VIRGIN ADVANCES SPACE TOURISM, SATELLITE PLANS
Virgin Galactic will make its maiden tourist flight into space next year, Sir Richard Branson announced at the Farnborough Air Show on Wednesday. He also unveiled plans to use WhiteKnightTwo to carry a vehicle called LauncherOne that will deliver commercial satellites into orbit. The vehicle is already in development and is expected to be ready for operations by 2016. It will offer "frequent and dedicated launches at the world's lowest prices," according to Virgin's news release. Four private companies already have put down deposits for several dozen launches. Branson also said Virgin Galactic now has deposits for suborbital tourist flights from 529 people, which is just above the total of 528 people who have flown in space to date. More...

QUESTION OF THE WEEK: WANT TO GO TO SPACE?
Sir Richard Branson says he can take you there starting next year. Assuming no financial obstacles, would you like to go?

Plus: Last week, we asked AVweb readers if they'd ever fibbed to their air medical examiners; click through to see the breakdown of answers. More...

SMO PAY TO GO AWAY FAILS
Santa Monica, Calif., city council members this week shelved the plan they introduced two weeks ago to pay flight school operators to fly student pilots away from the city's airport for touch and go operations. The original plan would have been introduced as a test program. It would have offered participating flight schools operating from SMO $150 per flight to conduct "repetitive takeoff and landing practice" at "other area airports during weekends and federal holidays only." City council members had planned to set aside $90,000 to fund the reimbursement/incentive program over a test period of six months. But, according to one council member, "The people just don't want us to do it." More...

E-VOLO, ELECTRIC LONG-EZ TO VISIT AIRVENTURE
AirVenture at Oshkosh is coming up fast, less than two weeks away, and in recent days EAA has announced more details about what visitors can expect to see at the show. One aircraft sure to attract attention is the one-of-a-kind e-volo 18-rotor multicopter, which will be on display at the Innovation Hangar. The multicopter, built in Germany, is the successor to the 16-motor VC1 that achieved the first manned flight by an electric-powered VTOL aircraft last October. Another unusual aircraft coming to the Innovation Hangar is an electric-powered Long-EZ that's part of the development program for a long-range electric airplane that could fly from New York to Paris. Motorcycle racer Chip Yates and his "Flight of the Century" team will be at the show to talk about their technology. The hangar will also be the site for two days of forums about electric flight, on July 26 and 27. More...

WRECKAGE FROM 1952 CRASH FOUND IN ALASKA
Aircraft wreckage that was discovered on a glacier last month by an Alaskan Army National Guard UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter crew on a routine training mission has been identified as an Air Force Douglas C-124A Globemaster II. The airplane crashed in November 1952, killing all 52 people on board. "The plane hit the mountainside, exploding and disintegrating upon impact," according to an Anchorage Daily News story at the time. "Six to eight feet of powdered snow covered everything." Military teams investigated the site shortly after the crash, but it was considered too inaccessible to attempt any recovery. After the National Guard members found the site last month, it was visited by an eight-man team from the Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, based in Hawaii, who were able to recover some artifacts. More...

COMPANY PATENTS SAFETY TECHNOLOGY
Aviation Safety Resources (ASR) has earned a patent for what it calls the Smart Recovery System for General Aviation Aircraft, which "automatically deploys the appropriate device" for a given emergency situation. The company says it is using sensor systems currently available in commercial and military aircraft. It "detects the environment" and "makes decisions based on monitoring data," according to ASR. In practice, that would translate to a system that could deploy verbal warnings (if available), fire extinguishers, the autopilot, flight control, airbag and ballistic parachute recovery systems in response to diagnostic parameters. And those systems would be activated automatically, with one caveat.  More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: JORDAN GETS HIS WINGS
On the AVweb Insider blog, Paul Bertorelli talks with his student, Jordan Nations, whose Private Pilot Certificate is less than 24 hours old. Jordan had the rare opportunity to learn flying in both a vintage Piper J-3 Cub and a Cessna 150. Paul and Jordan took a victory lap around the Florida beaches savoring the unique satisfaction that only students and instructors share -- and we share it with readers in this special vlog. Read more and join the conversation. More...

FORTY-SEVEN YEARS IN AVIATION: A MEMOIR; CHAPTER 15: A YEAR IN KOREA, THEN BACK TO OSU
The USS Pueblo incident near North Korea inspired a show of force requiring many reservists, including Richard Taylor, to drop what they were doing (teaching, in Richard's case) and head off to Korea. Along the way, he got to do a little bit of flying and practicing water landings with a parachute. Back in the States after a year, Richard went back to the classroom, but also flew the Ohio Army National Guard's Bird Dog and Beaver. More...

