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No drone zone around Washington DC grows

The Federal Aviation Administration's no drone zone around the nation's capital has grown. The FAA warned this summer that unmanned aircraft, such as drones and model aircraft, were prohibited within 15 miles of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, just south of Washington. But its online guidance now says they're banned from Washington's special flight rules area, a ring...

A look at facts, lingering questions in Alaska plane crash

Days after a deadly plane crash in the heart of Alaska's largest city, there are lingering questions regarding what caused the pilot to fly into two office buildings, including one where his wife works. The FBI is leading the investigation into the Tuesday morning wreck that killed 42-year-old pilot Doug Demarest, but has released little information. It declined to comment on any possible l...

EasyJet investigated by Italian aviation authorities after plane landed on wrong runway at Pisa airport

Italian aviation authorities have launched an investigation after an easyJet flight landed on the wrong runway at the airport in Pisa. Flight EZY1847 from Manchester landed on a closed runway that is used for passenger jets taxiing to or from the adjacent airstrip. The Airbus A319-100 was given permission to land on runway 04L but touched down on runway 04R instead. EasyJet said the s...

China rejects Vietnam protest over sea flight test

China rejected a protest from Vietnam over a flight test it has conducted on a new airstrip on a man-made island in the South China Sea, saying it is part of China's territory. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said Saturday it conducted a civil flight test on the newly built airstrip on Fiery Cross Reef in the Spratly Islands, a chain of islets rich in natural resources that are the focal point...

Special missions Gulfstream 550s for the RAAF?

L-3 Communications will modify an unspecified number of Gulfstream G550 aircraft for Australia under a US$93.6 million foreign military sales deal announced by the US Department of Defense on December 28. “L-3 Communications Mission Integration, Greenville, Texas, has been awarded a $93,632,287 firm fixed-price undefinitised contract action task order (1648) for Australia Government...

Lawsuit Blames Sikorsky, Other Contractors, for Death of Sailors in 2014 Sea Dragon Helicopter Crash

The widows of three sailors killed in a Navy helicopter crash two years ago off the coast of Virginia are suing the manufacturer, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp., and several other companies that produced components for the MH-53E Sea Dragon. The lawsuit filed in federal court alleges that Sikorsky and the other defendants, including General Electric, designed and manufactured an unsafe helicopter and...

Air France staff threaten January strike action

UGICT-CGT, the largest of the two unions, has called for a strike on January 28 to protest the job cuts as well as the legal action taken against five employees involved in an October 5 attack on Air France officials after the airline presented its restructuring plan. The union is also protesting the airline’s plans to spin off some of its operations. “In 2016 we’re lett...

Airbus beats own target to deliver record jetliners last year

Airbus Group SE managed to beat a company target for deliveries last year by churning out almost twice the average monthly number in December, people familiar with the achievement said. The European plane maker reached a total of about 635 and handed over 79 units in the last month of the year alone, said the people. Airbus shipped 629 planes in 2014. Airbus spokesman Stefan Schaffrath decli...

Adventurer Tracey Curtis-Taylor's England-to-Australia solo flight a homage to aviation pioneer Amy Johnson

Flying long distances solo in a bi-plane is daunting enough in modern times; to have done it in the 1930s is bordering on superhuman. PHOTO: English aviation pioneer Amy Johnson, pictured two years before her death in 1941. (Supplied: Rex/Shutterstock) Canada-based British adventurer Tracey Curtis-Taylor has some idea what aviation pioneer Amy Johnson went through to become the first fem...

7 best aviation apps

Whether it is shuttling between different time zones or bearing the responsibility of so many lives while flying, everything about a pilot’s life is tough. Thank goodness for smartphones and apps as the right app can make life simpler and easier for them. Numerous companies have been working on apps that cater specifically to pilots and aviator? We have made a list of few that we found to...

Heathrow Airport celebrates 70th anniversary in 2016

Heathrow was originally built for military purposes during the Second World War and was handed over by the Air Ministry to the Minister of Civil Aviation on January 1st, 1946 Today marks 70 years since Heathrow officially became a commercial airport. Over the course of 2016, Heathrow will be celebrating a number of key moments with colleagues, passengers and the local community to mark this...

