More Planes, More Flexibility, and Fewer Barriers to the Sky

The FAA’s new MOSAIC rule doesn’t just reshape how light sport aircraft are built: it changes what Sport Pilots can do. Starting in late 2025, pilots flying under Sport Pilot privileges will gain access to a much wider range of aircraft, which translates to enhanced accessibility, affordability, and flexibility across the board. The most significant update was ditching the long-standing 1,320-pound limit, replacing it with stall speed. This change alone opens the door for popular aircraft like the Cessna 172 and Piper Archer to qualify under the new rules, bringing a huge boost to availability and training options.

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Purdue University’s Research Foundation and the Archaeological Legacy Institute have confirmed that they will be putting their quest to find Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra aircraft on hold until next year. The announcement blamed seasonal weather that would jeopardize the expedition if it continued to wait for Kiribati’s green light. SpaceX is clipping the wings on its Starlink Mini users. The company announced that starting November 7, 2025, the maximum supported operating speed for its Roam, Local Priority, and Global Priority plans will drop from 550 mph (471 knots) to 450 mph (391 knots). The change comes as part of what SpaceX calls “ongoing efforts to optimize network performance.” Months after the Federal Aviation Administration pulled her medical on bogus mental health-related claims, Xyla Foxlin has retu

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More than a decade of hard work, legal setbacks, and community advocacy has finally come to fruition, with MOSAIC officially becoming a final rule on October 22, 2025. Around three-quarters of the entire GA fleet now falls under the sport aviation category. The October 22 date is the initial effective date, with additional reforms scheduled for July 2026. Diamond Aircraft is responding to a wave of popular demand from flight schools, clubs, and owners by restarting the production line for its Katana 2-seat single-engine piston airplane. The Katana is well-known for its performance, reliability, and value in the training environment. The company will be building the Katana at its facility in Wiener Neustadt, Austria, and the DA20i will be powered by the Rotax 912 iSc3. One of the more intriguing features of the 2025 Affordable Flying Expo, scheduled fo

Gregory Blatt Discusses Company At EAA AirVenture Oshkosh 2025

ANN’s Rex Alexander spoke with Gregory Blatt, co-founder of H55, at the 2025 EAA AirVenture Air Show and Fly-in in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Blatt first recapped the company’s background, which is that he and the two other co-founders were members of the Solar Impulse Project team. That was an electric airplane that completed the first solar-powered flight around the world in 2017. The flight covered 50,000 km with one person onboard and during that groundbreaking achievement, the aircraft’s longest solar flight lasted 5 days and 5 nights, leading to the company’s name, H55. H55 is all about designing, building, and producing certified electric propulsion systems.

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The Miami-Dade Sheriff’s Office is at the front end of a year-long AI policing experiment, putting a completely autonomous, $200,000 squad car equipped with thermal imaging drones to the test. The so-called Police Unmanned Ground (PUG) Patrol Partner was developed and donated by Policing Lab and Perrone Robotics. The SUV comes on a Ford Explorer platform, fitted with 360-degree cameras, thermal sensors, license plate readers, and a rooftop drone dock. U.S. National Parks have prohibited the use of drones for any reason – absent a special permit – since 2014, yet increasing numbers of drone pilots have ignored the ban, and there are some reports that it’s gotten noticeably worse since the government shutdown, although that is not entirely clear. Conducting illegal drone flights can lead to penalties of up to $5,000 and six months in ja

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Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, in partnership with NASA, successfully completed the first flight of the X-59, an innovative, quiet supersonic aircraft designed to return the capability of supersonic flight to commercial air travel. The X-59 launched from the Skunk Works facility at the U.S. Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, California, and landed near the NASA Armstrong Flight Research Center in Edwards, California. King Schools is stepping up to help fill the gap left by the sudden closure of AceCFI, offering impacted CFIs a major discount to its Flight Instructor Refresher Course (FIRC). AceCFI, an online FIRC service, ceased operations after its FAA authorization expired on September 30, 2025. While the FAA had officially removed AceCFI from its list of approved providers on August 29, few customers received any advance notice. Nearly a month in

From 2016 (YouTube Edition): Hear the Story of the CAF B-29 Named “FIFI”…

While at EAA AirVenture 2016, our ANN video crew headed out to get some shots of the Commemorative Air Force (CAF) B-29, known as “FIFI”. We met up with Steve Zimmerman, who was the aircraft commander for “FIFI” on this year’s trip to AirVenture. Zimmerman provides a great overall background of the airplane, how it flies, and what kind of original equipment it still has installed. As Zimmerman describes the various items, our camera crews do a great job of picking up exactly what he was talking about. You’ll also see some great World War II film clips of the B-29’s in action.  

While Descending Toward ASN, He Advanced The Throttle, But The Engine Did Not Respond

On October 2, 2025, at 1126 central daylight time, a Cirrus SR22, N812SE, was substantially damaged when it was involved in an accident near Talladega, Alabama. The commercial pilot sustained minor injuries, and the two passengers were not injured. The airplane was being operated as a Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 personal flight. The flight originated from Birmingham–Shuttlesworth International Airport, Birmingham, Alabama, and was destined for Talladega Municipal Airport (ASN), Talladega, Alabama. According to the pilot, after departure he climbed to 3,500 ft., mean sea level (msl).

Aero Linx: British Gliding Association (BGA) The British Gliding Association is the governing body for the sport of gliding in the UK and members are the 76 clubs that provide gliding facilities for their members – clubs that are spread throughout the UK from the north of Scotland to the SW tip of England and which range from small, member-run clubs through to some of the largest gliding clubs in the world. Through these clubs, we represent and provide services to all glider pilots.

Outer Area (Associated w/Class C Airspace) Non-regulatory airspace surrounding designated Class C airspace airports wherein ATC provides radar vectoring and sequencing on a full-time basis for all IFR and participating VFR aircraft. The service provided in the outer area is called Class C service which includes: IFR/IFR-IFR separation; IFR/VFR-traffic advisories and conflict resolution; and VFR/VFR-traffic advisories and, as appropriate, safety alerts. The normal radius will be 20 nautical miles with some variations based on site-specific requirements. The outer area extends outward from the primary Class C airspace airport and extends from the lower limits of radar/radio coverage up to the ceiling of the approach control's delegated airspace excluding the Class C charted area and other airspace as appropriate.