On The Fly…

A Boeing 777 with wheel pants? NASA recently fitted an All Nippon Airways 777 with a “toboggan-shaped fairing” aimed at reducing wind noise when the plane is landing. Along with devices added to engine nacelles and nozzles, the researchers were able to measurably reduce the interior and “community” noise of the stock airliner…

A pilot was killed after two helicopters collided near a helipad at Miami-Homestead Speedway in Florida. One chopper was taking off and the other landing when the accident occurred. The aircraft were being used to shuttle drivers from the track after a race…

Two occupants of a homebuilt tried to parachute from the stricken aircraft last week but they were too low for the chutes to deploy. Media reports suggest the engine on the Legend failed after takeoff and it crashed off the end of the runway at La Cholla Airpark, near Tucson. Both men died…

The oldest avionics company in the world turned 60 this month. Narco, which started out in the back of a store as the National Aeronautical Radio Corporation in Collingswood, N.J., in 1945, has counted numerous product firsts in six decades…John Travolta has offered to fly the Australian soccer team to Germany to compete in the 2006 World Cup. Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston watched the team qualify in Sydney and made the offer “to play my part for Australia.”