A US airline has completed the first test flight of a plane partly powered by biofuel derived from algae. The 90-minute flight by a Continental Boeing 737-800 went better than expected, a spokesperson said...

If the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) had any illusions about how strongly the aviation community feels about their proposed Large Aircraft Security Program, those illusions were dispelled nearly half an hour before a Jan. 6 public hearing—the first of five—ever began. The hearing room, with seating for more than 100, was filled to standing-room-only capacity...

The French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) has ordered a further 22 NH90 TTH (Tactical Transport Helicopter) helicopters for the French Army Aviation on the 23rd of December from NHIndustries consortium. With this second batch, after the initial 12 aircraft ordered in November 2007, there are now 34 NH 90 TTH to be delivered to the French Army from 2011 onwards. All the NH90 TTH for France will be manufactured at Eurocopter’s site in Marignane...

Want to buy an amphib company? You can. The iconic Lake Aircraft plus the equipment needed to build it is for sale by Revo, Inc., after 35 years of ownership. You’ll get the rights to the FAA-certified Lake Renegade, Seafury, and Seawolf aircraft. There are 1,300 Lake aircraft flying in 50 countries...

You know all those warnings not to smoke in the airplane lavatory? Delta-owned Comair takes that very seriously. When a flight attendant caught a passenger lighting up on a November flight from New York to Savannah, Georgia, the pilot diverted to Raleigh to have the nicotine addict removed from the plane...

MIAMI (UPI): An airline that flew between Florida and the Bahamas has sued the manufacturer of a 58-year-old seaplane that crashed in 2005. In legal papers, Chalk’s Ocean Airways claims the Grumman Turbo Mallard was "not adequately designed for its intended purpose," the Miami Herald reports. The crash off Miami Beach in December 2005 killed 18 passengers and two crewmembers...

The Washington, D.C., Air Defense Identification Zone and Flight Restricted Zone will be closed to general aviation aircraft on Jan. 20 for the inauguration of President-elect Barack Obama. From 10 a.m. until 6 p.m. on Jan. 20, no VFR or IFR GA flight operations will be permitted to transit the ADIZ. Only GA aircraft on an active IFR flight plan departing or arriving at Washington Dulles International (IAD), Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall (BWI), and Manassas Regional (HEF) airports will be permitted during that time period...

ST. LOUIS: The Government of India has selected The Boeing Company to provide eight P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft to the Indian navy. The P-8I is a variant of the P-8A Poseidon that Boeing is developing for the U.S. Navy. India is the first international customer for the P-8. Boeing will deliver the first P-8I within 48 months of the contract signing, and the remaining seven by 2015...

Career FAA executive Lynne A. Osmus will become acting FAA Administrator when the current acting administrator leaves at the end of the Bush administration Jan. 20. Acting FAA Administrator Bobby Sturgell just named Osmus Acting Deputy Administrator on Jan. 6...

Texas: A veteran pilot recently videotaped a formation of lights in the skies over New Jersey that several witnesses also saw. Paul Hurley captured the red lights in a diagonal formation hovering above his back yard in Whippany...

UFO enthusiasts are claiming damage to a Lincolnshire wind farm turbine was caused by a mystery aircraft. The turbine at Conisholme lost one 66ft (20m) blade and another was badly damaged in the early hours of Sunday. County councillor for the area Robert Palmer said he had seen a "round, white light that seemed to be hovering"...

SEATTLE: The Boeing Company [NYSE: BA] in 2008 recorded 662 net commercial airplane orders, bringing its backlog of unfilled commercial orders to more than 3,700 airplanes. The Next-Generation 737 remained the company’s best seller, with 484 chosen last year by customers from nearly every region of the world. Demand for the all-new 787 Dreamliner also remained strong with 93 ordered, primarily by Middle East customers.

BANGKOK (Reuters): Thai Airways International THAI.BK said on Wednesday it planned to ask Airbus (EAD.PA) to delay the delivery of six A330 aircraft due later this year because of the sluggish airline business...

Last year was one of the aviation industry’s safest ever, despite continuing financial troubles. Airline fatalities worldwide dropped 25 percent in 2008, according to the latest data from Ascend, which provides information to the global aerospace industry. here were 539 reported passenger and crew fatalities in 2008, compared to 730 in 2007, Ascend said...

IN THE PAST week, a joint lawsuit by several U.S. airlines against the FAA, and a federal safety report that detailed what happened when two commercial airline pilots fell asleep in the cockpit and overflew their airport, have focused attention on an old aviation issue, crew rest...

WASHINGTON: Burned by the cost of jet fuel, the aviation industry is trying everything from algae to camelina and jatropha as alternatives, but specialists say that some of the new fuels, which include coal, might simply trade one set of problems for another...

Shocking footage showing the moment a helicopter crashed to the ground, killing a wealthy businessman, has emerged. The tragic accident was caught on CCTV cameras installed at the country estate where the helicopter with six people on board came down to earth this week...

