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 […]
Food that’s out of this world
What do you do when you have a passion for aviation and make your living in the food service industry? Turn a DC-3 mounted on a school bus frame into a café, of course. In the 1990s Phil and Becky Peterson of Oxnard, Calif., were toying with the idea of mating an airframe with a […]
Another kind of food drop
Do you find it challenging to get your dog to take a heartworm pill carefully hidden in a ball of hamburger? Imagine the challenge of dropping tons of oral rabies vaccine over Texas, hidden in dog food in hopes that gray foxes will eat it. The Texas Department of State Health Services did just that […]
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 […]
Flying with the NASCAR Air Force
I learned more from my high school social studies teacher, Mrs. Packan, than any other teacher I’ve ever had. One of the lessons that has stuck to this day is that there is a “good” reason and a “real” reason for every decision. When we moved to South Carolina in 1998, the “good” reason was […]
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 […]
Navajo back away from Utilicraft deal
The Navajo Nation withdrew its previously announced financial support of the Utilicraft twin turboprop cargo plane in mid-February. The Navajo Economic Development Committee made the decision on the advice of two New Mexico state agencies, one of which, the state’s Economic Development Department, had brought the two parties together in the first place. However, according […]
Aviator, writer and editor Edwards Park dies
Edwards Park, best known to pilots for his contributions to “Air & Space” magazine and for his book about flying a P-39 in World War II New Guinea, died Feb. 12 from complications following a fall. He was 87. Park was a founding editor of “Smithsonian” magazine. Including his frequent contributions to Smithsonian publications after […]
Transient ops at the ‘DC-3’ — at last
The infamous “DC-3” airports — the three general aviation fields inside the Flight Restricted Zone around Washington, D.C. — are once again open to transient traffic. Well, sort of. Open, that is, to anyone who wants to go through the Transportation Security Administration’s vetting process. For the DC-3, that means being fingerprinted at Reagan National […]