Also: Sebring 2017, Eastern 980, EAA Wants The Best, GerMap, Supreme Court v A/L Pax, F-35 Production, Garmin

Superior Air Parts put out a statement congratulating Michel Gordillo on being the first to circumnavigate the north and south poles in a homebuilt aircraft weighing under 1,750 kilograms, which equates to 3,858 pounds.

Gordillo is also the only pilot to ever fly a single-engine aircraft across the continent of Antarctica. Superior Air Parts’ Scott Hayes said, “This is an amazing and truly historic adventure. We are extremely proud that Mr. Gordillo put his trust in a Superior XP-360 Engine to power the Vans RV-8 ‘Sky Polaris’ aircraft he built for this challenging flight.” It’s reported that during the 10 year construction of the airplane, Gordillo made many modifications to the RV-8, which included a fuel capacity of 192 gallons. SpaceX plans to return to launch its first satellite since a launch pad explosion in September from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on January 8. The announcement of a return to flight comes as SpaceX says it has concluded its investigation into launch pad accident at Cape Canaveral, Florida on September 1. According to a Financial Times report, both Boeing and Airbus may face a challenging year in 2017 after both saw sales slip last year. The report also stated that when the two planemakers release their final reports for sales later this month, the numbers will likely indicate that they fell short of their sales goals for 2016. All this -- and MORE in today's episode of Airborne!!!

Airborne 01.05.17 is chock full of info in this Daily News Episode, Wednesday, January 5th, 2017... Presented by Aero-TV veteran videographer and Airborne Hosts Brianne Cross, Christopher Odom, and Laura Hutson, and is supported by ANN CEO/Editor-In-Chief Jim Campbell, Chief Videographer Nathan Cremisino, and Aero-Journalists Tom Patton, and Earl Downs, this episode covers:

• Michel Gordillo Circumnavigates Globe in RV-8
• SpaceX Plans Return To Flight January 8 
• New Year May Be Challenging For Boeing, Airbus 
• Garmin introduces G1000 NXi
• Aero-Community: Sebring Sport Expo 2017
• NTSB To Examine Flight Recorder From Eastern Airlines Flight 980
• EAA Looks For Best And Brightest Ideas
• GerMap Introduces New Mapping Drone 
• Supreme Court Asked To Reverse Decision Placing New Burdens On Airline Passenger
• Pace Of F-35 Production Set To Increase

Get Comprehensive, Real-Time, 24/7 coverage of the latest aviation and aerospace stories anytime, at aero-news.net. And be sure to join us again next week for the next edition of "Airborne Unlimited" here on Aero-TV. Thanks for watching. See you, again, tomorrow!

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