Cirrus Design Corp. is being sued by the estates of two Michigan men who were killed in the crash of an SR22 in January 2003. The cause of the crash, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, was a non-instrument rated pilot continuing VFR flight into night IFR conditions. According to the NTSB report, the […]
Commander finds new home in Missouri
Commander Premier Aircraft Corporation (CPAC), a newly formed company that bought the assets of the bankrupt Commander Aircraft Co., is setting up operations in Cape Girardeau, Mo. “Nearly 30 trailers are loaded and rolling and the drivers have been told to head for Cape Girardeau Regional Airport,” said Joel M. Hartstone, CPAC president and CEO. […]
Eclipse certification on target
Eclipse Aviation took delivery of its first flight-ready autopilot from Meggitt in September, passing another milestone along the path to certification. Although the company did not meet its goal for test flight hours as of late September, in part due to the gear-up landing of N505EA, CEO Vern Raburn remains confident that the Eclipse 500 […]
Robert Hanson, 85
Robert Hanson, the last surviving “Memphis Belle” crewman, died Oct. 1 of congestive heart failure at his home near Albuquerque, N.M. He was 85. Hanson was the famous B-17’s radio operator through all 25 its missions over Germany and France.
J. Roy Shoffner, 77
J. Roy Shoffner, who financed restoration of the P-38 “Glacier Girl,” died Sept. 24 just two weeks after his 77th birthday. Shoffner, an entrepreneur with a passion for aviation, became involved in the final stage of “Glacier Girl’s” recovery from beneath the ice of Greenland in 1992. Following that, he took over responsibility for the […]
Marta Bohn-Meyer, 48
Marta Bohn-Meyer, chief engineer for NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center and U.S. Unlimited Aerobatic Team manager, died Sept. 18 in an airplane crash near Oklahoma City. She was 48. Bohn-Meyer was practicing for an upcoming competition in her Giles 300 when the accident happened. According to a preliminary report from the National Transportation Safety Board, […]
Capt. George C. Watkins, 84
Capt. George C. Watkins, a record-setting Navy test pilot, died of a heart attack Sept. 18 in Lompoc, Calif. He was 84. Watkins, dubbed “Gorgeous George” by fellow pilots, was the first Naval aviator to fly above 60,000 feet, then 70,000 feet. On one day in 1956 he set a speed record of 1,220 mph […]
Lockheed Martin takes of AFSS service
Lockheed Martin assumed operation of 58 Automated Flight Service Stations (AFSS) Oct. 4, following an eight-month phase-in period that began Feb. 1, when the company was awarded a $1.7 billion contract. More than 1,750 former FAA employees now work for Lockheed Martin.
Katrina and Rita damaged airports will receive $16 million
Four airports in Texas and Louisiana that were damaged by Hurricanes Rita and Katrina will receive more than $16 million as the first installment of federal funds to pay for repairs, according to Secretary of Transportation Norman Y. Mineta. Louisiana’s Lake Charles Regional Airport will receive almost $8 million to fund repairs to the terminal […]