Swedish rescue teams were working to recover the bodies of two people presumed dead after a plane carrying mail crashed in northern Sweden early on Friday, officials said. The plane, a model Canadair CRJ-200, sent out a mayday and was later spotted on the ground by a Norwegian F16 plane. The plane was on its way from Oslo's main airport to Tromso in Norway, according to Swedish daily Sve...
Two highly-anticipated newcomers to the light business jet segment entered service in December, allowing their developers to hand over aircraft by the end of 2015 and prepare to exploit the anticipated rebound in the sector over the next 12 months. Honda Aircraft began deliveries of its HondaJet to undisclosed private owners on 23 December – two weeks after securing certification for the...
France has ordered six additional NHIndustries NH90 troop transport helicopters for its army, increasing the service’s eventual inventory to 74. Deliveries of the 11t-class rotorcraft are due to take place between 2017 and 2019. “The French armed forces have deployed the NH90 operationally in Mali where its outstanding endurance, versatility and manoeuvrability have been greatly...
Operators of Bell 429 helicopters have been instructed to conduct urgent inspections of a tail rotor component after an investigation revealed a potentially dangerous manufacturing defect. In an emergency airworthiness directive (EAD) effective from 19 January, certification agency Transport Canada warns that corrosion on the part could lead to its failure and subsequent loss of control of the...
Brazil's Azul has taken delivery of its final current generation Embraer E-Jet, with a E195 painted in a special livery commemorating its partnership with live TV provider SKY. The aircraft, registration PR-AUQ, entered revenue service today. Azul is the world's largest operator of the E190 and E195 family, with 88 aircraft in service. The airline's next E-Jet d...
Finmeccanica Helicopters (formerly AgustaWestland) is studying ways to enhance main gearbox performance in case of loss of lubrication. At the EASA rotorcraft symposium in December, Marco Tamborini, one of the company's experts in transmission system design and development, gave details on Finmeccanica's strategy in gearbox durability. Unless the possibility of such a failure is extreme...
NBAA is holding its annual Business Aircraft Finance, Registration & Legal Conference next month in Boca Raton, Fla. The agenda for the conference, which will be held from February 10 to 12, features speakers who are experts in aviation finance, aircraft utilization options, regulatory topics, tax planning and risk management. Among the new topics this year are an analysis of emerging busin...
Embraer has delivered the first European registered Legacy 450 private jet. Registered in Belgium as OO-NEY / MSN 55010003, the aircraft was delivered to its new owner over the Christmas period. Although the final customer is unconfirmed, the aircraft will be managed by Brussels based Smart Air, and operated by Air Service Liege. “Being driven by innovation for more than 25 years helps...
Chinese drone maker Ehang Inc. on Wednesday unveiled what it calls the world's first drone capable of carrying a human passenger. The Guangzhou, China-based company pulled the cloth off the Ehang 184 at the Las Vegas Convention Center during the CES gadget show. In a company video showing it flying, it looks like a small helicopter but with four doubled propellers spinning parallel to the g...
For every cheap flying robot, there is an elaborate, expensive system to counter it. The latest anti-drone tool comes from European aerospace and defense giant Airbus, and promises a high-tech solution to small flying robots. They’re showing off the system at the Consumer Electronics Exposition in Las Vegas, though no word yet on if they’ve caused any nearby drones to crash. From Ai...
Two families whose Air Canada flight declared an emergency on the way to Arizona say they are frustrated in trying to deal with the airline afterwards. Lisa Zayac and her husband thought they were going to die, and said good-bye through oxygen masks. George Papp wondered whether the Airbus 319 would break up. And while the aircraft landed smoothly and safely in Albuquerque in the D...
André Turcat, who has died aged 94, was the chief test pilot for the Concorde programme and was at the controls of the supersonic airliner on its first flight; a few weeks later he took the jet through the sound barrier for the first time. The idea of a supersonic transport (SST) was first conceived in the late 1950s and led to an Anglo-French agreement to develop an airliner – Con...
