In a move apparently triggered by pressure from creditors,
Mooney Aerospace Group announced Tuesday that it has sold all of
the stock of Mooney Airplane Company to Allen Holding Finance Ltd.,
a private investment company. As part of the transaction in
consideration for the stock, Allen agreed to assume all of the debt
owed by MASG to its secured debenture holders, an amount in excess
of $21 million, and invest $4 million in new capital for Mooney
Airplane Company by July 27, 2004.
What's this? A low-cost carrier predicting storm clouds
ahead?
Ireland's Ryanair says, while 2003 was a very good year, 2005 will
see a drop in the airline's growth rate. Between March 2003 and
March 2004, Ryanair grew at a jaw-dropping rate of 47-percent. But
during the next 12 months, CEO Michael O'Leary predicts growth will
fall to just 25-percent.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has reached agreement
with American Airlines and Boeing Commercial Airplane Group on
settlement of civil penalties totaling more than $3.3 million. Both
settlements involve alleged violations of Federal Aviation
Regulations.
The investigation continued Tuesday into the Memorial Day crash
of a Lancair IV-P near Vermontville Township (MI). All three people
on board, including a noted Canadian biochemist, were killed.
Two people were killed Monday when their 1942 Stearman went down
about seven miles north of Mesa's Falcon Field. As of ANN's
deadline on Tuesday, authorities in Arizona had not yet identified
the victims. Local news reports, however, identified the victims as
a Mesa man and his stepfather.
Two Killed, Along With Deputy In California Mishap
Anguish heaped on tragedy Monday when a Tuolomne County deputy
was killed in a car crash while responding to reports of a plane
down near Columbia (CA).
Nicholas Crlucci and James Slobodnik went flying Monday morning
-- a little sightseeing trip along southwest Florida's beautiful
gulf coast. They didn't, however, expect to go swimming.
If you ever wondered just how strange a place Iraq was before
the American-led coalition took over, consider this: The windows on
one entire side of the control tower at Baghdad's international
airport were painted black, preventing controllers from seeing
Saddam Hussein's palace (and, oh-by-the-way, any aircraft
approaching from that direction).
When the Mars rover Opportunity's instrument heater wouldn't
turn itself off when it wasn't needed, NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab
was faced with a tough decision: risk some of the
temperature-sensitive equipment used to conduct soil tests or put
the whole rover to sleep during the Martian night in order to save
power. Otherwise, the heater, which was running both day and night,
would drain the solar-fed power cells and render the rover almost
useless.
In a country expected to be the world's second-biggest
commercial aviation market within 20 years, both Boeing and Airbus
are working hard to make inroads. Initially, neither airplane
manufacturer appears to have the upper hand.
The following kits have been added to the kit listing since
April 7, 2004:
1) The American Aero, Inc. Amateur-Built Aircraft Kits in
accordance with FAA Order 8130.2E, Chapter 4, Section 7, and have
determined that they meet the "major portion" requirements of
14 CFR part 21, subpart H, section 21.191(g).
Right Now, There Are No Rules On Medical Care, Emergency
Kits
A British medical association says the emergency in-flight
medical care available to passengers varies between airlines and is
now calling for international standards to even things out.
Let us carefully venture into the land of the general media, a
place fraught with dangers and misunderstandings when it comes to
aviation. Let us extend the hand of friendship to reporters across
the land in hopes that they will have a better grasp of all things
aeronautical.
Let us offer them a free flight lesson.
It's great when a plan comes together. Personnel from the Naval
Air Station Pensacola (NASP) Helicopter Support Unit (HSU) aboard
the station's Rescue 400 UH-3H Sea King rendered assistance May 21
to a downed Air Force F-15C Eagle pilot.
Goal: Help Protect Future Space Explorers And Detect Life Forms
On Mars
With a microscope and computer monitor, researchers at NASA's
Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville (AL) watch fluorescent
bacteria flow through tiny, fluid highways on a dime-sized lab on a
chip.
"Opportunity successfully executed our second deep sleep of the
mission. We survived the night just fine with that and it saved the
energy that we expected to. More importantly our Mini-TES
instrument, which we put in danger by the deep sleep operation, did
survive the night and we hope it will survive more of these. But
we're getting dangerously close to the cold temperatures that it
isn't able to survive through."
Source: Mars Rover Flight Director Chris Lewicki
in JPL's recorded update, after Opportunity apparently cheated
death again last week. The rover's heat circuit, activated at night
to preserve temperature-sensitive equipment, failed to turn itself
off during the Martian days, severely draining the rover's
solar-fed batteries. The solution: put Opportuni