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December 09, 2025

Petition: Stop Landing Fees At FFZ

The Fees Don’t Stop Comin’

Unfortunately, city officials all over the country are being taught about landing fees, and it’s spreading at an alarming rate! Aero-News friends over at Stop ADS-B Abuse have long profiled these infernal systems, where ADS-B data can track aircraft activity for fully-automated billing at participating airports. Right now, Arizona’s Falcon Field (FFZ) is looking to impose some landing fees of their own, and locals are putting up a fight. The Phoenix area is plush with flight training, but it’s a delicate ecosystem.

Gulfstream’s New Super-Midsize Jet Logs First Flight

G300 Kicks Off Test Campaign With a Successful 2 Hour 25 Minute Flight

Gulfstream’s newest addition to its next-gen lineup, the super-midsize G300, is officially airborne. The G300 was unveiled just two months ago in Savannah, instantly sliding in as Gulfstream’s fresh entry into the super-midsize market.

DOT, FAA Reveal ‘Prime Integrator’ for ATC Modernization

Peraton Contracted to Oversee Construction of the New System

The Trump administration has officially locked in its pick to spearhead the biggest upgrade to America’s air traffic control system in decades. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford announced on December 4 that Virginia-based national security company Peraton has been selected as the program’s Prime Integrator.

Airborne 12.08.25: Samaritan’s Purse Hijack, FAA Med Relief, China Rocket Fail

Also: Cosmonaut Kicked Out, Airbus Scales Back, AF Silver Star, Russian A-60 Clobbered

A Samaritan’s Purse humanitarian flight was hijacked on Tuesday, December 2, while attempting to supply a mobile medical unit in South Sudan. Authorities were able to meet the aircraft on the ground and take the suspect into custody without further incident. The aircraft involved was one of the organization’s Cessna Grand Caravans that operates solely within Africa. The FAA has taken an unusually cooperative step towards pilot mental health reform, reducing the stabilization wait time for approved antidepressant medications from 6 months to just 3. Though t

Coast Guard Shows Off Sniper Chops With Shot to Engine Block

Record Amounts of Cocaine Seized So Far…

The U.S. Coast Guard published a short video showing off a moment from a recent drug interdiction by the Cutter Munro, highlighting some impressive marksmanship from an airborne sniper. The Coast Guard has been hard at work this year, setting a historic record of drug seizures in FY2025. The video is exciting, as many of the Coast Guard’s interdictions are, because an aerial marksman aboard a hovering helo makes a perfect shot on the boat’s engine block from afar. This sort of thing happens all the time, but it's still interesting to see some first-person footage of it!

Remember Pearl Harbor Campaign Aims to Preserve Fleeting History

Ambitious Campaign Would Guarantee Preservation for Decades to Come

The Pearl Harbor Museum commemorated December 7th with a campaign to raise $51 million to restore the aging battlefield. Many elements are the original WWII units, but time is catching up to them. That funding will go towards ensuring Pearl Harbor exists for generations to come, to tell the stories of the fallen, and remind kids to come of those who came before. A 4-phase plan will start renovations and improvements in increasing fashion...

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Airborne 12.05.25: Thunderbird Ejects, Lost Air india 737, Dynon Update

Also: Trailblazing Aviator Betty Stewart, Wind Farm Scrutiny, Chatham Ban Overturned, Airbus Shares Dive

A Thunderbird pilot, ID'ed alternately as Thunderbird 5 or Thunderbird 6, (but not yet confirmed officially) ejected from his/her Lockheed Martin F-16CM-52-CF Fighting Falcon Wednesday (12-03-25) during a training mission in California. The accident occurred near Trona Airport on an unoccupied dry lake bed area south of the airport in San Bernardino County. The pilot ejected safely just before the airframe impacted the ground. Air India somehow misplaced a 43-year-old Boeing 737-200 and forgot about it for over a decade. The Kolkata airport didn&rsquo

