Parachute Landing In Kazakhstan Completes Eight-Month Science Mission

NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and Roscosmos cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky returned to Earth on December 9 after accomplishing an eight-month mission aboard the International Space Station. The science mission was for the benefit of future space exploration as well as life on Earth.

Whole Family of NA Engines Now Mates Up to Most of Sonex Lineup

Cooper Aircraft Corporation has expanded support for Rotax installations with a new mount for naturally aspirated engines. The new mounts cover the Highwing, Legacy, B Model, Onex, Sonex, Waiex, and Xenos. The mounts are delivered in white, and will mount up the Rotax 912UL, 912ULS, 912iS, 914UL, 915iS and 916iS. Currently, the team is working on turbocharged Rotax installations, but that will come later on once the creases are all ironed out.

Boeing-Backed Regional Plane Goes Public With 450 Pre-Orders

EVIO has unveiled the product of more than eight years of rigorous development: the EVIO 810 hybrid-electric regional aircraft… and a lengthy list of customers to go with it. The Montreal-based company has secured conditional agreements and options for 450 airplanes, setting the stage for an entry into service in the early 2030s.

Also: AirVenture Tkts, Pipistrel TC, Samson Patent, Kolb Aircraft Resumes Production

The FAA has released an updated set of advisory circulars to support the transition to the long-awaited Modernization of Special Airworthiness Certification (MOSAIC) rule, offering new direction for pilots, instructors, and light-sport repairmen. The documents, published November 14, aim to align long-standing guidance with the performance-based system that will replace the outdated light-sport framework when MOSAIC takes effect in 2026. Dynon has released SkyView HDX software version 17.4, bringing a fresh round of upgrades and quality-of-life improvements to its

Bigger Cabin Can Actually Haul All the Average Airline Pax’ Crap

The VX4 program has borne new fruit in the Valo, a 6-passenger eVTOL from Vertical Aerospace. If you've seen the VX4, you've seen most of this one, too, but now it's got some real airline bonafides. Vertical made sure you could take the average airline passenger with all their usual load: A big roller bag and a "carryon" that's 0.002" away from the maximum allowed size...  

Also: Project Talon, McFarlane Acquisition, Sky-Tec Service, JPL Earth Helo Tests

Bombardier has earned a round of applause from the business aviation community, celebrating the formal entry into service of what it calls the “fastest civil aircraft since the Concorde.” Keys to the first Global 8000 were turned over to loyal customer and GFL Environmental CEO Patrick Dovigi on December 8. The Global 8000 comes with a headline-grabbing Mach 0.95 top speed, a certified 8,000-nautical-mile range, and a cabin altitude of just 2,691 feet at cruise. California Representative Darrell Issa (CA-48) announced the finalized 2026 National Defense A

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 w

Klyde's Not Sure The FAA Is Ready For This...

FMI: www.klydemorris.com

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. T

Procurement Continues After a (Mostly) Successful Trial With the Helsing HX-2

Germany’s armed forces are moving ahead with what is shaping up to be a more than billion-dollar order of AI-enabled strike drones after a series of trials delivered hit probabilities north of 90 percent. If previous rumors prove true, this marks a stark contrast from earlier trials, which came back with performance numbers as low as 30 percent.

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 did

Also: Airbus Acquisition, USCG Helo Sniper, Remember Pearl Harbor, New Thunderbird 1

Gulfstream’s newest addition to its next-gen lineup, the super-midsize G300, is officially airborne. The jet lifted off from Ben Gurion International Airport (TLV), staying in the air for 2 hours and 25 minutes. The crew took the aircraft to 30,000 feet and cruised at Mach 0.75, checking off the major boxes needed to kick off the flight-test campaign. 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 Br

Data Gathering Will Help Develop Future UAS Traffic Systems

Reliable Robotics snagged a new contract with NASA’s Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate (ARMD) to take on demo flights with their automated C-208B Caravan. Reliable’s flight tests have already been gathering plenty of data for their own internal purposes, but now that data can be put to work at even higher level. Flight testing their contingency management procedures falls right in line with the push for improved handling for uncrewed aircraft. The FAA’s push to create better UAS-compatible ATC systems will benefit greatly from Reliable’s data, since they’re using a certificated aircraft design already in use in the real world. It's good news for the FA

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

Third-Edition Resource Guide is Getting Ready… But It’s Waiting on You

The third edition of the SportPlane Resource Guide—soon to launch as the expanded, fully digital eSPRG—is almost ready for release. The layout is there, dozens of instructional chapters are written, and hundreds of aircraft write-ups are complete. This edition will be bigger, more detailed, and easier to update than the previous 1,100-page print version (probably settling in at more than 2000 pages!), with the potential to far exceed even our own anticipations with S-LSA, E-LSA, ultralights, avionics, and accessories. The only major thing slowing it down is one simple piece: more data from manufacturers.

Dozens of Companies Unveiled Innovative Products Ahead of the 51st SnF Aerospace Expo

Kicking off the 51st SUN ‘n FUN Aerospace Expo, we hosted the second annual SnF Innovation Preview to give more than 20 companies just enough time in the spotlight to debut their new planes, products, engines, accessories, and more… In other words… it was a LOT of news, and it’s all still up for your viewing pleasure.

