Boeing's Problem Child Says 'Yeah but for Real This time'

NASA will hopefully send off the Boeing Starliner for the first time on May 17th, at 18:16 Eastern time, hopefully showing crowd's Boeing's heavy lift combo in actual launch circumstances. The Starliner's first launch was supposed to take place on May 9th, but an issue nestled within the United Launch Alliance's Atlas V rocket canceled the entire flight. For Astronauts Sun Williams and Butch Wilmore, it was a nice little dress rehearsal, letting them get snuggled in with preflight jitters until the voice crackled over the comms with the good/bad news that they would in fact be sleeping in their own beds that night... if they didn't have to stay in quarantine, that is.

Sale Shortly After Wag-Aero Divested Itself Of Its Interest In Leading Edge Air Foils

An interesting surprise occurred this week as Wag-Aero customers logged on to their site in order to order a few things...no Wag-Aero. Instead, the site was redirected to Aircraft Spruce, which has apparently bought out the once popular Wag-Aero operations shortly after the same operation divested itself of its interest in Leading Edge Air Foils. The following message appeared when the Wag-Aero site was accessed... "Aircraft Spruce is pleased to announce the acquisition of the parts distribution operations of Wag-Aero. Wag-Aero was founded in the 1960’s by Dick and Bobbie Wagner in the basement of their family home in Lyons, WI, around the same time that Bob and Flo Irwin started Aircraft Spruce in the basement of their home in Fullerton, CA. Both companies published their first parts catalogs in 1965, and in 1971 Wag-Aero moved to their permanent facility on North Road in Lyons. In 1995 The Wagners sold Wag-Aero to Bill Read and Mary Myers

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The Judge overseeing Icon's convoluted Chapter 11 process has approved $9 million in Chapter 11 financing and set a June asset auction for the Icon A5 Program -- and said that objections had apparently been resolved (for the moment) by shareholders who claimed (not surprisingly) that Icon was being sold to an 'insider.' Judge Craig T. Goldblatt gave final approval to Icon's (DIP) debtor-in-possession financing and approved the sales schedule... but has yet to approve that previously disclosed stalking horse bidder. On April 12, 2024, the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky sentenced Morgan J. Wiljanen, former helicopter pilot for Air Evac EMS, Inc., to 8 months of incarceration, 18 months of supervised release, 4 months of home detention, and a $100 special assessment. In December 2023, Wiljanen pleaded guilty to operating an air common carrier while

Series of Aviation Films Will Run All Week for Nightly Admission

AirVenture audiences will have a fun nightly option to wind down after a long day of walking at this year's AirVenture 2024, with nightly movie exhibitions spanning old classics from the early years of wartime photography to modern biopics. The lineup will start with everyone's fave cold war guilty pleasure, Top Gun, running on Saturday July 20th. Sunday will see 2023's A Million Miles Away, Monday 1948's The Fighter Squadron, then Toward the Unknown (1956), Fire Birds (1990), Captains of the Clouds (1942), The Blue Angels (2024), and capping everything off the last Saturday with The Right Stuff from 1983.

Galactic 07 Mission Coming Up in June, Delta-Class Spaceships On Track for 2026, and Increased Ops Tempo Top News

Virgin Galactic just keeps crawling its way to profitability, with a 1st quarter results call that painted a company on the upswing with enough irons in the fire that things might just work out. Overall, Virgin Galactic said that its cash position remained strong, with $2 million in revenue driven by commercial spaceflight and membership fees tagged to future astronauts. That's pretty good, compared to last year's first quarter - that one ended with only $0.4 million in revenue, putting Virgin Galactic in the uncomfortable spot of burning cash just to stay alive. 

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The Beechcraft Denali continues moving forward towards certification, having received its FAA Type Inspection Authorization early this year. Textron advertised that their single-engine turboprop competitor has logged more than 2,000 flight test hours across 830+ flights, on track for completion in 2025. Aerodyne, a new gyroplane manufacturer, will be commemorating its entry into the market with an attempt at setting some records as it runs a lap around the United Kingdom. Founder, executive chairman, and pilot Rangaraja Iyengar will make a full lap around the whole lot with his 8-year-old daughter assisting, aiming to complete a 3-day, 5,000-mile journey. The FAA has issued a Special Airworthiness Information Bulletin (SAIB) that alerts all owners, operators, maintenance technicians, and inspectors of Revo Incorporated Model Colonial C-1, Colonial C-2,

Also: Vertical Flight Society, NBAA Maintenance Conference, GA Honored, AMT Scholarship

For the first time, students from Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach, Florida, campus took top honors at the AIAA Design/Build/Fly (DBF) Competition, held in Wichita, Kansas. A second Embry-Riddle squad, this one from the Prescott, Arizona, campus, also placed among the top teams, earning eighth overall. The Leadership in Flight Training, or LIFT Academy, has expanded its training fleet with a recent order with Diamond Aircraft, bringing on 56 new planes. The deal sees LIFT gain 50 new single-engine DA40s, and 6 twin-engine DA42s. The training facility has continued to expand thanks to a steady pipeline of students. Epic Flight Academy has officially launched its new aircraft mechanic school at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG), marking a significant advancement in aviation training and workforce development in Kentucky. The opening of this

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US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall was given a turn around the patch in the 'X-62A Variable In-flight Simulation Test Aircraft, or VISTA, to illustrate just how far autonomous aircraft have come. The aircraft sounds much snazzier than it is in reality, being a 30-year old, 2-seat F-16D with a nifty paint job and an R2-D2 in one of the seats. The aircraft has long been in the US Air Force Test Pilot School, where it received modifications for multi-axis thrust vectoring and aerodynamics. AgEagle Aerial Systems will ship 40 of its eBee VISION systems, along with 9 more eBees, with all the parts, support, connections, control stations, and miscellany required to keep the fleet operational in French army service. Maxar Intelligence has confirmed that the first two WorldView Legion satellites are performing well after being launched on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket last wee

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A friend of the family reported that Lt. Col. (Ret.) Richard Glenn Rutan flew west on Friday, May 3, 2024 at 7:08 PM PDT. The last time Dick Rutan flew towards the western horizon was on December 14, 1986 when he and copilot Jeana Yeager set the last great aviation record by flying around the world, nonstop and unrefueled, in nine days, three minutes and 44 seconds in an aircraft called 'Voyager.' designed by Burt Rutan. As we understand it, a 'stalking horse bidder' is the initial bid on a bankrupt company's assets from an interested buyer -- chosen by the bankrupt company. The proposed stalking horse bidder, SG Investment America Inc., has been designated to 'set the floor price for the sale of ICON’s assets.' Icon claims that this step is aimed at maximizing value for the company’s stakeholders and facilitating a smooth transition through the

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Bobby Bailey, a bit of a fixture in sport aviation circles for his work with the Bailey-Moyes Dragonfly (now in production with Pitman Air), has been lost in an aircraft test accident. Shortly after his appearance at SUN n FUN 2024, Bailey reportedly was asked to test fly a customer-built Dragonfly out of the Groveland airport in Florida... Recent investigations and a great deal of data has resulted in ANN’s SportPlane Resource Guide’s report card system having to deal with new and worrisome reports on a number of companies. Evidence and data received from customers of the Czech-based Orlican sportplane operation has resulted in a ‘Not Recommended’ rating for the troubles documented by at least one one owner who has been trying to get his aircraft for nearly two years... The US Parachute Association tel