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 ti
Also: SkyReach Parts Support, Piper Service Ctr, Airliner Near-Miss, Airshow London
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 Dis
Also: NBAA on FAA Reauth, DJI AG Drones, HI Insurance Bill Defeated, SPSA Airtankers
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 th
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 exp
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.
Also: 1800th E-Jet, Uncle Sam Sues For Landing Gear, Embraer Ag Plane, Textron Parts
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 bankru
Also: WACO Kitchen Bails, French SportPlane Mfr to FL, Dynon-Advance Flight Systems, Innovation Preview
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 compan
General Atomics Begins Integrating Fancy Software Capabilities to MQ-9A
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has embarked on a partnership with Shift5, allowing them to integrate that firm's "onboard onboard cyber anomaly detection and predictive maintenance capabilities" to USSOCOM's MQ-9A Reaper UAS. The Shift5 partnership will "assure AFSOC and SOCOM mission readiness and cyber survivability" by way of some nifty software. Shift5 is understandably vague about the specifics, merely saying that they give "real-time, data-driven insights needed to predict and schedule maintenance effectively, helping avoid critical failures before they happen and ensuring the safety and performance of critical fleets."
Captain Jason Ambrosi, head of the Air Line Pilots Association, International, applauded the United States Senate for passing the 5-year reauthorization for the Federal Aviation Administration. Now, ALPA has urged the House to move quickly to send the bill to the president's desk for signature. "Today's action by the Senate is a major step forward for the safety and security of our nation's skies, and I urge the House to act expeditiously to enact this groundbreaking bipartisan bill.
Also: Skydio Chief, Uncle Sam Sues, Dash 7 magniX, OR UAS Accelerator
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 eB
Massive Aviation News Event Started 2024 Off With a Plethora of Exciting Info
Last year, we introduced the SnF Innovation Preview in which 25 companies introduced over 30 new planes, products, engines, accessories, and more… in other words… a LOT of news. Rotax previewed the powerful 916iS, CubCrafters showcased the Carbon Cub UL, Bose introduced the A30, Aerox revealed the Boomula… and so much more. This year, we went beyond that... way beyond all that, with a larger selection of news announcements that covered ALL aspects of sport, general and commercial aviation... all at the start of the
After dealing with a big letdown after the unexpected decision by Skyreach to discontinue the manufacture of the Bushcat, the Knoll family (AeroSport) has come up with a heck of a second act... and it should be a strong one. Advanced Powerplant Solutions, LLC (APS), under the new ownership of Jeremy and Daniela Knoll has acquired Leading Edge Air Foils, LLC (LEAF). Better yet, effective immediately, APS will serve as the ROTAX independent Service Centre for the Central United States. The Popular Rotorcraft Association is reaching out for help in rebuil
Easy Online Forms Available For Sport Plane Manufacturers And Suppliers To Be Listed In The Upcoming eSPRG
Work on the SportPlane Resource Guide is going well… Albeit a little bit behind schedule, because as we got into this process, things became a bit more complicated simply because we learned we could do an even better job at certain aspects of this project than we thought from the beginning. They say that the enemy of true quality is the phrase "good enough" and we want to be far more than “good enough.”
FMI: www.sportplane.com,
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With The eSPRG Only Weeks Away From Its Start Date, A-AF Will Help To Support Sport Flyers, Worldwide
With the all-new and all-digital SportPlane Resource Guide getting ready for publication early next year, the Aero-News Network is pleased to announce yet another addition to the Airborne video news programming roster… Airborne-Affordable Flyers. Dedicated to keeping people up-to-date on the most affordable aspects of sport and general aviation, Airborne-Affordable Flyers is one of our most exciting offerings yet. A-AF will delve into more than just the current LSA community, but look at all aspects of aviation to examine and ev
Accident Pilot Was New To The Company, And He And The Chief Pilot Were Practicing Quick Stop Maneuvers
Analysis: The accident pilot was new to the company, and he and the chief pilot were practicing quick stop maneuvers in the helicopter. The pilots reported that while performing a quick stop maneuver over a taxiway, they heard a noise before the nose of the helicopter began turning right and the skids touched down. Postaccident examination of the helicopter by a Federal Aviation Administration inspector revealed that its horizontal stabilizer was substantially damaged.
