Rob Heap, Van's Director of Engineering Goes 1 on 1 For A Fascinating In-Depth Q & A

By Anthony J. Liberatore Question: Rob, tell me the overall genesis of this aircraft. Answer: Van’s has been talking about building a high wing utility airplane for a long time. Long before I hired in, one of my interview questions was, what would you do next? The general market we were going to target with it has been open for debate for a while. What we've decided to do is look at a utility type of airplane. And the general question we're trying to answer is, what do you do when you get to the grass strip...

Reeling In the Years

The International Air Transport Association (IATA)—an airline trade association has submitted a paper suggesting the removal of pilot age limits to ICAO’s leadership. IATA’s move precedes next September’s ICAO General Assembly, a plenary meeting occurring every three years, at which member states gather to discuss and vote on new provisions germane to the regulation of international commercial aviation.

It’s Not Nice to Fool the Dpt. of Veterans Affairs

Universal Helicopters Inc., a private helicopter flight training outfit, and Dodge City Community College, a public educational institution in Dodge City, Kansas, have agreed to pay $7.5-million to resolve allegations that they collectively made false statements to the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs regarding a helicopter flight training program officiated jointly by the two organizations.

Also: P-47 Thunderbolt Restoration, Challenger 3500, Osprey Crash, SAF Program Criticized

Women-pilot teams consisting of at least two (2) pilots are registering for this one-day create-your-own race, a twist on the traditional Air Race Classic long-distance endurance air race. Similar to the Race Teams, the Derby Teams must consist of at least two women pilots, and must fly VFR along their approved self-designed route. A greater variety of aircraft may participate, to include sport and experimental aircraft. This year, Derby Teams will have between September 23 to October 1, 2022, to complete and fly their Derby route. American Airlines has entered an agreement to purchase up to twenty of Boom Technology’s Overture supersonic airliners. The deal, which contains options for an additional forty aircraft, follows United Airlines’ 2021 commitment to purchase 15 Overtures of its own. ?The ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict has claimed the l

Also: Boom Supersonic, Pilot Reinstated, USAF and Aptima, US Aviation Academy

A new American regional airline is using the ultimate weapon—money—to circumvent a pilot shortage that ALPA (the Airline Pilots Association, International) asserts does not exist, and airline industry pundits claim is the greatest threat to aviation since American Airlines did away with inflight peanuts in 2003. Connect Airlines, a division of Bedford-Massachusetts-based charter outfit Waltzing Matilda Aviation, is offering qualified pilots an eye-watering yearly salary of $250,000. The National Mediation Board recently certified the Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l (ALPA) as the union representative for Breeze Airways pilots, making it the twelfth pilot group to join ALPA since 2019. “The labor movement is ascendant, and ALPA is leading the way in organizing and representing pilots as we emerge from the pandemic,” said Capt. Joe DePete,

Also: Central Colorado UAS, USAF and Aptima, UAL's $10M Deposit on Maker, Commaris-CYTTA

Bristow Helicopters has been awarded a ten-year contract by the UK Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) to support the Second-Generation Search and Rescue (UKSAR2G) program. Subject program tasks Her Majesty’s Coast Guard, and civilian contractors with the establishment and maintenance of a 24-hour maritime and coastal search and rescue (SAR) emergency response service throughout the UK. SAE International’s E-40 Electrified Propulsion Committee—an assemblage tasked with developing and maintaining aerospace standards, practices, and reports germane to electrified aircraft propulsion—has released two foundational standards. Northrop Grumman’s MQ-8C Fire Scout is an unmanned helicopter based on Bell’s 407—itself a derivative of the hugely successful 206L-4 LongRanger. The autonomous vehicle provides reconnaissance, situation

Also: FAA's Dynamic System, Russian Helicopter Deal, FAA Denies Culpability, Artemis

Last April's ill-advised TV stunt, under the PR guise of a Red Bull event, embarrassed the GA world to the extreme... and now the NTSB has had a few things to say about it... a very few things to say. The NTSB concluded that, "The accident airplane was part of an exhibition event, the goal of which was for two pilots to fly two similarly equipped airplanes in a vertical dive, after which they would simultaneously bail out and transfer to the other airplane. The pilot of one airplane was able to successfully transfer to the other airplane and land without incident, however, the other pilot could not enter the second airplane because it entered an inverted spin shortly after egress..." In an instance likely to resonate with current and former Part 135 pilots, a federal whistleblower investigation has vindicated an aviator wrongfully fired for refusing to fly under

Straight-Up Progress

The Vertical Flight Society, an international non-profit organization dedicated to the advancement of vertical flight, has announced that the number of electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft concepts being tracked in its World eVTOL Aircraft Directory now exceeds seven-hundred designs attributable to nearly 350 worldwide companies and innovators. 

Also: $10-Million eVTOL Deposit, Clay Lacy Expands, VNY Runway Reopens, Artemis Launch Date

The CT-114 Tutor aircraft flown by the Royal Canadian Air Force’s Snowbirds flight demonstration squadron have been ordered grounded until a deliberate, detailed, and broad airworthiness risk-assessment can be completed. The move was ordered by the Operational Airworthiness Authority for the RCAF, Maj. Gen. Iain Huddleston. AEA represents nearly 1,300 member companies in more than forty countries. Their Avionics Market Report for 2022’s second-quarter showed an 11.7% increase in avionics sales over the previous quarter, and a 19.9% increase over the same period in 2021. AEA president and CEO Mike Adamson states: "It is encouraging to see sales continue to climb, up nearly 16% compared to the first six months of 2021..." Paul Allen was many things: an entrepreneur; a tech mogul; the owner of the Seattle Seahawks and Portland Trail Blazers; a phi

To Boom or Not to Boom

Homeowners in Bonaire and Kathleen—two small, Georgia towns about halfway between Atlanta and Savannah—allege their dwellings were damaged by an F-15 flyover staged to add a dash of patriotic panache to a Southeast Region Little-League Tournament game played in neighboring Warner Robins, Georgia. Following the flyover, Facebook users sang out a series of allegations to the tune of sonic boom, broken windows, shattered glass doors, collapsed porch ceilings, and even damaged foundations.