From 2014 (YouTube Edition): Exotic Rebuild Reveals Aerial Work Of Art

During EAA AirVenture 2014, ANN's Michael Maya Charles took the time to get a history lesson about a great airplane from days gone by. By 1929 aviation was being recognized for its ability to transport people and cargo to areas that were extremely hard to get to. This led the Fairchild Company to come up with a single engine transport plane known as the Fairchild 71. ANN's roving reporter met up with Marlin Horst who was responsible for the restoration of one of these classic Fairchild's. In this video, Horst recounts the massive project of first locating an airplane as ra

With The eSPRG Only Weeks Away From Its Start Date, A-AF Will Help To Support Sport Flyers, Worldwide

With the all-new and all-digital SportPlane Resource Guide getting ready for publication early next year, the Aero-News Network is pleased to announce yet another addition to the Airborne video news programming roster… Airborne-Affordable Flyers. Dedicated to keeping people up-to-date on the most affordable aspects of sport and general aviation, Airborne-Affordable Flyers is one of our most exciting offerings yet. A-AF will delve into more than just the current LSA community, but look at all aspects of aviation to examine and ev

We’re Hiring Editors, Developers, Video Journalists, Oh My!

Yes, despite the last few years being one of the most unpredictable stretches in aviation media we can remember, ANN is still standing… and somehow, still expanding. The pandemic didn’t exactly make life easy, but we’ve come through it with enough energy to tackle our next round of projects. Fortunately for you, they are already stacking up faster than we can keep up with. Moving forward, we’ll be ramping up efforts on an expanded “Airborne Unlimited,” launching the third version of the SportPlane Resource Guide in a digital format, rolling out coverage for all the greatest airshows, and diving into new Aero-Reality programmin

And That's But One Of Over A Dozen Major Developments Planned For The Next Year Or So

Aero-News Network is now available on Roku and Amazon FireTV! That’s right folks. You can now get your daily dose of aviation news… right on the ol' giggle box! This is an EPIC development for our network, one of many to come, and we’re thrilled to offer you this new way to watch our news programming. Whether you’re a traditional website reader, podcast listener, or YouTube subscriber, we’re dedicated to giving you quality, honest, aviation news that you can trust and broadening our reach and audience aggressively in the coming years, so that we may both Grow and Inform the aviatio

SportPlane Resource Guide (NG) Volume 3 is Bigger, Bolder, and a Whole Lot Easier to Carry

The SportPlane Resource Guide has, like many old kit builds, been collecting dust for years. Over the next year, the book is finally getting a third edition…and this time, it's going digital -- uit HAS to... its simply too big to carry around. Aero-News Network is well on its way to debuting the new e-book with a renewed focus on affordable, entry-level flying mach

While Taxiing To Parking The Right Landing Gear Leg Collapsed, Resulting In Substantial Damage

Analysis: The pilot made a normal approach with full flaps and landed on the runway. While taxiing to parking the right landing gear leg collapsed, resulting in substantial damage to the fuselage and the right wing. Postaccident examination showed that the right main landing gear leg failed from a fatigue crack that had developed in the gear leg and was not identified during annual maintenance inspections.

Brand New! Avoid The Need For A Comeback... Get Your Marketing Right, Right Now!

Some time ago, the Aero-News Network, responding to numerous requests, established a marketing and communications sister company by the name of AEROPRENEUER... and it's been doing amazing work under these difficult circumstances -- and getting results! We're getting rave reviews from our clients, and working hard to earn the trust of a number of new marketing partners along the way. ANN's Amber Cedroni has come up with a few tips to help aero-businesses stay alive in these tough times, and

Whether You’re a Reader, Watcher, or Listener, ANN Has Got the Coverage You Need

Aero-News Network has been delivering aviation and aerospace news for thirty years (!!!), and by now, we’ve wiggled our way onto just about every platform out there. Whether you’d rather read, watch, or stream, there’s a way to keep ANN in your daily routine. Here’s a quick rundown of where you can find us...  

Aero Linx: Aerospace Human Factors Association (AsHFA) As a constituent organization of the Aerospace Medical Association (AsMA), the Aerospace Human Factors Association (AsHFA) advances AsMA’s mission with a focused commitment to human performance and human-systems integration in aerospace and other extreme environments. AsHFA brings together professionals from diverse disciplines—including human factors engineering, aerospace psychology, physiology, systems design, personnel selection, training, and life support—to understand and improve how humans interact with complex systems in aviation, space, undersea, and operational environments.

There's A Lot To Like On ANN's Latest Social Media Site

We all know how important Social Media is to a lot of people, particularly those under 30. We also know how important those folks are to the future of aviation. In so many forums and at so many events, we talk about how to attract the next generation of pilots, mechanics, and enthusiasts to our industry, and social media is certainly critical to getting the message out to those who practically live online.

Light Gun A handheld directional light signaling device which emits a brilliant narrow beam of white, green, or red light as selected by the tower controller. The color and type of light transmitted can be used to approve or disapprove anticipated pilot actions where radio communication is not available. The light gun is used for controlling traffic operating in the vicinity of the airport and on the airport movement area.

“We have performed extensive ground testing by comparing warm up times, full power tethered pulls, and overall temperatures in 100 degree environments against other aircraft as well as our Rotax powered Sonex as the "control" aircraft. We have been very pleased with the results... We took to the skies and tested the Onex and its installation. While we expected it to perform well, frankly, we didn't expect to perform as well as it did. The flight went flawlessly. The plane is so well balanced, it would fly with or without a pilot (although we know that's not possible). It did not have a heavy wing, cooling issues, or any issues to speak of. Very uneventful, which is what you strive for on a test flight.” Source: Cooper Airc