The Seawind 300C, billed as the world’s fastest seaplane, is racing towards certification. The amphibian, which began as a kit, is going through dual certification in Canada and the U.S. While initial plans had called for certification in 2004, financing issues slowed the process. But those problems are behind the company now, as final funding, […]
A new meaning to ‘Let’s do lunch’
Imagine the chaos at the drive-through window when Doug Bernard and Becky Larson of New Iberia, La., ordered 450 sandwiches from the local Schlotzsky’s Deli – enough to feed all 450 people who work at The Lancair Co. Actually, they used the phone, not the drive-through, but they did buy lunch for the entire company. […]
New life for an old aircraft
What do you do with an airplane once it’s damaged beyond repair? If you’re the Air Force, you use it to study issues related to aging. That’s what’s happening at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base with a T-1A Jayhawk, a “”missionized”” Beech 400A that was used to train Air Force and Navy aviators to fly cargo […]
What’s next for the Global Flyer?
What’s next for the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer and its millionaire pilot Steve Fossett? Fossett, who flew solo, nonstop around the world in 67 hours, 1 minute and 46 seconds, was presented with the world record by David Hawksett from Guinness World Records a few days after the flight ended. During the presentation, Fossett noted […]
Tortoise on final
When the staff at the Point Defiance Zoo in Tacoma, Wash., was looking for names for the zoo’s Radiated Tortoises, they wanted something that referenced speed — which tortoises do not possess — as sort of a joke. Since the zoo is close to Seattle, birthplace of the Boeing Co., the zoo crew named the […]
Light and shadow
Our world and our lives are composed of light and shadow. That can be taken both literally and euphemistically, of course. Day and night, happiness and sorrow, good times and bad, the bright moments and the dark times as the years go by. These days, somehow, the light seems brighter and the shadow darker than […]
Velocity XL-5
With five years the generally accepted norm as to whether a company survives or goes out of business, it seems safe to say that Duane Swing, chairman and owner of Velocity Aircraft, has found the magic formula. Migrating from Ohio to Sebastian, Fla., in 1992, Swing had a dream: to purchase the assets of Velocity […]
You, too, can look like an airline pilot
Two Senators have concluded that it’s too easy to buy airline pilots’ uniforms. They want the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and the Transportation Security Administration “”to investigate why uniforms are so readily available.”” Senators Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.) and Barack Obama (also D-Ill.) claim that airport security is lax for people who […]
Jury hits Lycoming with $96 million judgment
The $96 million verdict of a Texas jury against Textron Lycoming has left two Dallas lawyers crowing, Lycoming in dead silence, and much of the aviation industry wondering how 12 country folk came to know so much about engineering. The case concerned a back-and-forth legal battle between Lycoming and Interstate Southwest Ltd., supplier of the […]