Airborne-NextGen 12.09.25: Amazon Crash, China Rocket Accident, UAV Black Hawk

Also: Electra Goes Military, Miami Air Taxi, Hypersonics Lab, MagniX HeliStrom

Amazon’s Prime Air drones are back in the spotlight after one of its newest MK30 delivery drones struck an overhead internet cable in Waco, Texas. The incident serves as an unnerving replay of safety concerns that surfaced just two months ago involving back-to-back collisions with a crane in Arizona. The more recent event occurred on November 18. The drone, registered N139PA, had just wrapped up a delivery when it “clipped a thin, overhead internet cable,” according to Amazon. The maiden flight of LandSpace’s ZhuQue-3 rocket on December 3 was one

USAF Thunderbirds Welcome New Commander

Lt. Col. Alexander Prevendar Assumes Leadership Role

The U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds Air Demonstration Squadron welcomed Lt. Col. Alexander Prevendar as their new commander for the upcoming 2026-2027 air show seasons. He succeeds outgoing commander Col. Nathan Malafa in a ceremony at Nellis Air Force Base in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Airbus Closes On Acquisition Of Six Spirit AeroSystems Sites

Industrial Assets Support Production Of Aerostructures And Components

Airbus announced it has closed on the transaction with Spirit AeroSystems for the acquisition of six industrial sites that produce aerostructures and components for Airbus commercial aircraft programs.

Airborne-NextGen 12.02.25: Honda eVTOL, Arctus High-Alt UAS, Samson Patent

Also: USAF Reaper Accident, Baikonur Damage, Horizon eVTOL IFR/FIKI, New Glenn Update

Honda has outlined its clearest timeline yet for its entry into the world of electric vertical-lift, confirming that its first full-scale eVTOL prototype will be finished by the end of 2025. The inaugural flight is slated for March 2026, marking the company’s transition from years of under-the-radar development to a much more public testing phase. Arctus Aerospace announced it raised $2.6 million from Version One Ventures, South Park Commons, gradCapital, and several angel investors in a pre-seed round to accelerate the development of its large, unmanned aircraft

Airborne 12.03.25: GA Sales Report, A320 Solar Flare Update, Starliner Cutback

Also: SpaceX Starship Carries on, Hartzell Adds Lamar, Mar-a-Lago TFR Ooopppss, CAF Lobo Wing

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association issued the Third Quarter 2025 General Aviation Aircraft Shipping and Billing Report, covering results worldwide, and the result for the first nine months of 2025, when compared to the same period last year, show increased shipments in the business jet sector as well as an increase in the overall value of aircraft shipments. Airbus released an update on the deployment of precautionary fleet measures on its approximately 6,000 A320 family of aircraft. The actions were required after several aircraft experienced an une

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Airborne 12.01.25: Airbus Blames Solar Flares, NIMBY Cleveland, Baikonur Damage

Also: ‘Fat Albert’ Heads To UK, Samson Patent, Western Global Pilot Furloughs, 1700th Ipanema

An inflight incident that took place on a JetBlue flight from Cancun, MX, to Newark, NJ, on October 30 has resulted in serious cautions for the 11,300 aircraft in the Airbus A320 series. The scheduled flight, Flight 1230, required an emergency landing at Tampa, FL, with several people requiring hospitalization after a flight control issue and a sudden uncommanded pitch change. Cleveland officials are again attempting to close a beloved community airport, this time by exploiting a federal loophole. Mayor Justin Bibb and Cuyahoga County Executive Chris

Airborne 12.01.25: Airbus Blames Solar Flares, NIMBY Cleveland, Baikonur Damage

Also: ‘Fat Albert’ Heads To UK, Samson Patent, Western Global Pilot Furloughs, 1700th Ipanema

