An FAA certification official said on Wednesday that Boeing 737 engine inlets might require design changes in the wake of a Southwest Airlines accident last April in which an uncontained engine failure breached the cabin and caused the death of a passenger. Testifying at an NTSB fact-finding hearing on the accident, another FAA official said it’s “not impossible” to set a life limit on engine fan blades.
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Following the Lion Air crash in Indonesia last month, the FAA is focusing new scrutiny on the control architecture of the Boeing 737 MAX and may require the company to engineer a fix for an auto trim system installed on the airplane. The system wasn’t well documented and reporting has revealed that pilots and airlines were unaware of it.
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As Boeing pushed to provide airlines with more information on a background auto trim system on its 737 MAX, the head of one pilot union said it’s not necessary for pilots to know the details of every automatic system on an airliner and that they’re already adequately trained to handle runaway trim abnormals.
MoreThis week, AVweb’s news roundup found stories about new simulators for Central Washington University, the launch of a program for aspiring pilots, a training management system agreement for... More
Italian aircraft manufacturer Tecnam announced confirmed orders for 30 aircraft from Chinese Anhui Lantian International Flight Academy (ALIFA) at the biannual Zhuhai International Air Show last... More
The General Aviation Manufacturers Association will accelerate its efforts to work with European regulators to promote the development of electric VTOL aircraft, the association said this week.... More
Dornier Seawings reports having received approximately $170 million in funding from its Chinese shareholders to further develop the amphibious CD2 Seastar Flying Boat. The money will be used to... More
Boeing’s Aurora Flight Sciences revealed a new solar-powered, autonomous high-altitude pseudo-satellite (HAPS) concept on Wednesday. The Odysseus is designed to be an ultra-long-endurance... More
The first of three F/A-18B Hornets scheduled to join NASA’s research fleet arrived at the administration’s Armstrong Flight Research Center last week. The Hornet made the trip from the... More
A report released by the U.S. Air Force points to pilot error as the primary cause of an Air National Guard WC-130 Hercules crash that killed all nine servicemembers onboard. The accident occurred... More
The Lone Star Unmanned Aircraft Systems Center of Excellence and Innovation (LSUASC) at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi (TAMU-CC) announced that it has signed an agreement with Texas’... More
As he does from time to time, Dave, the proprietor of the flight school here at the virtual airport, sent out a mass email to his aircraft rental customers—students and certificated pilots—asking them to come to an evening gathering to... More
Aircraft just out of maintenance are more likely to have safety-of-flight issues than an aircraft in good condition flown on a daily basis. The extent to which an airplane coming out of maintenance will have an issue is proportional to the... More
Recent general aviation and air carrier accidents. More
With Aeromexico Group, CEFA Aviation acquires a new top reference.
MINT Software Systems, the leading manufacturer of training management solutions for the aviation industry, today announces the signature of a service agreement with Jet2.com for the implementation of the web-based training management system MINT TRMS.
Central Washington University (CWU) has awarded Seattle based one-G simulation with a contract for five Foundation Advanced Aviation Training Devices (AATD) and a Piper Archer device that is currently in development at one-G headquarters.
For CFIs, flight reviews are mere bagatelles. It's the biennial renewal that makes a root canal look a better way to spend a Friday afternoon. More
Flying over Lower Otay Lake in Chula Vista, CA, headed for home at John Nichols Field (0CL3) in my Avenger UL. Photo by Peter Sigrist.
