A UPS Airbus A300 cargo airplane on approach to Runway 18 at the Birmingham, Ala., airport crashed Wednesday morning at about 6 a.m. local time. Both crew members were killed, local authorities have reported. The aircraft hit the ground in an open field about a half-mile north of the runway, outside the airport boundary, broke into several pieces, and caught fire. Photos by The Associated Press show the front cabin section mostly intact, lying on top of a hill, as emergency vehicles contain the fires. The NTSB has sent a team to the site to begin their investigation. UPS said in a statement the flight had originated in Louisville, Ky. No homes or other structures were affected by the crash, and the airport has remained open. Read More

Wesley David Archer in the 1930s produced pictures of WWI aircraft engaged in aerial combat that became a popular sensation in their day, but decades later were discovered to be falsified, and Wednesday in Australia they went up for auction. In 1933, the photos gained publicity through their use in the book Death In The Air: The War Diary And Photographs Of A Flying Corps Pilot. The publisher paid $20,000 for images that included midair collisions and a flaming aircraft with its pilot falling from the cockpit. Read More

Amelia Rose Earhart, who recently appeared at a news conference at EAA AirVenture to announce a round-the-world flight in a Pilatus PC-12, said this week she has discovered she is not at all related to the original Amelia Earhart, whom her parents named her after. "After hiring a team of researchers, I learned today that though we share a name and a love of flight, the first Amelia Earhart and I are not from the same family," Earhart wrote in a Facebook post. Earhart also said she had hired a genealogist 10 years ago who confirmed that she "shared a distant common ancestry" with the famous aviator. The new knowledge won't affect her commitment to aviation, she said. Read More

A new feature from Xsight Systems aims to improve the detection of ground-level birds in real time, in severe weather, and in the dark, the company said this week. Read More

The presidential helicopter group, Marine Helicopter Squadron One, Saturday debuted its new MV-22 Ospreys, and will receive a total of 12 of the tilt-rotor aircraft, none of which will be used to move the president, and all of which cost more than $10,000 per hour to operate, according to the GAO. The aircraft were used over the weekend to carry staff, Secret Service and news media, and will be phased in to replace CH-46E helicopters currently used by the group. The cost for the aircraft is currently estimated at roughly $70 million each. Read More

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A New Jersey man who didn't want his boss following his every move has lost his job and had the book thrown at him by the FCC because the inexpensive ($68 and up) GPS jammer he carried in his truck shut down an experimental, high-tech, multimillion-dollar navigation system at Newark Liberty Airport. Gary Bojczak was fined $31,875 by the FCC after admitting that he carried the device, which is readily available for sale on the Internet, so he could disable the GPS transmitter on the pickup truck he drove for engineering company Tilcon. Read More

AOPA and EAA responded this week to the FAA's proposed airworthiness directive that would require thousands of GA aircraft owners to inspect and replace their ECi engine cylinders, saying the FAA's plan would impose a financial burden while also compromising safety. “Requiring the replacement of so many cylinders, in addition to repetitive inspections, goes well beyond the [NTSB] recommendations," said Robert Hackman, AOPA's vice president of regulatory affairs. Hackman said he also is concerned that actual costs "could go well beyond the FAA’s estimate, and that the mass replacement of cylinders in the field would downgrade, rather than enhance safety." EAA noted that the proposed AD does not cite either specific failure rates or a total number of failures for the ECi cylinders. Read More

As the quest for a replacement for 100LL drags into its third decade, our sister publication Aviation Consumer, is seeking opinions from owners, pilots and aircraft operators on how you think the process is going. The FAA has established a special office devoted to a replacement for 100LL and piston fuel in general. We would like to know if you've followed the process and if so, what you think of it. And how about mogas? We have some questions on that, too. Read More

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