GARMIN'S NEW GLO GPS FOR TABLETS
If Garmin is feeling the heat from GPS-enabled tablets and smartphones, it's not taking the competition lying down. This week Garmin rolls out the GLO, a new self-contained GPS receiver that links to Android and iPad tablets via Bluetooth, wirelessly providing position updates up to 10 times a second. Remote GPS gadgets for tablets aren't new, but Garmin equipped GLO not just with GPS, but with a receiver for Russia's GLONASS system. That puts another 24 satellites on the table for rapid time to first fix and more robust position sensing once the location is calculated. More...

COMMENT PERIOD EXTENDED FOR MEDICAL PROPOSAL
The FAA will extend its comment period on a proposal to make it easier to fly without a third-class medical certificate, EAA and AOPA said on Monday. Pilots now have another 70 days -- until September 14 -- to add to the more than 14,000 comments that were already filed in the initial 20-day comment period. The proposal would allow pilots to fly some GA aircraft without a third-class medical if they take an online course, self-certify, and hold a driver's license. AOPA and EAA requested the extension, noting that the exemption would likely affect more than 39,000 pilots and impact the operations of up to 114,333 single-engine piston airplanes. More...

AVWEBBIZ: AVWEB'S BUSINESS AVIATION NEWSLETTER

Have you signed up yet for AVweb's no-cost weekly business aviation newsletter, AVwebBiz?

Delivered every Wednesday morning, AVwebBiz focuses on the companies, the products and the industry leaders that make headlines in the business aviation industry, making it a must-read.

Add AVwebBiz to your AVweb subscriptions today by clicking here and choosing "Update E-mail Subscriptions."

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
Our best stories start with you. If you've heard something 255,000 pilots might want to know about, tell us. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. What have you heard? More...

FBO OF THE WEEK: TREGO-DUGAN AVIATION (KLBF, NORTH PLATTE, NEBRASKA)

AVweb's "FBO of the Week" ribbon goes to Trego-Dugan Aviation at North Platte Regional Airport/Lee Bird Field (KLBF) in North Platte, Nebraska.

AVweb reader Larry J. Newland got the royal treatment on a recent visit:

In June, we stopped overnight, and as soon as we landed I told them I needed a room for overnight each time — and they made arrangements right away and got transportion to and from the hotel. [They also] tied down the airlpane and fueled it, and the whole crew was very friendly.

Keep those nominations coming. For complete contest rules, click here.

AVweb is actively seeking out the best FBOs in the country and another one, submitted by you, will be spotlighted here next Monday!

VIDEO: 'AVIATION CONSUMER' TAKES THE SHOW ON THE ROAD WITH FIVE FOLDING BICYCLE REVIEWS

The July issue of our sister publication, Aviation Consumer, features a blow-by-blow comparison of some of the best folding bikes for pilots we could find. See them in action in these five video reviews by Consumer's Jeff Van West.

MEET THE AVWEBFLASH TEAM

AVwebFlash is a twice-weekly summary of the latest news, articles, products, features, and events featured on AVweb, the world's premier independent aviation news resource.

The AVwebFlash team is:

Publisher
Tom Bliss

Editorial Director, Aviation Publications
Paul Bertorelli

Editor-in-Chief
Russ Niles

Webmaster
Scott Simmons

Contributing Editors
Mary Grady
Glenn Pew

Contributors
Kevin Lane-Cummings
Jeff Van West

Ad Coordinator
Karen Lund

Have a product or service to advertise on AVweb? Your advertising can reach over 225,000 loyal AVwebFlash, AVwebBiz, and AVweb home page readers every week. Over 80% of our readers are active pilots and aircraft owners. That's why our advertisers grow with us, year after year. For ad rates and scheduling, click here or contact Tom Bliss, via e-mail or via telephone [(480) 525-7481].

Click here to send a letter to the editor. (Please let us know if your letter is not intended for publication.)

Comments or questions about the news should be sent here.

If you're having trouble reading this newsletter in its HTML-rich format (or if you'd prefer a lighter, simpler format for your phone or handheld device), there's also a text-only version of AVwebFlash. For complete instructions on making the switch, click here.

Aviate. Navigate. Communicate.