Vx4 Development Continues, With Bumps Along the Way

Vertical Aerospace has pushed its certification timetable back towards the end of 2026 after a confluence of factors began to induce drag on operations. The plan now has been revised to obtain certification in Vertical’s home nation, getting the UK Civil Aviation Authority's signoff on the Vx4. Unlike many of their competitors, Vertical is breaking new ground, with portions of the nascent eVTOL scene being ironed out with regulators as they go along.

Bloated Project Epitomizes Reckless Spending

NASA's Space Launch System is an American super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle by which NASA—under the auspices of the agency’s Artemis program—intends to return human beings to the surface of Earth’s moon. As of May 2023, the SLS program is north of $6-billion over-budget and more than six-years behind schedule—so states a scathing new audit undertaken by NASA’s Inspector General.

“Ain’t Your Daddy’s Super Cub”—Don Wade

Co-owned by Don and Ron Wade—the former of Don’s Dream Machines, a storied Alabama Continental and Lycoming engine shop—Patriot Aircraft USA is the proud maker of the Super Patriot, an eminently capable and stylish backcountry STOL airplane patterned, after a fashion, on Piper’s iconic J-3 Cub. Of the company over which he presides, Patriot Aircraft USA president Don Wade states: “Patriot Aircraft stands as a proud symbol of unyielding adventure, freedom, and unwavering American values. With every flight, we embody the audacity to explore the vast unknown, the indomitable spirit of liberty, and the unyielding pursuit of our wildest dreams.

Guidance for the Connected Age

The FAA issued a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) AIR-21-18R3. Titled Risk of Potential Adverse Effects on Radio Altimeters, the document pertains to Radio Altimeters (RA) and the imminent debut of 5G wireless broadband networks across the United States and Canada. Subject SAIB is informational in nature. Compliance with the recommendations set forth therein is prudent but wholly elective.

Once In a Blue Moon

The American astronauts to venture to the moon’s surface during NASA’s planned 2029 Artemis V mission will do so aboard a lunar-lander designed and built by Blue Origin—the Auburn, Washington-based space technology concern founded by Amazon mogul Jeff Bezos. Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander remains under development and it, or an evolution thereof, will likely be the vehicle by which the  Artemis V moonwalkers are conveyed to and from the lunar surface.

First Austrian Operator of the DA42’s Successor

For more than forty-years, Austria’s Riegl Laser Measurement Systems GmbH has been among the world’s foremost developers and producers of terrestrial, industrial, mobile, airborne, bathymetric and UAV-based laser-scanners, rangefinders and distance-meters. For 15 of those years, Riegl has operated Diamond Aircraft’s DA42 GeoStar, a Special Mission Aircraft optimized for aerial measurement and survey. Riegl has announced it was to become the first Austrian operator of the DA42’s successor—Diamond Aircraft’s new DA62 SurveyStar.

Racing to the Bottom

In a baffling move at once reactionary and self-defeating, South Korea’s Asiana Airlines has stopped selling certain emergency row seats in the wake of a 26 May 2023 incident in which a passenger aboard one of the airline’s Airbus A321s opened the third of the jet’s four portside emergency exits as the airliner was attempting to land at Daegu, South Korea’s Gukje Gonghang International Airport (TAE).

John S. Langford and Mark Drela Recognized for Work on Powered Flight

The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) has recognized the work of two key Electra principals with some of their highest honors. Langford and Drela have worked together for more than 45 years, initially partnering up for projects surrounding powered flight at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). They cycled through the Chrysalis, Monarch, and Daedalus aircraft projects before moving on to other work.

The Aircrew Of FENIX01 Radioed That They Detected An Odor In The Cabin

On May 10, 2023, at 0749 Pacific daylight time, a Gates Lear Jet 36A, N56PA, was destroyed when it was involved in an accident near San Clemente Island, California. Both pilots and the additional crewmember are presumed fatally injured. The airplane was operating as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91, other work use flight.The airplane departed Point Magu Naval Air Station (KNTD), Oxnard, California, at 0723 as the lead airplane in formation with a second Lear Jet airplane utilizing the callsigns FENIX01 (N56PA) and FENIX02 (N544PA).

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