Following the Lion Air crash in Indonesia last month, the FAA is focusing new scrutiny on the control architecture of the Boeing 737 MAX and may require the company to engineer a fix for an auto trim system installed on the airplane. The system wasn’t well documented and reporting has revealed that pilots and airlines were unaware of it.
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Italian aircraft manufacturer Tecnam announced confirmed orders for 30 aircraft from Chinese Anhui Lantian International Flight Academy (ALIFA) at the biannual Zhuhai International Air Show last week. The ab-initio academy will acquire Tecnam P2006T twin-engine trainers, as well as P2010 models to replace its fleet of legacy training aircraft.
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An FAA certification official said on Wednesday that Boeing 737 engine inlets might require design changes in the wake of a Southwest Airlines accident last April in which an uncontained engine failure breached the cabin and caused the death of a passenger. Testifying at an NTSB fact-finding hearing on the accident, another FAA official said it’s “not impossible” to set a life limit on engine fan blades.
MoreThe General Aviation Manufacturers Association will accelerate its efforts to work with European regulators to promote the development of electric VTOL aircraft, the association said this week.... More
Dornier Seawings reports having received approximately $170 million in funding from its Chinese shareholders to further develop the amphibious CD2 Seastar Flying Boat. The money will be used to... More
Boeing’s Aurora Flight Sciences revealed a new solar-powered, autonomous high-altitude pseudo-satellite (HAPS) concept on Wednesday. The Odysseus is designed to be an ultra-long-endurance... More
The first of three F/A-18B Hornets scheduled to join NASA’s research fleet arrived at the administration’s Armstrong Flight Research Center last week. The Hornet made the trip from the... More
A report released by the U.S. Air Force points to pilot error as the primary cause of an Air National Guard WC-130 Hercules crash that killed all nine servicemembers onboard. The accident occurred... More
The Lone Star Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence and Innovation (LSUASC) at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC) announced that it has signed an agreement with Texas’... More
WACO Aircraft Corporation has been acquired by Florida-based Dimor Group Inc. The acquisition also includes WACO’s FBO and Part 145 maintenance facility, Centennial Aircraft Services, which is... More
Boeing kept airlines and pilots in the dark about an automated background trim system on the 737 MAX that may be implicated in the first crash of the new model in Indonesia last month. The trim... More
As he does from time to time, Dave, the proprietor of the flight school here at the virtual airport, sent out a mass email to his aircraft rental customers—students and certificated pilots—asking them to come to an evening gathering to... More
Aircraft just out of maintenance are more likely to have safety-of-flight issues than an aircraft in good condition flown on a daily basis. The extent to which an airplane coming out of maintenance will have an issue is proportional to the... More
Recent general aviation and air carrier accidents. More
Central Washington University (CWU) has awarded Seattle based one-G simulation with a contract for five Foundation Advanced Aviation Training Devices (AATD) and a Piper Archer device that is currently in development at one-G headquarters.
US Aviation of Denton, Texas is launching a new Accelerated Career Program eligible for student loans that don't begin repayment until six months after graduation. In nine months, students will earn all their licenses and ratings for an industry-leading, all-inclusive price of $74,495.
Columbia Pacific Aviation, Inc., located in Moses Lake, WA, is authorized to handle and transport regulated garbage. The Grant County Int'l Airport (KMWH) is now able to accept international flights from all countries.
The Lion Air accident unleashes the dark demons of autopilots run amok. But for light airplanes, the imagining is worse than the reality. More
Flying over Lower Otay Lake in Chula Vista, CA, headed for home at John Nichols Field (0CL3) in my Avenger UL. Photo by Peter Sigrist.
