The good news continues at Mooney Airplane Co., which reports that it had record new orders and deliveries for the first quarter of 2005. The Kerrville, Texas-based company recorded 13 new orders in the first three months of the year. It also delivered 20 aircraft, more than doubling its output from the first quarter of […]
Teaching the next generation
Recently I witnessed an exchange between father and teenage daughter. The daughter, a student in the inaugural class of Seattle’s Aviation High School, was begging her father to let her start her flight training now. She is 14. “No, not until you’re older,” he said. “I don’t want to spend all that money and have […]
Sport Pilot insurance is available to schools
Is sport pilot training insurable for commercial flight schools? Yes! (However there are some long-standing parameters.) This letter is in response to a recent letter regarding the insurability of flight schools conducting flight training for new sport pilots (Are commercial flight schools uninsurable? May 20 issue). First off, I could not agree more with the […]
Double take
While I realize the Accident Reports are published as an educational tool, I did a double take when reading about the accident involving the Cessna 182 in Hatton, N.D. (May 6 issue). The contributing factor to the probable cause was listed “delayed remedial action by the flight instructor and the tree” (emphasis added). Ronald R. Redpath […]
‘Lindbergh’s Secret’
The Lockheed P-38 was one of the legendary fighters of World War II. Crowds are still thrilled when one flies by. The 475th Fighter Group, with 552 victories, was the top P-38 fighter group in the Second World War. America’s second highest scoring ace, with 38 victories, was Major Thomas McGuire, who flew the Lockheed […]
After you Alphonse…
Reports of the Airbus A380 maiden flight have introduced a new, and exquisitely European, phrase to cockpit management: Command Sensitivity Awareness. To demonstrate their Command Sensitivity Awareness, the oh-so-politically-correct French announced that the A380’s two pilots were “alternate pilots in command and shared responsibility for the flight.” Is it, peut-etre, impossible for a Frenchman to […]
To infinity and beyond!
AERA Corp., which is developing the Altairis Rocket for civilian space travel, has started selling tickets for its maiden flight, expected to lift off from Cape Canaveral in December 2006. Altairis is designed to launch six passenger astronauts and one mission commander into space and bring them safely back to Earth. But there aren’t any […]
“The Aviator” director tackles Airbus
Martin Scorsese appears to have been bitten by the aviation bug. Following “The Aviator,” last year’s biopic on Howard Hughes which garnered 11 Academy Awards, Scorsese is planning to make a documentary about Airbus. The filmmaker will co-direct a feature documentary about the European company, which recently unveiled the huge A380 aircraft. His directing partner […]
What’s a billion here or there?
WASHINGTON, D.C. — If you live the average life span, from the moment you are born until your death your heart will beat a little more than 2 billion times. Many years ago when I worked for a newspaper, I drew a caricature of one of the columnists. He liked it and used it to […]