraft, Icon Aircraft has regrouped. The company has built a composite factory in Mexico to “improve and control the manufacturing process while simultaneously reducing cost,” says Icon’s founder and CEO, Kirk Hawkins. While the new Tijuana-based composite shop is getting up and running, Icon has opened […]

Last week, the four-seat Stratos 714 jet took to the skies for the first time from the company’s headquarters at the Roberts Field Airport in Redmond, Oregon. The plan for the flight, which lasted only 10 minutes, was to evaluate the general stability and systems operation of the single-engine jet. Test pilot Dave Morss was […]

Designed to fit between its entry-level jets and behemoth bizliners, Embaer’s Legacy 450 has changed the midsize jet game with superb speed and range and fly-by-wire controls. Flying recently had the chance to fly and review the Legacy 450 near Embraer’s production facility in Melbourne, Florida. See some of what gives the Legacy 450 a […]

A decade ago, some people scoffed when Embraer announced its intention to create a complete line of business airplanes, from entry-level jets to behemoth bizliners, especially when the sum total of the company’s bizav experience to that point had been creating the Legacy 600 from the ERJ-135 regional jet. But once the Phenom series of […]

The two-hour and 27-minute maiden flight of Canadian aircraft builder Bombardier’s new Global 7000 went off on Monday without a hitch. The first of the Global 7000 test aircraft departed Bombardier’s Toronto test facility with two pilots and one test engineer and allowed ample time for the crew to evaluate the airplane’s flight controls and […]

Bombardier is busy making preparations for the first flight of its Global 7000 ultra-long-range business jet, which is expected to be completed by year’s end. The manufacturer is wrapping up ground taxi tests on a completed test airplane at its factory complex in Toronto, where initial flight tests will be made. The engines and APU […]

At a press conference at the National Business Aviation Association’s Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida, Gulfstream announced its G500 and G600 are on track to enter the market ahead of schedule, a rare feat in the quest for certification of technologically advanced business jets. With […]

If you plan to visit NBAA’s Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition on Wednesday, make sure to stop by the Pilatus display at the Orlando Executive Airport. The company is bringing in its “super versatile” PC-24 for the day, the first public display of the twinjet in the U.S. Much testing has been accomplished around the […]

Cirrus Aircraft’s long journey to certification of the industry’s first single-engine personal jet culminated with FAA type approval of the SF50 Vision Jet nearly 10 years after the program’s launch. The FAA ceremoniously presented the type certificate for the SF50 to senior Cirrus executives at the NBAA Convention in Orlando, Florida, yesterday as the company […]

Flying magazine’s Pia Bergqvist recently had the chance to fly the GB1 GameBird, a new two-seat aerobatic airplane from Game Composites. With some help from freestyle world aerobatic champion Rob Holland, we put the GameBird’s performance capabilities to the test — and we weren’t disappointed. Check out some photos from our test flight at AirVenture […]