On 14 October 1947, US test pilot Chuck Yeager did what many thought was impossible. Strapped into the seat of the Bell X1 rocket plane – painfully so, having broken two ribs a few days before in a horse-riding accident – Yeager became the first man to fly faster than the speed of sound. While Yeager’s name may be the one celebrated in the record books, there were other pilots...
The municipality of Kaunas decided on May 3rd to provide 500,000 euros to the low-cost airline Wizz Air to help it operate more flights from Lithuania's second-biggest city, reports LETA/BNS. The city expects that this will help attract more tourists. Wizz Air asked the city to co-fund four new flights from Kaunas Airport, with plans to fly to the Dutch city of Eindhoven and the Nor...
Norway’s SHT air accident investigation board is to resume its search for missing components from the Airbus Helicopters H225 which crashed near Bergen on 29 April. In a statement, SHT says the main focus of its search will be “for parts connected to the main gearbox”, and that this will “continue as long as required”. Preliminary information contained in an eme...
This year has seen Starspeed operate in its 60thcountry: Something that 40 years ago would have seemed impossible. When Starspeed started in the VIP helicopter management and charter business in 1978, the privately owned aircraft were mainly small, single-engined helicopters. They were used only in good weather, within a locally defined area of operations, for short hops as an alternative...
GainJet Aviation has added a new long range executive jet to its fleet, adding a third Bombardier Challenger aircraft, a CL605. The aircraft, registration SX-SHC, was delivered on 15 April 2016, and it is available for charter based between Amman, Jordan and Athens, Greece. The CL605 can carry 12 passengers. The cabin features four individual VIP seats, a club-four dining seating area, and a fo...
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has completed the first deployment of the AeroVironment RQ-20A Puma AE unmanned air vehicle to the Antarctic, where it supported a US Coast Guard resupply mission. It operated onboard the US Coast Guard icebreaker Polar Star in support of the annual operation Deep Freeze deployment, taking on the role of manned helicopters in providing...
Air Serbia will build on Belgrade’s position as a strategic gateway to the United States as it expands its route network across the Balkans and the Atlantic this year. The airline, part-owned by Etihad Airways, on Wednesday reported a 44 per cent jump in its net profit for 2015 to €3.9 million (Dh16.4m) compared with €2.7m a year earlier. “Last year, we c...
VistaJet, the global leader in business aviation, today reached an important milestone in its history when it welcomed its 100th ever aircraft to its fleet. The company has invested billions in jets in the past decade, growing its fleet from just 5 jets in 2006 to over 60 today, with a market value of more than $1.8bn. The company has come a long way in the past decade. In 2006, VistaJet travel...
The Chinese government is setting up a plan that will open up further low-level airspace for business and general aviation. The move follows a meeting of the State Council of The People’s Republic of China that was presided over by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang on May 4. In a statement issued on the Council’s English website, the government agreed to open up more low-altitude airspa...
The first European LPV-200 IFR approach was implemented at Charles de Gaulle Airport’s Runway 26L on Tuesday, following publication of the procedure on April 28. The new approach mirrors Cat I ILS approach minimums, including a 200-foot decision height, and it is supported by the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (Egnos), Europe’s satellite-base...
Comlux America, the Comlux Group’s completion and service center in Indianapolis, christened its newly enlarged completion hangar late last week. The project expanded the hangar size to 157,000 sq ft from 128,000 sq ft, allowing the building to house one widebody and up to four single-aisle bizliners simultaneously. Comlux America’s first widebody completion, an&...
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has announced global passenger traffic results for March showing that demand (measured in revenue passenger kilometers, or RPKs) rose 5.3%, compared to the same month last year, with African airlines continuing to enjoy strong demand, with traffic up 11.2%. Capacity grew slightly faster at 5.9% which pushed the average load factor down by half...
