Diamond Aircraft will begin building its DA40 Diamond Star in China. “We are investing in Chinese domestic production as China is an important emerging GA market,” said Diamond CEO Christian Dries. The new facility is designed to employ as many as 1,700 workers and produce more than 600 aircraft a year, as the Chinese market […]
New visual warning system operational for D.C.
A new visual warning system (VWS) for the Washington, D.C. ADIZ becomes operational May 21. The VWS is a ground-based system that uses low-level beams of alternating red and green lasers designed to alert pilots that they have violated the ADIZ or flight restricted zone (FRZ). Pilots who see this signal should immediately contact ATC […]
Fire season opens with fatal air tanker crash
The crash of an air tanker may prompt another grounding of air tankers during the 2005 fire season. All three crewmen on board were killed when the military surplus P-3B Orion crashed near Chico, Calif., during a training flight April 22. The aircraft, built in 1966 for the United States Navy, was converted to a […]
The outsiders
Alan Klapmeier gets a lot of grief because he’s selling planes. Well, it’s not because he’s selling planes — it’s who he’s selling them to. “Our company gets beat up for trying to sell airplanes to people outside the industry,” says the co-founder and CEO of Cirrus Design Corp., which produces the SR-20 and SR-22. […]
Indicated v. True Airspeed
I was reading the March 25, 2005 issue (No. 6) Pilot’s Report about the XL-5 Velocity. I have a question about the speeds that were presented in the table. The Vne was at 200 kts IAS and the cruise speed (75% power) was at 205 ktas. Can you clarify why the cruise appears to be […]
Thought provoking
William Helsell’s letter in the April 8 issue (Unabashed admiration needs to be tempered) in which he claims no rational person could believe the framers of the Constitution intended the right to bear arms to include weapons that had not yet been invented, was thought provoking. Using that line of reasoning, we must conclude that the […]
Not Nazis
On page 8 of the April 8 issue of GAN, in the obituary about Gen. Salisbury, reference is made to Nazi transport planes being shot down. There were no such things as Nazi planes, Nazi soldiers, Nazi tanks, Nazi ships, whatever. The word “Nazi” was an abbreviation for Nazional Sozialistiche Partei (National Socialist Party), a political party. […]
Air Force Academy gives us the bird
You’ve heard the expression “”fight fire with fire?””‘ When it comes to chasing nuisance birds, such as starlings, away from your airport, try using a bigger bird. It works, say Ted Rosander and John Tekell. The young men are part of the falconry program at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. According to Rosander, the […]
Airplane in a box
Yingling Aviation has launched a new international aircraft shipping enterprise for Cessna 172 Skyhawks, 182 Skylanes and 206 Stationairs. The firm, which was named the first Cessna Authorized Service Center in 1946, made its initial shipment of five Cessna 182s to Hanseo University in South Korea at the end of February. The university will use […]