FAA administrator Michael Huerta said the mandatory registration process for recreational unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has proceeded smoothly, with 181,000 registrations completed so far. The number of registrations represents owners of UAVs weighing between .55 lbs. and 55 lbs.; an owner can register multiple vehicles using the same number. FAA launched a registration website Dec. 21. &l...
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...
The new Aviation and Science Museum is located in Yeşilköy district, south-west of Istanbul in the same area where Ataturk International Airport is located and where the old aviation museum reside. An area where no horizontal boundaries could be found, only vertical boundaries (strict ones posed by air-traffic control from the nearby airport) and an ill-defined site that expands in all direct...
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...
Air Culinaire Worldwide acquired SkyTop Aircraft Catering at Westchester County Airport in White Plains, N.Y., the business aircraft caterer announced yesterday. The move brings the number of Air Culinaire kitchens to 21—all but four located in the U.S.—and increases its capacity and coverage in the New York/New Jersey area. As part of the acquisition, Air Culinaire Worldwide h...
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...
He allegedly pointed a green laser at least four times -- three cases from outside, plus once through an apartment window -- at a TV news helicopter racing to the scene of a New Jersey fire. And because of that, Stiven Lopez-Bender now faces the prospect of five years in federal prison. Authorities arrested the 26-year-old on Thursday, a day after a criminal complaint was filed accusing him...
You've probably never thought too much about how to quickly transport a 10-tonne plane engine, but Qantas has the answer. Just strap it to the wing of a Boeing 747. Qantas Flight 63 took off from Sydney with an extra Rolls Royce turbofan attached to the left wing between an inner engine and the plane's body. The engine was not powered; it just came along for the ride to Johannesburg,...
Malaysia Airlines will retire and sell B777-200 planes from its fleet after axing loss-making Amsterdam and Paris routes and partnering Emirates for European destinations, Malaysia Airlines says in e-mail to Bloomberg News. * Some of these planes are 20 years old * Mutual separation scheme offered to pilots of this aircraft on case-by-case basis; 40% of B777 pilots requested for separat...
Associated Air Center , through its in-house Organization Designation Authorization delegation, has obtained a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) for the installation of a Controller-Pilot Data Link Communication (CPDLC) System — as part of the requirements for Future Air Navigation System (FANS) — on a Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) VIP ...
Boeing delivered 762 commercial airplanes in 2015, 39 more than the previous year and most ever for the company as it enters its centennial year. “The Boeing team has worked hard to achieve strong performance,” said Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO Ray Conner. “Our team did a fantastic job achieving higher deliveries and getting our products to our custo...
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) proposes a $417,500 civil penalty against FedEx of Memphis, Tenn., for allegedly operating an aircraft that was not in compliance with Federal Aviation Regulations. The FAA alleges that FedEx failed to rebalance a horizontal stabilizer tab control surface on the Boeing 727 after repainting the pa...
