Hide/Show Archive Navigation.

All News

April 07, 2012

Airborne 04.06.12: Farewell to Howard Pardue, Diamond DA52 and Terrafugia!

Also: Huerta Nom, Pinnacle BK, Raptor Data, Apollo 11, Solar Impulse, Pipistrel... and MORE!!!

It has been a big week for aviation. Of course, the 55th annual AEA convention was held this week in Washington, D.C., and ANN provided over nine hours of live coverage from the convention floor. But there was other news as well... Aviation lost one of its icons this week. Howard Pardue went down in his F8F Bearcat on departure from his home field Wednesday. We don't have a lot of details, but you can learn what we do know in this week's program.

On the plus side of the ledger, Diamond flew its brand-new DA52 seven-place twin. The airplane is powered by two Austro Engine 180 hp turbo-diesel engines. Also on the first-flight list, Terrafugia took to the sky in its productio

More Videos

Airborne 04.06.12: Farewell to Howard Pardue, Diamond DA52 and Terrafugia!

Also: Huerta Nom, Pinnacle BK, Raptor Data, Apollo 11, Solar Impulse, Pipistrel... and MORE!!!

Editor's Note: I hate to say it, but we have a goof in the script that was not caught during the VERY late night editing session that followed all our work at AEA2012. In the Diamond DA52 First Flight Story (Second Story), the DA52 flight test climbed to 17000 FEET -- not knots (obviously -- but its hard to make sure you're on the script with all the distractions of a LIVE convention hall). Please excuse the goof and know that the next time we have to go on the road, we'll look for a shooting location with as few distractions as possible. -- Aero-News/Airborne For the first time, Airborne went on the road -- and despite all that w

Philip Falcone Said The Talks Are 'Serious'

LightSquared's orbit may be decaying towards a catastrophic re-entry. Hedge fund manager Philip Falcone says that the company is "seriously considering" filing for protection from creditors, according to a report from Reuters.

Airframe To Be Used For Static Structural Tests

Final assembly of the first A350 XWB is now underway at the brand new final assembly line in Toulouse. This latest step in the A350 XWB’s progress is achieved as Airbus starts joining the 64 foot long center fuselage with the 69 foot long front fuselage. This first A350 XWB airframe will be used for the static structural tests that all new aircraft undergo as part of their certification process.

Names Annual Learn To Fly, Pioneers Of Flight, And Business Award Winners

The National Air Transportation Foundation (NATF) is proud to announce the winners of its Dan L. Meisinger Sr. Memorial Learn to Fly Scholarship, Pioneers of Flight Scholarship and NATA Business Scholarship.

Game Warden Had Flown Out To Assist A Colleague Who's Snowmobile Broke Down

The NTSB has issues a probable cause report in an accident in which a public use airplane went down in a snow squall in March of last year. The game warden/pilot had flown out to assist a colleague who's snowmobile had broken down on a frozen lake, and the weather deteriorated during the return flight.

NASA Extends Kepler, Spitzer, Planck Missions

All Survive The Senior Review Of Astrophysics Missions

NASA is extending three missions affiliated with the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, -- Kepler, the Spitzer Space Telescope and the U.S. portion of the European Space Agency's Planck mission -- as a result of the 2012 Senior Review of Astrophysics Missions.

Executive Team Choose Companies In Kansas, Michigan, Georgia, And Missouri

Aircell, has named five organizations to receive the company’s highest dealer honor for 2011 – called the Aircell 51,000 Five. The Aircell 51,000 Five award recognizes the five highest-performing organizations in the company’s global dealer & distributor network as chosen by the Aircell Executive Team.

Alternative Power Makes Way For Future Capability, Improves Reliability

Insitu has announced that its ScanEagle unmanned aircraft system (UAS) successfully completed its first hydrogen-powered fuel cell flight during a two-and-a-half-hour flight test. The hydrogen-powered fuel cell solution was implemented as a modular upgrade to the runway-independent, expeditionary Group 2 ScanEagle UAS.

"This means scientists can continue using the three spacecraft to study everything from the birth of the universe with Planck, and galaxies, stars, planets, comets and asteroids with Spitzer, while Kepler is determining what percentage of sun-like stars host potentially habitable Earth-like planets." Source: Michael Werner, the chief scientist for astronomy and physics at JPL.

The portion of a runway available for landing and roll-out for aircraft cleared for LAHSO. This distance is measured from the landing threshold to the hold-short point.

Aviation Industry CBT Committee

The Aviation Industry CBT Committee is a nonprofit, membership-driven consortium dedicated to helping the training community get the most out of training technology.