23 Planes Now Moving Out, With Workforce Reductions to Begin in Early 2025

With financial losses looming, Spirit Airlines has announced plans to sell several jets and make significant cuts to its workforce. The carrier has already finalized a half-billion dollar sale with GA Telesis and aims to start job cuts in early 2025. Spirit has again managed to swerve out of bankruptcy, but it can only pawn off so many employees and planes before the issue resurfaces.

States That Current Process is Damaging National Aerospace Development

US Senator Jerry Morgan is pushing the FAA to speed up the process for rocket launch licensing. He argues that the agency is failing to keep up with the quickly expanding aerospace department, therefore damaging the sector’s development. Moran is the highest ranking Republican on the Democrat-led Senate Commerce Aviation subcommittee.

Expands Fleet For Training And Time-Building

Evektor, the Czech manufacturer of light sport aircraft (LSA), announced it has partnered with Odyssey Pilot Hours, a training and time-building operation in Erie, Colorado, to deliver twelve Harmony aircraft in the next few months. Odyssey has taken delivery of the first six Harmonys, with four more to come by the end of 2024, and the final two will join the fleet in early 2025. The Harmony LSAs ordered by Odyssey are Technologically Advanced Aircraft (TAA) equipped with G3X glass cockpit with two touchscreens, GNX375, GNC215, and GMA245R navigation, and G3X autopilot.

Event Returns to China For Four Days of High-Speed Competition

The 2024 Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) World Drone Racing Championship has kicked off in Hangzhou, China. The event runs from October 31 to November 3. This year’s 111 racers, traveling from 32 different nations, are competing for the Overall Individual, Junior, Women, and National Team titles.

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In a move that seemed to come out of left field, Lilium announced it is on the verge of insolvency and has ceased operations. On October 24, Lilium N.V. submitted a Form 6-K filing to the SEC stating that the managing directors of its two operating subsidiaries, Lilium GmbH and Lilium eAircraft GmbH, determined that they are overindebted and will be unable to pay existing liabilities within the next few days. The four astronauts from NASA’s SpaceX-based Crew-8 mission successfully returned to earth at around 3:30 am on October 25. Their stay on the International Space Station lasted eight months; 55 days longer than originally planned. Crew-8 launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center on March 3 with NASA astronauts Matthew Dominick, Michael Barratt, and Jeanette Epps along with Roscosmos Cosmonaut Alexander Grebenkin. Eclipse Aerospace

Current Set Of Nine Areas With Multiple Sites Identified

NASA has released an updated set of potential landing sites near the Lunar South Pole for its crewed Artemis III mission to return humans to the moon for the first time in over fifty years. NASA is preparing for the mission by using imaging data collected by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) vehicle to identify potential landing sites not only for Artemis III but also for missions beyond.

Most Takeoffs In U.S. From Summer To Summer

Pilatus Aircraft announced that its PC-12 single-engine turboprop recorded 316,328 takeoffs between August 2023 and July 2024, representing 8.8% of all departures, according to “WingX Advance”, an aviation industry data provider. The Swiss manufacturer, who introduced the PC-12 in 1994, said its latest version the PC-12NGX, is a state-of-the-art aircraft. In 2023 the company produced over 100 units for delivery worldwide including 48 in the U.S., the world’s dominant business aviation market.

Klyde Bemoans The Fate of the Saturn V's Rep

FMI: www.klydemorris.com

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The ArkanSTOL executive team announced that its annual event and competition would be suspended indefinitely. They cited “evolving professional and personal responsibilities” as the cause, which is certainly a believable statement with the amount of commitment and planning that these grassroot aviation outings require. This unfortunate, yet understandable decision follows last year’s uniquely successful event. Stratolaunch recently completed a set of flight tests aimed to expand the envelope of its Roc air launch aircraft. With a 385 foot wingspan, the Roc is larger than any other aircraft to date. This series of flight tests were held during May and June. They confirmed Roc’s ability to support speeds up to Mach 0.63, operate at altitudes up to 35,000 feet, and return to flight with a shortened break period. NASA has released an updated se

Building Fleet Prior To 2025 Maiden Flight

Airline startup Riyadh Air announced it has placed an order for 60 Airbus A321neo aircraft as it puts together its fleet before launching passenger operations in 2025. The deal was executed in a signing ceremony in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, between Riyadh Air CEO Tony Douglas and Christian Scherer, CEO of Airbus Commercial Aircraft. The purchase is the second major one for Riyadh Air, which has ordered a total of 132 aircraft, a growth rate unprecedented in scale for an airline that has not begun passenger service yet.