As Pilot Retention Gains Importance, Low-Time Pilots Have a Chance to Make Some Hay

Envoy is sweetening the deal for new hire pilots, offering up to $100,000 of bonus money for those with the kind of logbook the airline is looking for. For those pilots who receive a conditional job offer until December 31, 2022, the full amount of the bonuses (less taxes, of course) will be paid out on the day prior to the pilot's reporting to training. The catch? Pilots will have to have a good deal of Part 121 flight time under their belt.

Oregon Company Seeks to Redefine Jet Set

Developed by an engineering team comprising veterans of aircraft design and certification programs at Bombardier, Cessna, Icon, Piper, SyberJet, Epic, Glasair, Kestrel, and Lancair, Redmond, Oregon-based Stratos Aircraft’s 716X affords owners/pilots the satisfaction of building a high-performance experimental jet that—though ineligible for certification as a normal category airplane—meets the requirements of FAR Part 23.2005 Level 2 [2 to 6 occupants], high-speed airplanes [VMO >250 KCAS or MMO >0.6 Mach].

Also: ‘Airborne-NextGen’ Coming Soon, XQ-58 Autonomous Aircraft, ispace Mission 1, Cornwall Spaceport

Archer Aviation has unveiled its production aircraft, Midnight, a pilot-plus-four-passenger eVTOL aircraft during its Open House event in Palo Alto, CA. Midnight is the evolution of Archer’s demonstrator eVTOL aircraft, Maker, which has validated its twelve-tilt-six configuration and key enabling technologies. A group of three organ procurement organizations—San Antonio’s Texas Organ Sharing Alliance (TOSA), Houston’s LifeGift, and Oklahoma City’s LifeShare—have teamed with the Matador Unmanned Aerial System Con

Gulf Region Expected to Continue its Love Affair With French BizJets

Dassault will be showing off its Falcon 8X at this year's Middle East & North Africa Business Aviation Association (MEBAA) show and exhibition. The long-range trijet has continued to prove popular in the Gulf region, given its long range and additional redundancy. Large cabin Falcons like the Falcon 8X make up a third of the 75 Dassault aircraft operating in the area, allowing owners to split the difference between a long-legged aircraft and a short field performer.

Suspect’s Costar Killed in February 2022 Mishap

Matt Wright, star of the Australian reality television series Outback Wrangler, is facing charges of perverting the course of justice, destruction of evidence, fabricating evidence, interfering with witnesses, and unlawful entry in connection with a 28 February 2022 helicopter accident that claimed the life of his series co-star, Chris “Willow” Wilson. Wright denies any wrongdoing and states he will mount a vigorous defense against the charges. 

NASA Sports a Low-Tech Solution to a High-Tech Problem with Plush Zero-G Indicator

Photography from a recent Artemis I test flight showed a familiar sight for attentive space enthusiasts, with a small stuffed Snoopy along for the ride. Fans of the NASA space program are familiar with the little dog, Snoopy, an invention of Peanuts cartoonist Charles Schult. The character has been a sort of semi-official mascot for NASA, a running reference to the heyday of space travel.

Much Ado About H2

Rolls-Royce, the British aerospace and defense company and world’s second-largest maker of aircraft engines (after General Electric), has partnered with easyJet, the British low-cost airline group, to convert and run a modern, gas-turbine aircraft engine on hydrogen—and in so doing set a milestone in aerospace propulsion. The ground static-fire test of a converted Rolls-Royce AE 2100-A engine was conducted at England’s Royal Air Force Boscombe Down military air base.

New Crop of Would-Be Astronauts Builds on Agency's Next-Gen Accommodation Goals

John McFall made history this year as the first physically disabled astronaut, brought on as one of the European Space Agency's new crop of recruits. McFall joins 16 new faces from across the EU, picked from about 22,500 applicants as the ESA ran its first open casting call in more than a decade. The 41-year-old said he hopes that his selection will help to inspire others to try for their dreams, too. His position as an amputee will be part of an effort to gauge the feasibility of disability in space travel, allowing the ESA to build experience in spaceborne accommodations for people outside the able-bodied norm that astronauts have long been required to fit.

Federal Appeals Court Ruling Bolsters 737 MAX Recovery

A federal appeals court has rejected a class-action lawsuit accusing Boeing and Southwest Airlines of suppressing knowledge of the 737 MAX’s design flaws, thereby placing the flying public in harm’s way. Originally filed in 2019 subsequent the grounding of the 737 Max fleet amongst allegations that Boeing had long been aware of defects with the aircraft’s Maneuvering Characteristics Augmentation System (MCAS) software—the lawsuit alleged that Dallas-based Southwest Airlines, Boeing’s largest 737 Max customer, was likewise aware of the MCAS’s shortcomings and opted to conceal subject knowledge from the public.

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