Speak Now, or …

In light of the likelihood of MOSAIC ascending, imminently, from NPRM to the decidedly more august station of fully-ratified Federal Aviation Regulation, Brad Clark, president of light-helicopter maker Vertical Aviation Technologies, Inc. has set forth the following communique to his company’s customers ...

Numerous Reports of Undelivered Kits, Unsent Refunds, and Incomplete Deliveries Abound

News, Information, and Opinion by ANN CEO/Editor-In-Chief, Jim Campbell In covering the aviation community for the 50 years (yup, I’m getting old…), since my first articles appeared in sport aviation public publications at the tender age of 16, I have watched many a company come and go, while quite a few products turn out to be not what they were promised… And in some of the cases we've seen, they turned out to be deadly. Thankfully such horrific stories are in the very significant minority, with most of the stories creating dissatisfaction in the aviation community surrounding companies that either bit off more than they could chew, making promises they couldn't keep, getting into trouble businesswise, or just plain out screwing their customers. The biggest problem that we face in starting a story investigating complaints against a company or product, occurs in trying to do the massive amount of due d

Tragedy’s Long Shadow

On 02 October 2019, seven people perished when a World War II-era Boeing B17 Flying Fortress dubbed Nine-O-Nine went down minutes after departing Windsor Locks, Connecticut’s Bradley International Airport (BDL). Comes now 2023, and a settlement has been reached between the downed B-17’s operator, a number of the accident’s six survivors, and families of the deceased—so stated attorneys representing eight of the ten passengers either killed or injured in the mishap.

NFL Star and AOPA V.P. Perish in C177 Mishap

Retired New England Patriots tight end Russ Francis (70) and Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) senior vice-president and Air Safety Foundation head Richard McSpadden (63) perished on Sunday, 01 October 2023 when a Cessna 177 Cardinal single-engine airplane piloted by the one-time NFL star went down shortly after departing Upstate New York’s Lake Placid Airport (LKP).

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The UK’s CAA has approved a modification protocol by which Magni Gyro’s M24C autogyro may be granted approval for night flight operations. The modification—designated AAN 29276 Addendum 2—comprises the introduction of a dedicated avionics suite, appropriately-adapted instrument panels, and new internal and external lights. So retrofitted, Magni Gyro’s M24C autogyro may be operated, by qualified pilots, under Night VFR conditions. The driver of a semi-truck hauling a reportedly-new $30-million Sikorsky S-92 helicopter failed to adequately contemplate his load’s vertical dimension relative the height of an Interstate 12 overpass in the vicinity of Denham Springs, Louisiana. The DJI drone catalog has been supplemented, most recently, by the company’s introduction of the DJI Mini 4 Pro, a drone DJI asserts has

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Zenith Aircraft thanked a throng of Zenith owners, pilots, and enthusiasts who participated in the 32nd annual Zenith Aircraft Homecoming. The 15-16 September 2023 grass-roots event was held in and around the company’s Mexico, Missouri factory, and comprised an array of leisure and educational activities that included hands-on workshops, seminars, panel discussions, and even a barbecue banquet. Aero-News Network congratulates Sonex builder Lou Toth, who set a National Aeronautics Association (NAA) speed over a recognized course record in Dreamcicle, his AeroVee powered, tricycle gear, orange-and-white-liveried Sonex The record was set in Class R for Microlights per European standards. The town of Holly Hill, has promulgated an ordinance prohibiting operations of aircraft massing less-than six-hundred-pounds at Holly Hill Airport (5J5). S

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A couple of years ago, new ownership bought the Rotorway helicopter kit operation and rebranded it as Rotor X. Over the course of many months, we received numerous complaints about Rotor X, with reports of dozens of customers who claim to have bought helicopter kits or sub kits not gotten what they paid for. Some have paid in full, with amounts exceeding well in excess of $100,000, and received little or nothing (so far) in return. AOPA has issued a statement that notes, "We are deeply saddened to report that Richard McSpadden, AOPA Senior Vice President, died in an aircraft accident outside Lake Placid, New York, on Sunday afternoon. The Cardinal 177 in which Richard was in the right seat experienced an emergency after takeoff. The airplane attempted to return to the airport but failed to make the runway. United Airlines has launched the United M

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Congress may not approve a Fiscal Year 2024 (FY24) spending bill prior to the Sunday, 01 October deadline. The International Council of Air-Shows (ICAS) has issued an advisory setting forth the imminent closing of the egregiously-abused federal cash-pipeline will likely impact U.S. air-shows slated to take place in October and November 2023. NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, while executing a 16 September 2023 sortie, broke its own Martian altitude record, ascending 66-feet above Mars’s surface. This was the 59th flight, and the craft is well into its 31st month on the Red Planet. A representative of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory set forth in a 19 September X posting: "Ingenuity has set a new record! The #MarsHelicopter successfully completed Flight 59, flying its highest altitude yet—twenty-meters [66 feet].

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NASA's Ingenuity helicopter, while executing a 16 September 2023 sortie, broke its own Martian altitude record, ascending 66-feet above Mars’s surface. This was the 59th flight, and the craft is well into its 31st month on the Red Planet. Lilium GmbH has commenced assembling fuselages for its Lilium Jet—an eVTOL personal air vehicle the company asserts remains on track for a late-2024 maiden flight. Fuselage assembly instantiates a tangible manifestation of Lilium’s ability to see its planned eVTOL proceed from conceptualization to actualization. Skydio has debuted its latest Enterprise drone, the Skydio X10—a model embodying an eminently useful synthesis of cutting-edge data-capture cameras, autonomy, and versatile hardware conducive to applications within the defense, energy, public-safety, transportation, construction, and communicatio

Hydrogen in the High Desert

Hawthorne, California-based Universal Hydrogen is an energy concern about the speculative business of making hydrogen-powered commercial flight a near-term reality. In June 2023, Lightning McClean undertook a ferry-flight from Moses Lake to California’s Mojave Air and Space Port (ERO), thereby significantly expanding the hydrogen fuel-cell powertrain’s operational envelope. Comes now September 2023, and Lightning McClean, by dint of ten successful test-flights, continues to advance upon Universal Hydrogen’s ambition to see its powertrain technology enter into commercial service in 2026.