Counting drones among his final priorities as U.S. president, Donald Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 18 that directs the heads of federal agencies to determine if they have legal authority to stop using, acquiring or funding the purchase of foreign-made unmanned aircraft systems.

The pre-owned helicopter market continued to recover in the fourth quarter of 2020, although sales remained below those in 2019, largely due to the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the fourth-quarter 2020 Heli Market Trends report by Aero Asset, based in Toronto.

Electric motor developer MagniX is consolidating its global operations near Everett, Washington state. Electric aircraft startup Eviation, a sister company of MagniX, is building a final assembly, flight test and delivery center in Arlington, just north of Everett.

Leading Tier 1 supplier Spirit AeroSystems and the U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) have inaugurated a new kind of federally backed, discounted-rate lending for aerospace suppliers—beginning with a $40 million transaction based on receivables from Spirit’s lower-tier providers.

Luxaviation Group has secured the FlySkills Hygiene Certification (FHC) across the group’s regional operators as well as their fixed-base operations managed by ExecuJet, including at facilities in Cape Town and Johannesburg.

Environmental groups have joined with 12 U.S. states and the District of Columbia to file a lawsuit challenging adoption of the first CO2 standards for aircraft, arguing they will not reduce greenhouse gas emissions from aviation.

Advanced air mobility, electric aircraft and hypersonic flight are the focus of the latest academic research projects to be funded under NASA’s University Leadership Initiative.

With no certainty that a suitable unleaded alternative can ever be developed, the FAA must lead a broad-based and sustained commitment by government and the aviation community to reduce lead emissions from gasoline-powered aircraft, concludes a new report by the National Academies.