Homeland Security and U.S. Customs plans to increase screening of general aviation aircraft entering the United States could make cross-border travel much more difficult in the near future. That isn’t the intention, of course, but it falls into that broad regulatory category known as “unintended consequences.” Homeland Security has proposed a new GA security program […]
Aviation and the green hysteria
Last September this column warned that environmental activists were starting to pose a serious threat to aviation. Not just general aviation, but the entire spectrum of powered flight. At the time, we took flak from readers who seem to think, mistakenly, that the human contribution to atmospheric carbon affects global warming and that no price […]
Air show performers Steve Oliver and Suzanne Asbury-Oliver dance through the sky
“It sure beats working for a living.” That from Steve Oliver. He and his wife, Suzanne Asbury-Oliver, perform at air shows across the country in the Oregon Aero SkyDancer. Steve is the aerobatic pilot in the family while Suzanne is a skywriter — one of the few left today. Together, they travel about nine months […]
Put a Mustang in your house — or on top of it
Want to own a Mustang — or Spitfire, Corsair or Air Tractor — but just can’t come up with the cash? Now you can express your love for these classic planes with a 1/5th scale replica that can be used as home décor or a weather vane. “If the house is big enough, some of […]
Airplane, heal thyself
Are self-healing airplanes the next big thing in GA? Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed technology by which airplanes can heal their own skins and engine parts can protect themselves from hazardous materials. Scientists are working on a process where damage triggers the repair mechanism in epoxy-based materials. When a crack […]
European investment in Eclipse ‘in excess of $100 million’
Eclipse Aviation CEO Vern Raburn announced Jan. 14 an “expansion” of his company’s partnership with European Technology and Investment Research Center Aviation (ETIRC), which has invested “substantially in excess of $100 million” in the Albuquerque-based VLJ builder. The investment makes ETIRC the largest shareholder in Eclipse, according to Raburn. ETIRC already was the sales, customer […]
The Flying Farmer’s last show
Charlie Kulp flew his amazing aerobatic comedy routine one last time Oct. 28. The much-admired air show pilot, known far and wide as the Flying Farmer, drew a record crowd to the Flying Circus Aerodrome near Warrenton, Virginia, on a blustery day that concluded with special presentations to Kulp by representatives of the FAA and […]
Spreading the good news: Wolf Aviation Fund supports projects promoting GA
You wouldn’t think a group called Stumps R Us has anything in common with the Air Care Alliance or a show for school kids telling the story of Bessie Coleman, the first African-American woman to earn her pilot’s license. But each of these is one of the 170 winners of grants from the Wolf Aviation […]
A new twist on a fish tale…
Flying fish were the inspiration for an unmanned seaplane developed at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The autonomous craft is believed to be the first seaplane that can initiate and perform its own takeoffs and landings on water. The project is funded by the Department of Defense as part of the federal government’s […]