Sat, Jun 03, 2023
Also: MiG-21 Fleet Grounding, New Gogo Antenna, Jet It Standdown, Gulfstream Record
Textron has unveiled the Cessna Citation Ascend, the newest model in Cessna’s proven and popular 560XL series. Made public on the eve of 2023’s European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE), the Citation Ascend—by virtue of its wholly redesigned cockpit, improved performance, and a more luxurious cabin—pleasantly disrupts the midsize business jet market. Representatives of Airbus’s Perlan Mission II announced its pilots and engineers had completed a successful flight test campaign in the Southwestern U.S., thereby clearing the way for a 2023 attempt to set a new aviation world altitude record for manned, level flight. The pressurized Perlan II glider—which, in 2018, set the subsonic world altitude record at over 76,000-feet—was shipped from the U.S. on 01 May and is currently enroute to El Calafate, Argentina. A sa
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Sat, Jun 03, 2023
Also: AT2 Aerospace, Austro Hydrogen/Diesel Engine, BBJ Sales, ARTEX ELT 4000M
Virgin Galactic has successfully completed its Unity 25 space mission, thinking this makes them ready for commercial service after just a few handfuls of flights. Mission specialists Jamila Gilbert, Christopher Huie, and Luke Mays ventured spaceward for purpose of conducting final end-to-end assessments of Virgin Galactic’s Unity spacecraft and overall spaceflight experience. The first delivery of Cessna's passenger-layout SkyCourier was tendered to Western Aircraft, Inc last week, kicking off the industry's next favorite twin-turboprop, light commuter twin - or so Textron hopes. The delivery marks off the first time a passenger SkyCourier has made its way into operator hands, with previous deliveries consisting solely of cargo variants. GAMA released its first-quarter 2023 General Aviation Aircraft Shipment and Billing Report—compared to the same period in 2022&m
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Sat, Jun 03, 2023
Also: China’s C919, Sierra Space, Ameriflight Drones, Bizarre Utah A/C Mishap
The National Park Service (NPS) and the FAA are rewriting the regulations by which air tours over U.S. national parks are conducted. Extant drafts of the agencies’ Air Tour Management Plans (ATMPs) call for radical and reactionary measures the likes of eliminating air tours in their entirety in some U.S. parks and, in others, cutting such undertakings by as much as 86-percent. Founded in 1992 under the guiding premise “You don't quit skydiving because you get old; you get old because you quit skydiving,” Skydivers Over Sixty (SOS) has evolved into an international organization comprising upwards of 2,650 members hailing from thirty nations. No... we’re not making this up... Attendees of July's AirVenture (and anyone visiting the nearby Fox Valley) can get a taste of some limited-run ale in celebration of the EAA's 70th anniversary. As part of a la
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Sat, Jun 03, 2023
Embracing AVANCE-ment
Gogo Business Aviation, the American provider of in-flight broadband Internet and connectivity solutions for business aircraft, announced that its proprietary AVANCE inflight broadband connectivity solution has been selected by flyExclusive—the North Carolina-based charter operator and aircraft fractional ownership concern. To better serve its customers, flyExclusive will upgrade forty of its ninety-plus aircraft fleet with Gogo’s AVANCE connectivity platform.
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Sat, Jun 03, 2023
Also: Ukrainian F16 Training, ICARUS Device, NOTAM Legislation, B-2 Safety Pause Unpaused
US Aviation Academy has set forth that it has launched its second Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) training location at San Marcos Regional Airport (HYI)—a public-use airport in southeast-central Texas’s Caldwell County.CAE announced that it is expanding its global network of simulator training centers to Central Europe. The announcement, made at EBACE 2023, set forth that CAE will presently open a new business aviation training center in Vienna, Austria. Operations at the new facility are slated to get underway in the latter half of 2024. The Allied Pilots Association (APA), the labor union by which American Airlines pilots are represented, authorized a strike in the wake of protracted contract talks with the air-carrier. The authorizing of a strike is the first in a long and complex succession of prerequisites that must be met prior to American Airli
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Sat, Jun 03, 2023
Planegiarism
China’s first domestically-produced airliner, the Comac C919, made its inaugural revenue flight on Sunday, 28 May 2023. Operated by China Eastern Airlines, the flight conveyed some 130 paying passengers between Shanghai’s Pudong International Airport (PVG) and Beijing’s Capital International Airport (PEK). The 164-seat, narrow-body aircraft—of which China Eastern took delivery in December 2022—was manufactured by China’s state-owned Commercial Aviation Corporation of China (Comac).
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Sat, Jun 03, 2023
After 2 years in Storage, Etihad's Biggest Birds Return to Service
After years of being packed away, Etihad has begun readying their Airbus A380 aircraft for passenger service once again. The aircraft were stowed away during the nadir of pandemic-era passenger loads, when the high costs of operation vastly outweighed the utility of keeping the aircraft in service. Now, as things have rebounded, the accountants have given their blessing to A380 service.
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Sat, Jun 03, 2023
From 2011 (YouTube Version): Aviation's Greatest Living Legend Talks About His Life In Aviation (Part 5, Final)
ANN is pleased to offer you yet another snippet from the public conversations that took place with Bob Hoover at Airventure 2011... where he was honored for a lifetime of aviation excellence. In this program, Bob continues his discussion about his life in aviation, in a segment entitled, 'Flight Test and Military Service.' Ask any pilot who he (or she) thinks is the best he ever saw and depending on how long they've been in the business, the answers might surprise you...
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