CFM International is working on a software modification for its CFM56-5B engines after a series of engine stalls on Airbus aircraft in 2008. Evendale-based CFM is a joint venture of GE Aviation and France’s Snecma. The high-pressure compressors and combustors for CFM56 engines are produced by GE, and the engines are assembled in Evendale and France...

Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) met its goal of having its first Falcon 9 rocket in place and fully integrated at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Air Force Station by the end of 2008. The Hawthorne, Calif.-based company mated the rocket’s 17-foot (5.2-meter) payload fairing to the Falcon 9 first stage by Dec. 30, completing integration a day earlier than planned...

Boeing Co., the second-largest U.S. defense company, agreed to sell eight P-8I long-range maritime reconnaissance and anti-submarine planes to India’s navy, marking the company’s first military sale to the country. The P-8I is a variant of the P-8A Poseidon that Boeing is developing for the U.S. Navy and India is the first international customer for the aircraft, the Chicago-based company said today in a statement. Boeing declined to provide the contract’s value at the request of India...

One of the biggest convenience’s of private aviation is the speed with which passengers can get on the plane and off the ground. But that may be about to change. The Department of Homeland Security is proposing to extend to private aviation many of the security rules imposed on commercial airlines. Those include requiring fingerprint-based background checks on pilots, checking passenger names against a government watch list and restricting what items may be carried onto the airplane...

JetBlue Airways and two officials with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration have paid $240,000 to settle charges that they illegally discriminated against an Iraqi-born U.S. resident who was barred from a flight until he covered his T-shirt, which carried an Arabic phrase, his attorneys announced yesterday...

The first of five public hearings on the Transportation Security Administration’s proposed Large Aircraft Security Program (LASP) was held this morning in White Plains, N.Y., at the Winchester County Airport. Representatives of EAA and the Warbirds of America are on hand and will report on the proceedings...

It’s not Armageddon but a  NASA-funded study is showing some of the first clear economic data that quantifies the risk extreme weather conditions in space have on communications and power grids on Earth...

Several of the nation’s largest airlines have joined in a lawsuit to block stronger federal rules on crew rest during the longest international flights. The airlines say that the Federal Aviation Administration bypassed usual rule-making procedures and denied them the right to comment before it notified American Airlines and Continental Airlines Inc. of the new rules in late October...

NEW DELHI (AFP): India’s state-run carrier Air India has dismissed 10 women flight attendants who were grounded last year for being overweight, a report said Monday. The sackings came after the cabin crew were warned about meeting minimum physical fitness standards and given sufficient time to lose weight, the Press Trust of India news agency reported quoting airline sources...

HOUSTON (Reuters): Eight people died and one was injured in Sunday’s crash in Louisiana of a helicopter carrying oilfield workers, the U.S. Coast Guard said. The crash about 75 miles (121 km) southwest of New Orleans, involved an aircraft operated by Petroleum Helicopters Inc (PHII.O) of Lafayette, Louisiana, a news release said...

Klaus Savier has altered his Vari-EZ and its Continental 0-200 engine by adding computerized fuel injection and ignition systems of his own design. He typically flies at 190 KTAS while getting a Prius-like 50 miles per gallon. If he slows to extend range, Savier’s mileage approaches 100 miles per gallon...

The Transportation Security Administration wants to impose new security regulations that would treat larger general aviation aircraft just like the airlines, and AOPA members are urged to file comments telling the TSA how the rules would affect them...

This year closed with a volley of seemingly hopeful signs for what’s termed by some as "NewSpace," an entrepreneurial spaceflight trajectory markedly different than NASA and its cabal of mainstream aerospace contractors...

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Aeronautical Complex (PAC) would soon start serial production of JF-17 Thunder in collaboration with China, Standing Committee of the National Assembly on Defence Production was informed on Thursday...

by Rhona Mahony. December 5, I brought five ounces (140 grams) of old-fashioned black gunpowder to San Francisco airport. I also brought along a boarding pass for United flight 720 to Denver that I had created at home, in an computer art program. TSA agents accepted the boarding pass. They also took no notice at all of the gunpowder...

FORT WORTH, Texas (UPI): U.S. company Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) announced the first of a new F-35 Lightning II aircraft redesigned under a weight-saving program will begin testing. Lockheed Martin says its first weight-optimized conventional takeoff and landing variant of the F-35 aircraft, an exact copy of what is expected to be delivered to the U.S. Air Force, has been rolled out to undergo testing...

FATALITIES from light plane crashes were 50 per cent higher this year than last, and 12 people died in the past three months alone, figures from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau show. A NSW farmer became the 36th person to die this year in a light plane accident when his cropduster crashed about midday yesterday at a property near Nyngan. Last year 23 people died in light plane incidents...

Tokyo: Japan is likely to drop its attempts to buy state-of-the-art US F-22 Raptor stealth fighter planes since it expects the United States to stop producing them, a newspaper reported on Sunday. The Japanese government had been trying to persuade the United States to sell it F-22 Raptors to replace its own aging F-15 fleet, despite Washington’s reluctance...