From 2015 (YouTube (Version): One Of The Most Popular SportPlanes Gets A Safety Enhancement
In the world of sport aviation, you can never get enough of a good thing... especially when that good thing is a safety enhancement for one of the most popular SportPlanes in recent memory. Whole-airframe emergency recovery systems for Vans RV-7 and RV-9 are now available from BRS Aerospace. The "bag deployed" system meets the ASTM Standard F 2316-12 for recovery parachutes. The unit is stowed in a specially designed frame suspended from structural
BIG Upgrades In The Works --- ANN Is Seeking EXCEPTIONAL New Staffers
The last few years have been about as challenging a time as we can recall... but we survive (yeah, we're kinda surprised, too) and look forward to 2023 and what we see as a very rewarding (and yes, still challenging) new generation of activities at ANN. After some truly weird times during the pandemic, ANN continues to expand slowly, but surely, and we have some truly intriguing upgrades coming up over the next few months. In other words, we're about to grow again -- REALLY/TRULY -- and in some novel directions. The much-appreciated expansion of
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And That's But One Of Over A Dozen Major Developments Planned For The Next Year Or So
Aero-News Network is now available on Roku and Amazon FireTV! That’s right folks. You can now get your daily dose of aviation news… right on the ol' giggle box! This is an EPIC development for our network, one of many to come, and we’re thrilled to offer you this new way to watch our news programming. Whether you’re a traditional website reader, podcast listener, or YouTube subscriber, we’re dedicated to giving you quality, honest, aviation news that you can trust and broadening our reach and audience aggressively in the coming years, so that we may both Grow and Inform the aviatio
Brand New! Avoid The Need For A Comeback... Get Your Marketing Right, Right Now!
Some time ago, the Aero-News Network, responding to numerous requests, established a marketing and communications sister company by the name of AEROPRENEUER... and it's been doing amazing work under these difficult circumstances -- and getting results! We're getting rave reviews from our clients, and working hard to earn the trust of a number of new marketing partners along the way. ANN's Amber Cedroni has come up with a few tips to help aero-businesses stay alive in these tough times, and
Emphasis On Growing The Future of Aviation Through Concentration on 'AFFORDABLE FLYERS'
It's been a number of years since the Latest Edition of Jim Campbell's HUGE SportPlane Resource Guide first saw the light of day. That massive 1100 page book last featured over 800 exciting sport aircraft from all over the SportPlane universe... at a time when the SportPlane industry was still a healthy, thriving enterprise (those were the days...). While there has been some consideration, off and on, toward updating the nearly 5 pound book, the near implosion of the SportPlane and kit industry over the last decade has made such a pursuit an unwieldy one... until now.
It’s been a while since we have reminded everyone about all the ways we offer your daily dose of aviation news on-the-go...so here is a full list of ways you can subscribe to our channels and get notifications when there are new episodes or breaking news!
1) Subscribe To Our Newsletter
When surveyed, almost half of our audience shared with us that they rely on our daily newsletter to get their aviation news for the day and stay up-to-date in their field or craft. Are you subscribed yet? If not, use the link below to receive our daily Propwash emails that always feature a feed of our latest stories and breaking news.
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Aero Linx: Pararescue
Air Force Pararescuemen, also known as PJs, are the only DoD elite combat forces specifically organized, trained, equipped, and postured to conduct full spectrum Personnel Recovery (PR) to include both conventional and unconventional combat rescue operations. These Battlefield Airmen are the most highly trained and versatile Personnel Recovery specialists in the world. Pararescue is the nation's force of choice to execute the most perilous, demanding, and extreme rescue missions anytime, anywhere across the globe.
IDENT Feature
The special feature in the Air Traffic Control Radar Beacon System (ATCRBS) equipment. It is used to immediately distinguish one displayed beacon target from other beacon targets.
The goal of the Airborne Partnership Initiative is to grow this program to include a significant portion, if not a majority, of the aviation world’s pivotal organizations, interests, and viewpoints.
"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 who have continued (to) expand their parts distribution and manufacturing operations. Aircraft Spruce acquired only the Wag-Aero parts distribution division."
Source: This is the message that appeared w
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