Turboprops

Embraer is moving ahead with plans to build A-29 Super Tucano light attack airplanes in Florida after the Air Force rejected Beechcraft’s latest protest of the contract award. Embraer announced that it has signed a 10-year lease on a 40,000-square-foot hangar in Jacksonville, where the A-29 Super Tucanos for the U.S. Air Force Light Air […]

After losing out twice before, Beechcraft is again protesting the U.S. Air Force’s decision to award a contract for light attack airplanes for the Afghan military to Brazil’s Embraer. Embraer and its U.S.-based partner, Sierra Nevada, won a $427 million deal on February 27 to supply 20 Super Tucano turboprops to be used in Afghanistan […]

In a closely watched rematch, Embraer on Wednesday won a U.S. Air Force contract to supply 20 of its A-29 Super Tucano light attack airplanes for counterinsurgency missions in Afghanistan. The Brazilian company beat out Beechcraft — again — for the $428 million deal after the Air Force agreed to review the original contract awarded […]

Daher-Socata has unveiled the 2013 version of the TBM 850 Elite featuring an all-glass avionics panel. The L-3 Avionics Trilogy ESI-2000 solid-state electronic standby instrument will now provide backup flight information for the Garmin G1000 integrated avionics system that graces the TBM 850 cockpit. The ESI-2000’s 3.7-inch liquid crystal display replaces the three traditional round-gauge […]

You may think an airplane as complex as the Evolution doesn’t belong in the amateur-built world. But for a company like Redmond, Oregon-based Lancair International, which has decades of experience producing complex airplane kits, the concept makes total sense. With the Evolution, Lancair has incorporated Part 23 certification procedures into its successful kit business to […]

Considering that kit airplanes often take many years to complete, if they ever do take to the skies, it is difficult to imagine that builders of an airplane as sophisticated as the Evolution can meet the 51 percent rule in a matter of months. What makes this possible is the simplicity of composite construction and […]

Kevin McCullough’s grandfather, who started a Commander service center called Aero Air in 1956, used to say: “God never made a low-wing bird.” So when McCullough was old enough to start flying, there wasn’t much choice. “I learned to fly in a Lark Commander, got my multiengine rating in a Shrike Commander and then went […]

Ikhana Aircraft Services has kicked off a new program at the French Valley Airport (F70) in Murrieta, California, that focuses on a complete refurbishment of the de Havilland DHC-6 Twin Otter. Named the Ikhana Twin Otter X2, the program strips the aging airframes and brings them a new life with a life limit of 66,000 […]

Kestrel Aircraft President and CEO Alan Klapmeier gave an update on the development of the company’s single-engine turboprop this week at the NBAA Convention. The new design is significantly different from the Farnborough Aircraft-designed prototype Kestrel that first flew in 2006. “The changes are really driven by what we think the customers expect,” Klapmeier said. […]

Still stinging from the collapse of its buyout deal with Superior Aviation Beijing, Hawker Beechcraft used the stage at the NBAA Convention to focus on the future — and in particular the company’s plans to introduce four new turboprop and piston models in the next five years while also exiting the business jet market. Plans […]