Total 2023 Sales to Date Exceed $2.4-Billion

The Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA) has released its third-quarter 2023 Avionics Market Report. In the first nine-months of the year, total worldwide business and general aviation avionics sales amounted to $2,415,800,131.52, or more than $2.4-billion as reported by the participating companies. During the third-quarter months of July, August, and September, sales increased 9.9-percent compared to the same time frame one year ago. Although third-quarter sales decreased 1.1-percent sequentially from the second quarter of 2023, the more than $814-million in sales during the third-quarter marked the second-highest quarterly sales volume in the history of the report, surpassed only by the previous qua

Expert Speakers to Grace Granite City Event

The Illinois Ultralight Advisory Council, the Illinois Department of Transportation, Division of Aeronautics, and the Federal Aviation Administration, Springfield FSDO, are presenting the 42nd Annual IUAC Ultralight/Light Sport Symposium. 2024’s event will be held in Granite City, Illinois on Saturday, 25 February. Admission is free. Pre-registration is not required. Formerly known as the Illinois Ultralight and Light Plane Safety Seminar, the event has been rebranded and relocated.

Flight Training and Post-Secondary scholarships Offered

The Experimental Aircraft Association has made known that applications for 2024 EAA Aviation Scholarships will be accepted from 01 November 2023 through 01 March 2024. Flight training and post-secondary scholarships are available to all persons over the age of 16. Flight training scholarships help cover costs at any U.S. or Canadian flight school that isn’t a university program. Post-secondary scholarships help pay for collegiate level programs in the United States, including but not limited to: aerospace or aeronautical engineering, aviation business administration, air traffic control, aviation maintenance, professional flight, or any aviation-related STEM field.

Testing of Sierra Space Reusable Lifting Body Ongoing

Sierra Space has revealed its Dream Chaser space-plane—the culmination of years of the company’s investment, research, development, work, blood, sweat, etc. The first Dream Chaser specimen, dubbed Tenacity, is complete and will presently be shipped to NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Ohio, where it will undergo a battery of environmental tests over the coming weeks. Heralded as the world’s sole commercial, runway-capable space-plane, Dream Chaser occasions a genuine and dramatic forward leap in space technology.

Hot in Brazil

Embraer delivered 43 jets in 2023’s third-quarter, an increase of thirty-percent compared to 2022’s third-quarter, during which 33 aircraft were delivered. Commercial Aviation has shown robust delivery growth, soaring from ten to 15 aircraft, a fifty-percent increase compared to the same period in 2022. For Executive Aviation, there was also an increase; 28 jets delivered (19 light and 9 medium) representing a 22-percent increase compared to 2022’s third-quarter.

The Mosquito Evolves

Formerly known as Mosquito, Trenton, Florida-based Composite FX is a designer and manufacturer of personal kit and factory-finished helicopters. The company’s offerings comprise three piston-engined models and a single jet-powered machine. The agile XE and the float-equipped XEL both make use of the 63-horsepower, two-cylinder, two-stroke, fan-air-cooled, carbureted, MZ202-powerplant. The larger XE-290 model is powered by the ninety-horsepower, two-cylinder, two-stroke, liquid-cooled, fuel-injected, CFX-800 engine. Finally, the flagship XET is motivated by a 95-horsepower, radial-inflow, T62-T2A1 Solar Turbine

Whale Pod and Nose Extension Retrofits Approved

Butler National Corporation subsidiary Avcon Industries, Inc., has been granted Federal Aviation Administration Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) SA04581CH, which approves the retrofitting of Textron Aviation’s King Air B300 model twin-turboprop aircraft with Avcon’s nose extension and extra-large Whale Pod modifications. The two alterations are FAA approved for simultaneous installation and collectively provide King Air B300 operators approximately eighty additional cubic-feet of cargo space within a fuselage-mounted pod.

Papua New Guinea National Carrier Modernizing Fleet

Air Niugini, the national carrier of Papua New Guinea, has signed a firm order with Airbus for six latest generation single aisle A220-100s under its fleet modernization program. In addition, the carrier will acquire three A220-300s and another two A220-100s from third party lessors. The order was announced at a special event in Port Moresby by Gary Seddon, Acting Chief Executive Officer Air Niugini and Anand Stanley, President Airbus Asia-Pacific, in the presence of the Hon. James Marape, Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea and Hon. William Duma, Minister for State Enterprises.

Four Perish in PA-28-140 Mishap

The NTSB has released its preliminary report on a 01 October 2023 accident in which a Piper PA-28-140, registration N7153R, was substantially damaged and its pilot and three passengers suffered fatal injuries shortly after departing Moab, Utah’s Canyonlands Regional Airport (CNY). The accident-aircraft was operated as a personal flight under Part 91 of the Federal Aviation Regulations.

Aero Linx: International Ryan Club The International Ryan Club is a community dedicated to the preservation and appreciation of pre-WWII Ryan aircraft. Help us keep the Ryan flyin! Members enjoy access to a network of Ryan enthusiasts, technical resources, vintage publications, and the ability to post questions, events, news, photos, and classified ads to community forums.

Beyond Visual Line Of Sight (BVLOS) The operation of a UAS beyond the visual capability of the flight crew members (i.e., remote pilot in command [RPIC], the person manipulating the controls, and visual observer [VO]), if used to see the aircraft with vision unaided by any device other than corrective lenses, spectacles, and contact lenses. 

“Today we have arrived at a profound milestone in both our company’s journey and our industry’s future, one that has been years in the making and is shaped by audacious dreaming and tenacious doing.” Source: Sierra Space CEO Tom Vice, discussing the first Dream Chaser specimen, dubbed Tenacity -- which is now complete and will presently be shipped to NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Ohio, where it will undergo a battery of environmental tests over the coming weeks.