Hong Kong airport boosts capacity

Hong Kong International Airport (HKIA)’s HK$10-billion Midfield Concourse (MFC), as well as its auxiliary facilities including the aviation fuel supply system and the Automated People Mover connecting Terminal 1 and the MFC, were completed on schedule.  Construction of the 105,000-square-metre five-storey new concourse began in 2011. Located to the west of Terminal 1 and between the...

So You Got A Drone For The Holidays! Now What?

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) recently released new regulations governing the use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). Yes that’s right, that drone you just unwrapped is an aircraft! And as a drone owner, you are now faced with the prospect of operating your drone within these new regulations. The unique thing about drones is that the possibilities are endless, with many...

Etihad to appeal German court ruling

Etihad Airways said it would appeal against a German court ruling to stop it selling tickets on some routes operated by airberlin. The court said yesterday that Etihad would not be able to operate codeshares on some flights from January 16 to the end of its winter schedule in March next year because they were not supported by the agreement between the UAE and Germany on traffic rights. A cod...

British man arrested at Amsterdam airport after 'making bomb threat'

A 29-year-old British man was arrested at gunpoint at an Amsterdam airport after making bomb threats, according to Dutch police. The man, who has not been identified, was overheard shouting the threats at Schiphol Airport on Friday morning, a police spokesman said, causing panic among fellow passengers. He was immediately arrested and a photograph posted online appered to show him lying face...

Epic end to 2015 as E1000 turboprop takes flight

Bend, Oregon-based Epic Aircraft is ending 2015 on a high note after the maiden flight of its first conforming Epic E1000 fight test aircraft. The single-engine turboprop dubbed FT1 launched from Bend Municipal Airport on 19 December. The achievement gives lift to the project that started in 2012, when Epic chief executive Doug King filed an application to certificate an updated, FAA-certifi...

Forecasts 2016: What's on approach for the year ahead?

1 Will Cirrus Vision SF50’s entry into service kick off a personal jet craze? In a word, no – the personal jet frenzy has been and gone. The idea of a small, fast, low-cost and versatile jet was compelling in the heady boom years of 2007-8, when sales and deliveries of turboprops, pistons and lower-end business jets hit record levels and the appetite for private flying – be it...

Orders down but Airbus and Boeing set output record

A late flurry of deals has boosted Boeing's 2015 book-to-bill ratio to one as the US manufacturer and its rival Airbus look set to record around 2,000 net orders between them for the full year. While the forecast sales tally is significantly behind 2014's 2,888 net orders, Airbus and Boeing are poised to report a new combined industry output record of 1,400 airliners for 2015. This woul...

Torqued: Higher Ed Needs To Address Looming Pilot and Mechanic Shortage

by John Goglia I don’t know how much more dire the predictions about pilot and mechanic shortages need to get before action is taken. Reading Boeing’s annual pilot and maintenance technician forecasts tells me the alarm bells are ringing, but no one seems to be listening. And Boeing’s 2015 forecasts once again predict an unprecedented demand for personnel to fly and maintain t...

Etihad’s Indian partner jumps as fuel drops to five-year low

Jet Airways India Ltd, Etihad Airways PJSC’s partner, paced a rally in Indian airline stocks after the region’s costliest fuel prices were cut to the lowest in five years. Jet Airways, majority owned by Naresh Goyal, climbed 8.2 per cent to its highest since January 2011, making it the best performing share on the Bloomberg Intelligence Global Airlines Valuation Peers Index in the p...

Airbus said to win All Nippon as buyer of A380 Superjumbos

Airbus Group SE won an agreement from ANA Holdings Inc, Japan’s largest airline, to buy three of its A380 superjumbos, said a person familiar with the plan, giving the European plane maker a welcome vote of confidence for an aircraft that hadn’t won a new airline customer in three years. The parent of All Nippon Airways Co will take delivery of the planes from 2018, with plans to us...