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FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson is planning to travel to Seattle to personally fly a 737 MAX sim prior to the airplane's recertification. Dickson said that he plans to make the trip this week in order to make an evaluation of software changes to the airplane's MCAS, which has been implicated in two accidents earlier this year leading to a worldwide grounding of the airliner. Dickson, a former airline pilot, will also meet with Boeing officials in Seattle. He said the FAA has no firm timeline for a return to service for the 737 MAX. Even drone politics are getting ugly... Senators Rick Scott (R-FL) , Chris Murphy (D-CT), Tom Cotton (R-AR), Josh Hawley (R-MO), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) have introduced the American Security Drone Act of 2019, which prohibits the U.S. Government

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OK... this episode is loaded with a lot of regulatory stuff... so strap in and hang on... Since Part 107 came into effect in the summer of 2016, UAS operators in the United States have attempted to figure out how to get FAA approval to operate over people. These attempts had very limited success as thousands of waiver applications were rejected. All that changed this past June. Hensel Phelps, a general contractor out of Colorado, successfully secured a 107.39 for operations over people using the new ParaZero SafeAir + ASTM Professional Kit. The ASTM compliant SafeAir System broke through the waiver barrier and has proven to be the only truly scalable solution for operations over people. In the 3 months since the Hensel Phelps waiver, a total of 20 waivers for operations over people have been approved!

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In an event held last week at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Flirtey unveiled an advanced drone delivery technology aircraft dubbed Flirtey Eagle, and released a video of its next-generation delivery drone performing consumer and automated external defibrillator (AED) deliveries to customer homes. Flirtey's system is designed to safely get packages to customers with the delivery goal of less than 10 minutes using drones. The aircraft designer and manufacturer unveiled the Flirtey Eagle, an advanced delivery drone; the Flirtey Portal, a sophisticated takeoff and landing platform that enables scalable store-to-door operations; and an autonomous software platform that enables drones to deliver safely to American homes. Yates Electrospace Corporation has debited their Silent Arrow GD-2000 cargo delivery drone at

Would Prevent Foreign Air Carriers From 'Undermining' Labor Rights Or Standards

The House Transportation Committee has approved "The Fair and Open Skies Act", which is intended to "ensure that authorizations issued by the Secretary of Transportation to foreign air carriers do not undermine labor rights or standards."

Hopes To Be One Of The First Locations For Testing The UAM Service

City officials in Frisco, TX say that a recently-completed heliport along the North Dallas Tollway will potentially be the first test site for Uber Elevate, an Urban Air Mobility plan being developed by the company.

Mission Will Launch In 2026 And Arrive In 2034

NASA has announced that its next destination in the solar system is the unique, richly organic world Titan. Advancing the search for the building blocks of life, the nuclear-powered Dragonfly mission will fly multiple sorties to sample and examine sites around Saturn’s icy moon.

Former NASA Astronaut and Center Director Joins Space Innovator

Sierra Nevada Corporation has named former NASA astronaut and Glenn Research Center director Janet Kavandi as Senior vice president for the company’s Space Systems business area. After 25 years with NASA, Kavandi retired this month as director at Glenn, having led the center’s Moon to Mars work. She is joining SNC in a period of growth for the company’s space initiatives and two years before the first of six missions for SNC’s Dream Chaser spacecraft to service the International Space Station under contract with NASA.

System Was Fully Operational In 70 Minutes In Field Tests

A Raytheon Company team recently conducted a rapid set up demonstration of a land-based expeditionary version of its Joint Precision Approach and Landing System to a group of global military officials at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, MD. JPALS is a GPS-based precision landing system that guides aircraft to precision landings in all weather and surface conditions.

Will Allow For Control Of Engines Aboard Multiple Types Of Aircraft

UAV Navigation has announced a collaboration with Zanzottera, the Italian manufacturer of high performance engines for UAV platforms.

Prototype Citation 500 First Flew In September 1969

Textron Aviation  this month celebrates 50 years since the inaugural flight of the first Citation jet, the Cessna Citation 500. Today, the Citation family represents the most-popular line of business jets with more than 7,500 aircraft delivered worldwide amassing more than 35 million flight hours. These impressive machines are renowned for their ability to combine reliability, efficiency and comfort with advanced technology and class-leading performance.