News

If you can’t save a piece of history in the real world, save it in the virtual world. That’s what was done to the Boeing/United Airlines Hangar that for the past 77 years has graced Iowa City Municipal Airport (IOW) in Iowa. The hangar is slated for demolition to make room for a runway safety […]

Bob Hoover turned 85 on Jan. 24. He has been called a “living legend,” “a magician in the cockpit” — even “the greatest stick-and-rudder pilot who ever lived.” Hoover may actually deserve all that fulsome praise, for his has been a life of doing wonderful, almost magical things with airplanes, not only thrilling a great […]

“This is real and it’s just as bad as we thought it was going to be.” — AOPA President Phil Boyer on the recently released federal budget, which calls for user fees and increased fuel taxes “It is an ironic twist that while DOT Secretary (Mary) Peters said the budget proposal will help get our […]

Pilots have always used their laps as desks. One of the first examples was in 1903 when Charles Manly, the test pilot for Professor Samuel Langley, prepared for a flight of Langley’s Aerodrome by sewing a compass to his trouser leg. The aircraft was launched from a houseboat in the Potomac River on Dec. 8, […]

“You weren’t driving, you were flying low.” Many a teenager or 20-something has heard this from a police officer after being pulled over for drag racing on a city street. Now drag racing is legal in Florida’s Miami-Dade County as long as it’s done at the new drag strip created on the site of the […]

Ballistic Recovery Systems, Inc. (BRS), which manufactures whole-aircraft parachute recovery systems, recently completed a series of successful tests on its Next Generation Parachute System, which is designed to handle much heavier loads, increasing the number of aircraft that could benefit from the systems, according to BRS officials. VLJs are the first target market of the […]

Reports on the Internet and scuttlebutt at airports suggest that some maintenance shops are refusing to work on airplanes that are 18 years old or more. The reason, these reports say, is that aircraft and parts manufacturers are immune from liability suits once their products reach the age of 18, or 18 years after a […]

When the aviation industry took a downturn, Cessna built pizza pans for Pizza Hut (the restaurant chain was founded in Wichita). The company also built furniture for a time, and during World War II sewed uniforms in addition to building aircraft. The number of Cessna employees worldwide is 13,655. Cessna didn’t just build piston-powered aircraft. […]

Before you can plan your future, you need to imagine it. That’s why “Imagining Your Future” is the theme of this year’s Women in Aviation Conference. The 18th annual event is slated for Feb. 15-17 at Disney’s Coronado Springs Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla. Attendees will be immersed in the tactics and strategies necessary […]