ST. PETERSBURG (RIA Novosti): All passengers on a plane that flew from Turkey to Russia on Wednesday were kept on board for over an hour for police questioning, after a drunken man claiming to have a bomb caused a terrorist scare. All 164 passengers on the Turkish Airlines flight from the resort city of Antalya to St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport have now been let off the plane...

HYDERABAD (RIA Novosti): The Russian Aircraft holding and the Indian Hindavia company will soon set up a joint venture to market and sell Il-114-100 airliners in India, the head of the Russian company said on Wednesday. The Il-114-100 is a short-range passenger airliner powered by two PW-127 Pratt and Whitney turboprop engines. It can carry up to 64 passengers...

The world’s first, and only, civilian-owned Harrier jump jet made a flawless debut performance on Saturday, October 11, at the 9th annual Culpeper Air Fest in Virginia. Art Nalls, EAA and Warbirds of America member, acquired the Sea Harrier FA/2 from Britain’s Royal Navy in 2005 and has spent the last three years getting it back into flying shape...

A Russian Soyuz spacecraft carrying American space tourist Richard Garriott and a new crew for the International Space Station docked at orbiting laboratory early Tuesday, where three astronauts were eagerly awaiting their arrival inside...

A fault in the Airbus A330-300’s air data inertial reference system is believed to have led to erroneous information being sent to its flight control computer, causing the autopilot to shut down. The aircraft was cruising at 37,000 feet when the fault occurred, causing it to descend up to 650 feet in seconds...

The Rocket Racing League has received an experimental exhibition certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration that will allow it to fly its first rocket-powered aircraft in demonstration shows at 20 venues nationwide...

Thursday’s Transportation Security Administration’s Large Aircraft Security Program (LASP) proposal, has private aviation users and the air charter industry concerned. The LASP would require that all operators in the United States using aircraft exceeding 12,500 pounds of maximum take off weight to implement security programs that would be subject to compliance audits by the TSA...

Opponents of a Nov. 4 ballot referendum to close a small airport in Biddeford, Maine, have kicked-off an aggressive information campaign to help city voters better understand the airport’s importance. AOPA partnered with the Friends of Biddeford Airport (FOBA) to urge a "no" vote against a referendum asking Biddeford residents to spend at least $3 million to close Biddeford Municipal Airport...

MOSCOW (RIA Novosti): The Progress aircraft maker, based in Russia’s Far East, will start production of a new model of the Ka-52 Hokum-B attack/reconnaissance helicopter in October 2008, a company official said Monday. The Ka-52 is a twin-seat derivative of the Ka-50 Hokum-A attack helicopter, and is designed primarily for reconnaissance and target designation purposes...

The second candidate for the Partial Tiger Replacement (PTR) landed in Emmen this morning. With the arrival of the French Rafale aircraft in Switzerland, the second series of flight and ground tests for the PTR is about to begin. In November, the third and last candidate, the EADS Eurofighter, will follow...

Two recent articles, one in Aerospace Daily and Defense Report and the other in Air Force Magazine are the latest in a long line of stories highlighting the urgent need to replace the Air Force’s aging fleet of KC-135 tankers...

The Air Force received its last batch of three F-15K fighters Wednesday from Boeing in the United States under the 40-plane first-phase F-X program to introduce 120 high-end multi-role combat aircraft, Air Force officials said...

CHICAGO: A World War II-era air traffic network that often forces planes to take longer, zigzagging routes is costing U.S. airlines billions of dollars in wasted fuel while an upgrade to a satellite-based system has languished in the planning stages for more than a decade...

EAA is reviewing a new proposal released Thursday morning (October 9) by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) that would require all U.S. operators of aircraft exceeding 12,500 pounds maximum take-off weight (MTOW) to implement a TSA-approved security program...

AOPA has expressed its concern that the Large Aircraft Security Program proposal announced today by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) could have serious implications on general aviation...

HOUSTON: A new crew that will live and work aboard the International Space Station rocketed into orbit early Sunday aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. U.S. astronaut E. Michael Fincke, Russian cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov and Richard Garriott, a U.S. computer game developer, lifted off from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 2:01 a.m. CDT.

NASA researchers looking to develop the next generation of heat shields are using a treasure trove of recently rediscovered Apollo-era armor to build high-temperature protection for future space flights...

