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.

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.

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.

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 this is, in itself, a basic change, it reflects years of industry efforts. Under the revised policy, airmen and air traffic control specialists may now submit Special Issuance medical packages after maintaining a stable dose of an approved antidepressant for at least three continuous months. T

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!

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...

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 a co-sponsor of the bipartisan legislation. The bill intends to destigmatize mental health issues in aviation, train aviation medical examiners, and make it overall easier for aviation professionals to seek and

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 for the books… for both its successes and failures. The rocket reached orbit before the first stage booster recovery attempt resulted in an explosion near the edge of the landing pad. A soldier with no aviation experience was trained how to create flight plans and flew unmanned Black Hawk hel

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.

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.