An inflight incident that took place on a JetBlue flight from Cancun, MX, to Newark, NJ, on October 30 has resulted in serious cautions for the 11,300 aircraft in the Airbus A320 series. The scheduled flight, Flight 1230, required an emergency landing at Tampa, FL, with several people requiring hospitalization after a flight control issue and a sudden uncommanded pitch change. Cleveland officials are again attempting to close a beloved community airport, this time by exploiting a federal loophole. Mayor Justin Bibb and Cuyahoga County Executiv

Airborne-Flight Training 12.04.25: Ldg Fee Danger, Av Mental Health, PC-7 MKX

Also: IAE Acquires Diamond Trainers, Army Drones, FedEx Pilots Warning, DA62 MPP To Dresden Tech Uni

The danger to the flight training industry and our future pilots is clear. Donald Frano, a member of the Central Florida Pilots Association, posted a statement as an urgent warning about the increasing number of airports using or considering using a third-party vendor to send landing fees to pilots based on ADS-B data. This began in Florida and is a growing threat that the aviation community needs to stand up to and strongly oppose. Senator Jerry Moran (R-KS), Chair of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Aviation, Space, and Innovation, has thrown his full support behind the bipartisan Mental Health in Aviation Act (MHAA) by joining as

Classic Aero-TV: MyGoflight Acquires FlightFlix

From 2024 (YouTube Edition): FlightFlix Has What You Need For Mounting Cameras

While weathering the brief storm at Sun ‘n Fun 2024, ANN Editor-in-Chief Jim Campbell hunkered down for a chat with President and Co-Founder of MYGOFLIGHT Nic Martinez, taking a spell to check out their high-quality action camera mounting systems. MyGoFlight brought out its recent portfolio additions from FlightFlix, a whole host of camera mounting solutions tailor-made for aviation. Whether strapping a camera to a strut, a wing, or a tie-down, they’ve got a system worth trusting with a few hundred dollars’ worth of camera. For th

NTSB Final Report: Diamond Aircraft Ind Inc DA20C1 (A1); Robinson Helicopter R44

Controller’s Expectation That VW02 Would Have Departed Sooner Led To An Inadequate Scan And Loss Of Situational Awareness

Analysis: A Robinson R-44 helicopter N744AF, VW02 (View 02), and a Diamond DA20-C1 Eclipse, N857PA were involved in a near midair collision (NMAC) approximately 1.7 miles west of the North Las Vegas Airport (VGT). At the time of the incident the VGT airport traffic control tower (ATCT) was staffed by two controllers with three personnel available. The local control 1 (LC1), local control 2 (LC2), local assist (LA1), and controller in charge (CIC) positions were all combined to the LC1 position. The ground control (GC), flight data (FD), and clearance delivery (CD) positions were combined at the

ANN's Daily Aero-Linx (12.09.25)

Aero Linx: International Federation of Airworthiness (IFA) IFA uniquely combines together all those with responsibility for policies, principles and practices concerned with the continuing airworthiness of civil transport aircraft throughout the world. The International Federation of Airworthiness (IFA) is a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) dedicated to improving aviation safety by increasing international communication, awareness and cooperation on all airworthiness issues and particularly that of continuing airworthiness.

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ANN's Daily Aero-Term (12.09.25): High Speed Taxiway

High Speed Taxiway A long radius taxiway designed and provided with lighting or marking to define the path of aircraft, traveling at high speed (up to 60 knots), from the runway center to a point on the center of a taxiway. Also referred to as long radius exit or turn-off taxiway. The high speed taxiway is designed to expedite aircraft turning off the runway after landing, thus reducing runway occupancy time.

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Aero-News: Quote of the Day (12.09.25)

“We respectfully call on the City of Mesa to: 1. Withdraw the landing fee proposal immediately 2. Engage with the aviation community before making decisions that impact safety, training, airport accessibility, and financial hardship to users. 3. Honor the historical legacy of Falcon Field and uphold its federal obligations as an open, public-use airport” Source: Arizona’s Falcon Field (FFZ) is looking to impose some landing fees of their own, and locals are putting up a fight. A petition to cease this punishing decision cites Falcon Field’s creation by the government itself in 1941,

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