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.: The Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] F-35A successfully flew from Fort Worth, Texas, to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., on Oct. 1 to begin expanded flight testing and initiate test activities at Edwards. Flying non-stop for more than 1,000 nautical miles, this was the aircraft’s first long-range, cross-country flight.

Over 30 people were injured, some with broken bones and lacerations, when a Qantas passenger jet flying from Singapore to Perth struck turbulence on Tuesday and had to make an emergency landing at a remote Australian airport, officials said...

Hawker Beechcraft Corp. will sell 23 aircraft to Lider Signatures S.A., the aircraft maker announced Tuesday from the National Business Aviation Association convention in Orlando, Fla...

TEHRAN (RIA Novosti): The U.S. Department of Defense denied Tuesday reports that Iran forced a U.S. warplane to land in Tehran. Iran’s Fars news agency said Iranian fighter jets had forced a U.S. military aircraft to land in Iran after it had entered its air space without permission. It said there were five military officers and three civilians on board the aircraft and that they were held for questioning and allowed to leave a day later...

MARIETTA, Ga.: The State of Qatar has signed a $393.6 million contract with Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] for the purchase of four C-130J Super Hercules airlifters plus training and spares with deliveries to begin in 2011. Qatar’s new C-130Js will be the longer fuselage or "stretched" variant of the C-130J.

The multi-millionaire, high-tech entrepreneurs continue to flock to space.  Private space exploration company Space Adventures today said Esther Dyson, an industry guru who has been involved in al manner of technology start-ups and digital ventures, will train as a back-up crew member alongside ex-Microsoft developer Charles Simonyi, Ph.D., who recently announced  his second his second mission to the International Space Station (ISS) in spring 2009...

Russia together with five CIS countries – Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have established an international air navigation service Vostok aimed at strengthening the flights safety...

Our presidential candidates have not had much to say about aviation issues, but the next president will face a number of challenges in the sector. What do they think about the issues? What are their track records? Find out more about McCain, Obama, and aviation issues in 2008 at large...

American Eurocopter announces that the single-engine EC120 has become the helicopter of choice for personal travel and corporate/VIP operators, outselling its competitors by more than two to one in this market segment during the past five years...

WASHINGTON: Air Force officials have issued a time compliance technical order requiring immediate inspection and repair of wing cracks for a portion of the A-10 Thunderbolt II fleet. This action impacts approximately 130 A-10 aircraft with thin-skin wings installed during original manufacture and is being taken to ensure the continued operational safety of the aircraft...

(The Wichita Eagle - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX): Cessna Aircraft held a special unveiling of the mockup of its new $27 million Cessna Columbus large business jet for customers who have the new plane on order...

ARLINGTON, VA (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX): The U.S. Navy has become a new military user of the UH-72 Light Utility Helicopter, provided by EADS North America, with the service ordering five aircraft for use in pilot training at the Naval Test Pilot School at Patuxent River, Maryland...

An unusual amphibious airplane, asleep for more than 15 years, may be resurrected under plans announced by Dornier Seaplane Company. The new company, founded by Conrado Dornier, grandson of Dornier Aircraft founder Claude Dornier, plans to dust off the plans for the Seastar, a large, in-line twin-engine turboprop amphib that was certified in the early 1990s but never put into production...

This sounds like something straight out of a James Bond movie but no, it’s real and it’s your government: Those way out engineers at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) want to build an aircraft that’s as capable of zipping through the sky as it is underwater. Full Story.

WASHINGTON: NASA has awarded research contracts worth a total of $12.4 million to six industry teams to study advanced concepts for subsonic and supersonic commercial transport aircraft that could enter service in 25 to 30 years.

What do airlines and banks have in common? Answer: They can go bust overnight. What are the airline equivalents of Lehman Brothers and Goldman Sachs? Will governments bail out failing carriers in a similar way? If not, what can I do if I have booked a ticket with an airline that collapses?..

In the Sept. 30 Metro story "Md. Copter Crash Scrutinized," about the crash of a Maryland State Police rescue helicopter around midnight Saturday, public health professor Susan P. Baker of Johns Hopkins University said that 15 to 20 percent of people who work regularly in helicopters for 20 years will die in helicopter crashes...

On Sept. 30, the very day that FAA funding was set to expire, President Bush signed the “Federal Aviation Administration Extension Act of 2008,” which means the FAA has the money to continue operating until March 31, 2009...