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United States aviation news

University of New Mexico Hospital launches service with Agusta 119Kx Koala

The University of New Mexico Hospital has launched a new helicopter initiative as part of its Lifeguard Emergency Services division. The initiative that starts on 10 May will involve its newest emergency medical transport aircraft a specially equipped Agusta 119Kx Koala helicopter. The helicopter is owned by SevenBar Aviation and is equipped with medivac and crisis equipment including blood res...

Celebrity-backed US jet charter company BlackJet ceases trading

BlackJet the Florida-headquartered private jet charter service backed by celebrities including Jay-Z and Ashton Kutcher has closed its doors. In an email sent to members of the service that was that was also backed by Uber co-founder and chairman Garrett Camp chief executive of the company Dean Rotchin said that “bad press” had “stunted membership sales”. Rotchin said th...

Delta Air Lines Flight Makes Emergency Landing After Engine Cover Falls Off

Part of the flying experience is peering out the window to get a peek at the clouds, blue sky, and whatever city you may be traveling above. One thing you don’t want to see while gazing at the heavens? Something wrong with the engine. The Tennessean reports that a Delta flight headed from Atlanta to Chicago had to make an emergency landing in Nashville on Sunday after encountering turbule...

Flight delayed over equation suspicion

An Ivy League professor said his flight was delayed because a fellow passenger thought the math equations he was writing could point to him being a terrorist. American Airlines confirms that the woman expressed suspicions about University of Pennsylvania economics professor Guido Menzio. She said she was too ill to take the Air Wisconsin-operated flight. Menzio said he was flying from Philad...

Airbus sets sights on the stratosphere with glider flight

The flight aims to test how well an aircraft and its crew can fare in conditions similar to those on Mars, with thin atmosphere and cold temperatures. Airbus completed a test flight Saturday of a glider set to eventually travel to the edge of space, in a pioneering step into the stratosphere. The Perlan 2’s flight, from an airstrip in the western US state of Nevada, took place two hour...

Boeing reveals it got $305 million in tax breaks last year—a lot more than everyone thought

Washington state legislatures gave Boeing Co. $8.7 billion in tax incentives extensions back in 2013. This was followed by Boeing jobs continuing to decline as the company cut costs and moved jobs out of state, infuriating unions and workers. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers District 751 (IAM 751), the “touch labor” union in the Seattle area for Boei...

NASA pours $67 million into solar electric spacecraft engines

It wants super-efficient power for missions headed to asteroids and Mars. In an effort to design more efficient spacecraft engines, NASA granted rocket manufacturer Aerojet Rocketdyne a three-year contract to develop advanced “solar electric propulsion” engines that could assist in deep space travel. The engines have the potential to be ten times more efficient than chemical engines...

NOAA deploys Puma AE on Antarctic mission for the first time

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...

Comlux America Expands Hangar, Adds Widebody Capability

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&...

Triumph Gear Systems receives award from Sikorsky

Triumph Group subsidiary Triumph Gear Systems has received the 2015 Lockheed Martin Mission Systems and Training Supplier of the Year from helicopter manufacturer Sikorsky. Thomas Holzthum, executive vice-president for integrated systems, said: “We are very pleased to receive this distinguished award, which is a testament to the manufacturing expertise, valued-added solutions and exceptio...

Bell Helicopter mates fuselage and wings of first V-280

Bell Helicopter has joined the fuselage to the tilting wings and fixed nacelles of the V-280 Valor more than a year in advanced of a scheduled fly-off for the US Army. “This is a major milestone,” says Lisa Atherton, Bell’s executive vice-president for military business development. For the next year, Bell’s development will concentrate on the fly-by-wire flight contr...

Aerospace worlds collide: Seattle designers create showcase for … Airbus?

Captain Kirk from the original “Star Trek” is celebrating Star Wars Day today, so maybe it shouldn’t be so surprising that a Seattle-based branding and design firm helped create the Airbus Group’s state-of-the-art Experience Center in the nation’s capital. Hornall Anderson is behind the look of the exhibit space, which takes up about half of the 20,000-square-foot...