A Gulfstream G650 set a city-pair speed record last month on a flight between Shanghai and Newark, N.J., flying the 6,855-nm route in 13 hours and 32 minutes, the Savannah, Ga.-based aircraft manufacturer announced yesterday. The jet took off from Shanghai Hongqiao International Airport on April 18 carrying five passengers and four crewmembers. ATC restrictions kept the G650 below FL310 for the first hour before it was cleared to climb to its normal cruising altitude of FL410 to FL510. The aircraft cruised at speeds between Mach 0.85 and 0.88, resulting in an average speed of 506 knots.

(ainonline.com)

Beechcraft, which recently emerged from bankruptcy protection and is now focused on its piston and turboprop products, expects to sell its mothballed jet division in the coming months. According to CEO Bill Boisture, the company has already completed disposition of its remaining inventory of approximately 20 new and pre-owned Hawker 4000 and Premier IA jets, a move he said went “better than planned,” though he declined to offer details about the revenue derived from their sale.

Solar Impulse has completed the first leg of its historic trip across the USA, flying from San Francisco, California to Phoenix, Arizona.

The solar-powered aircraft took off on 3 May from Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, around 09:00, and landed at Phoenix's Sky Harbor International Airport just after midnight the next day.

Terrafugia Inc., developer of the Transition street-legal airplane, has begun feasibility studies of a four-seat, vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) plug-in hybrid-electric flying car, the TF-X.

Flight operations specialist François Lassale, managing director of Vortex FSM, has cast doubt on the wisdom of pilots’ depending on iPads in the cockpit. “Some operators are so caught up in iPad fever they’re not thinking about the complexities the units add to flight operations when they’re used in the cockpit,” he told AIN.

“I think the FAA and EASA have been caught off guard and simply rushed to catch up,” Lassale noted, warning that “the unit’s simplicity means training on the iPad and its use in the cockpit is seldom given much thought.” In his view, that means crews could be playing with the unit when they should be paying attention elsewhere in the cockpit.

In Hampton Roads, a jet engine may be the sound of freedom, but the contrail it leaves behind is nothing to salute.

The cloud-like contrail is composed of ice crystals, soot, sulfur and other harmful elements that riddle the emissions of jet engines and are potentially harmful to people and the environment.

FRIEDRICHSHAFEN, Germany — Cessna Aircraft Co. is showcasing its newest single-engine products at this week’s AERO Friedrichshafen general aviation trade show. The TTx and the Grand Caravan EX are on display in the show’s exhibit hall for the duration of the 21st annual trade show.

The TTx is billed as the world’s fastest certified single engine fixed-gear aircraft. The composite-material TTx (pictured above)  is capable of speeds up to 235 kts (435 kph).

Airlines survived $147-a-barrel oil, a financial collapse on Wall Street, and a recession in 2008 by doing two things: slashing capacity - fewer flights, different-size aircrafts, recalibrated routes - and charging annoying fees for everything from baggage to "choice" seats.

Nationwide, there are 8 percent fewer airplane seats with passengers in them than five years ago, according to airline analyst Daniel McKenzie, of Buckingham Research Group in New York. He recently analyzed which cities got hardest hit with seat cuts and which had the most growth.

The Federal Aviation Administration ended its employee furloughs on Sunday, after Congress passed legislation sending temporary funding to the agency.

On Saturday, the FAA formally announced that all of its employee furloughs — including air traffic controllers and other staff — have been suspended.

The NTSB may remove itself from further investigation of the fatal crash of an RV-4 at Laughlin Bullhead International Airport, Ariz., Saturday April 20, after an autopsy determined the pilot died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head prior to the crash. First reports speculated that the pilot and sole occupant, 44-year-old Thomas Joseph, died from injuries sustained when the plane impacted the ground near Bullhead's single 7,500-foot runway. But a police spokesperson said Monday an autopsy completed earlier in the day determined that the pilot was dead before the plane crashed.