Check out https://affordableflying.net/attend/ Right Away and Get YOUR Tickets To the Affordable Flying Expo!

OK.... with a little over a month to go, it’s time to get serious! Thanks to the folks at Sun n Fun, we have a highly professional online ticketing apparatus at our disposal for next month’s Affordable Flying Expo. And we have other good news... use the code “AFE2025” and you can get $5 OFF the adult ticket price of $15 or even more for a three day pass. After an insane amount of work on the part of the ANN crew and more than a little hand holding by the event experts at Sun n Fun, the Expo is shaping up. We have an amazing series of seminars and forums in the works as well as a LIVE Friday Night Town Hall in which we will be dissecting MOSAIC in as great a detail as we can muster. 

Quiet Supersonic Aircraft May Pave Way For Faster Commercial Travel

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.

Duffy Warns that the ATC Academy is Running Out of Money to Pay Trainees

Nearly a month into the government shutdown, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy is warning that we could have bigger problems than disgruntled federal workers. The ATC Academy is running extremely low on funds to pay trainees, putting months of progress towards solving the controller shortage in jeopardy.

Instructors Impacted by the AceCFI Closure Offered Course Discounts

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). This comes as the number of CFIs looking to get up to date prepares for a drastic upturn alongside the release of MOSAIC.

No Injuries Were Reported, Test Campaign to Proceed

An experimental technology demonstrator built by Israel-based AIR crashed and caught fire during an October 23 test flight near West Palm Beach. While unfortunate, the accident comes as more of a publicity blow than anything; the aircraft was unmanned at the time, and multiple other prototypes are ready to take its place in the test campaign.

Russia-Ukraine Conflict Reveals Weak Spots in US Military Technology

The United States Army has finally come to the painful realization that, despite its undisputably deep pockets and technological edge in other domains, it is only falling further behind in drone warfare. Army leaders publicly acknowledged the gap at the recent Association of the U.S. Army Conference in Washington.

Also: MOSAIC Town Hall, Lockheed Martin Venus, Electric Aircraft Cooling, Korea Taps Archer

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 month

Currently CCO, Succeeds Lisa Atherton

Textron, Inc. announced that Danny Maldonado was promoted to President and CEO of its Bell rotorcraft division. The appointment is effective January 4, 2026, and he succeeds Lisa Atherton who was recently promoted to President and CEO of Textron, Inc.

MOSAIC-Centric Event Set For November 6-8, 2025... DON'T Miss It!

After a master strategy meeting this last week on the grounds of the Sun n Fun Aerospace Expo campus, details have been completed for the first MOSAIC-dedicated, MOSAIC-centric Affordable Flying Expo (AFE25). With the rule officially announced, AFE25 stands to be the best opportunity for MOSAIC-interested folks to get their questions answered and for the industry to show the aviation community that they are ready to serve this expanding niche. 

Also: Orlando Air Show Cancelled, ATC Staffing Shortages, CH-47F Block II Chinooks, Sustainable $$

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, sched