News

Marianne Beard Nutt, a member of the WASP class of 1943, died Jan. 16. She was 84. Born in 1920, Nutt developed a passion for aviation at the tender age of 7 after seeing Amelia Earhart in her Beech. Although her family did not have the money for flying lessons and she was told girls […]

When George Christie was 16 years old, aviation was in its Golden Age. Armed with a $5 Kodak camera, the young aviation buff had plenty of opportunities to take photos of his favorite thing — airplanes — and the personalities who flew them. Some of his favorites include shots of the Boeing Clipper at Lake […]

Officials in Harris County, Georgia, are in a quandary. A developer of a resort hotel — essential, they say, to the success of the county’s main tourist attraction, Callaway Gardens — wants to close Pine Mountain Airport (PIM). But county officials — and the FAA — want the airport to stay open. The airport, Callaway […]

Mother Nature, in the form of drying winds, is helping with the cleanup at Corona Municipal Airport (AJO) in Southern California. The airport has been closed to the general public since the second week of January. Torrential rains turned the airport into a lake last month. Although most of the aircraft were moved to higher […]

The Aviat Husky is known for its STOL capability and nimble handling. How could anyone improve on that? By changing the aileron and flaps on the aircraft, says Stu Horn, owner of Aviat Husky, Inc. The first thing Husky fans will notice, says Horn, is that the spade that hung off the wing has been […]

Sportsplanes.com, which has established 20 Sport Aircraft Regional Centers (SARCs), plans to open a few more to attain national coverage. The Salt Lake City-based company is in the process of looking for qualified flight schools to train sport pilots. Each SARC Director has a goal of affiliating with a minimum of five Sport Pilot training […]

If there is one constant in aviation, it is that the industry is constantly evolving. The evolution covers not only aircraft and engine design, but also the people who run the businesses. Gretchen Jahn, the CEO of Mooney Airplane Co., is a good example. Jahn, who joined the Kerrville, Texas-based company in late 2004, is […]

Despite last minute efforts of the Seaplane Pilots Association and the Washington State Department of Transportation Aviation Division, the city of Lakewood, Washington, has closed American Lake Seaplane Base. According to city officials, the lease with the base’s operator expired in December 2004 and neither the operator nor the city expressed an interest in renewing […]

Troubled times continue at Commander Aircraft Co., as the Bethany, Okla.-based company is set to be liquidated. After two failed attempts to find saviors for the bankrupt company, Commander’s December 2002 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing has been converted to a Chapter 7 filing by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Delaware. All operations at the company […]