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Oshkosh is the place to see and hear about new airplanes, many of which propose to revolutionize a category, or even create a new category of aircraft. The fact that virtually none succeed doesn’t seem to dampen the enthusiasm of pilots, developers or investors. I have often said, and firmly believe, that to stay alive […]

Location, as any real estate agent will tell you, is everything. For years, I’d watched the warbird formations fly over the field at Oshkosh without any great sense of awe. That’s not to say it wasn’t cool to see diamond after diamond of T-6, T-28 or T-34 trainers fly overhead. But the sight never made […]

Imagine an airplane — or house or car or spouse, for that matter — that you have loved for decades but over those years you have wished for some changes and improvements in key areas. The Hawker line of business jets has been admired by legions of pilots and passengers for more than 40 years, […]

By now you have no doubt read that the big cabin, ultra-long-range Falcon 7X uses fly-by-wire technology to connect the human pilot to the flight controls, a first for business jets. Falcon insists on calling this a digital flight control system (DFCS) because all of the computers are digital, not analog, but to a pilot […]

The Beech Super King Air 350 has been a special airplane since its inception with its enormous useful load, big cabin and certification in the tougher commuter category. But the new ER (extended range) version is truly designed to fly a unique mission profile. Bottom line, the 350ER has a maximum takeoff weight of 16,500 […]

The first thing that hits me is the silence. As Jacques Brun and his D140 Mousquetaire II disappear into the distance, it is suddenly very, very quiet. I look around. Then the full craziness and impact of my predicament hit me. And I start to feel very, very small. Five minutes ago, I was happily […]

It’s a lot like the early days of the Volkswagen. In the late ’50s when you drove a VW Beetle and you saw another one on the road, you tooted, flashed your lights and waved. There just weren’t that many on the highways so a sighting was an occurrence. Today, when I’m flying and I […]

It was late fall. An unusual weather system had impacted the New York area. The system brought with it some scattered convective activity and high winds blowing almost directly from the east. The disturbed air was a turbulent nightmare. Our 727 was being battered as though it was a rowboat that had been set adrift […]