Also: European Pilots Crowdfund, NAACP v American A/L, FAA v Tehachapi Airport, Alphabet Balloons Connect PR

Virgin Galactic, along with spinoff companies The Spaceship Company and Virgin Orbit, are in line for an investment of $1 billion from the government of Saudi Arabia, which has an option to invest nearly another half-billion dollars in the future.

Sir Richard Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, noted that, "We are now just months away from Virgin Galactic going into space with people on board and Virgin Orbit going into orbit and placing satellites around the Earth. This investment will enable us to develop the next generation of satellite launches and accelerate our program for point to point supersonic space travel.” Evolution Aircraft, a company created when Lancair restructured its assets in 2016, is for sale. And while reports from other media outlets suggesting the company was closed appeared to be premature, the kit maker is certainly struggling. Evolution CFO Randy Akacich said that the company is open and actively looking for a buyer. In a written statement, Akacich said that Evolution Aircraft has "right-sized its staffing to meet its current customer commitments and is actively pursuing new investment." The 2017 TBM Owners and Pilots Association convention brought together an all-time high of 117 TBMs for this year’s event, underscoring the annual gathering’s importance, as well as the growing number of Daher-built very fast turboprop aircraft in operation worldwide. Converging at San Antonio’s International airport were aircraft representing all TBM versions produced by Daher to date: the TBM 700, TBM 850 and TBM 900-series. All this -- and MORE in today's episode of Airborne!!!

Airborne 11.01.17 is chock full of info in this Daily News Episode, Monday, November 1st, 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-Journalist Tom Patton, this episode covers:

• Saudi Arabia Plans $1 Billion Investment In Virgin Galactic
• Buyer Sought For Evolution Aircraft 
• TBM Owners And Pilots Turn Out In Record Numbers In Texas
• European Pilots Calling For Support Of Colleagues Through Crowdfunding
• NAACP Issues National Travel Advisory For American Airlines
• FAA Cracks Down On Tehachapi Airport
• Two Alphabet Balloons Providing Connectivity To Puerto Rico

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 tomorrow, for the next edition of "Airborne Unlimited" here on Aero-TV. Thanks for watching. See you, again, tomorrow!

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