Aircraft & Propulsion

Alaska Airlines reached an agreement in principle with Boeing to take as many as 120 new 737-9 jets in coming years, marking the first sale of a MAX aircraft to a U.S.-based customer since the type was grounded nearly two years ago.

UK start-up Faradair Aerospace has partnered with Honeywell and MagniX on development of its multirole Bio Electric Hybrid Aircraft, designed to carry 18 passengers or three LD3 cargo containers.

A bipartisan effort to fast-track new FAA certification and oversight mandates is using the emergency funding-focused omnibus bill to get the legislation into law, agreeing on new requirements targeting what the agency can delegate to manufacturers, emphasizing human factors reviews, and urging FAA to spearhead improvement of global pilot training.

Just weeks after launching service with four Embraer 195 jets converted to freighters, Brazilian operator Azul is considering more conversions to decrease delivery times.

United Airlines will become the second U.S. carrier to resume commercial Boeing 737 MAX operations when it reintroduces the model to service in

Demand for used serviceable material (USM) is starting to rise as cost-conscious operators seek to leverage the sudden availability of material from retired aircraft during the COVID-19 pandemic, AAR Corp. CEO John Holmes said.

Latvian carrier airBaltic dispensed with its last remaining Boeing 737 on Dec. 17, a few days after accepting its latest Airbus A220-300s.

The research arm of China’s state-owned airframer AVIC is forecasting that the country will need 7,576 new aircraft by 2039.

While 2020 will go down largely as a year to forget for Boeing, the company’s tally of new build commercial freighter deliveries represents a 12-month record and a rare bright spot for the under-pressure manufacturer.

Forecasts, snapshots and commercial air transport and business aircraft to watch.

The pandemic has made a difficult market worse for Airbus and Boeing, threatening the viability of programs and dimming optimism.

Slattery wants the engine manufacturer to become more agile, is bullish about the 737 MAX and cautious for future hydrogen propulsion.

North filed pilot reports on more than 120 aircraft and was a protector of his staff and the publication.

The FAA and the Kansas Department of Transportation have agreed to establish a flight corridor for testing civil supersonic aircraft, state officials announced Dec. 17.

The global economic context is unfavorable for everything in aviation except maybe for one thing: the delivery of a new freighter.

Boeing confident it has resources to meet airlines’ demand.

Airbus has unveiled a potential configuration for a hydrogen aircraft, integrating fuel cells and propellers in underwing pods.

A little over three months ago former Embraer Commercial Aviation CEO John Slattery took the top job at GE Aviation, succeeding company veteran David Joyce.

The FAA, codifying a lesson learned from the Boeing 737 MAX saga, plans to use ad-hoc internal review boards to help validate work as during the aircraft certification process, administrator Steve Dickson said.

Startup ZeroAvia has raised $37.7 million in funding to develop a zero-emission hydrogen fuel-cell propulsion system to power 19-seat regional airliners.

Despite the pandemic, the industry continued to make progress in sustainability, space, aviation safety and more.

The Boeing-Airbus duopoly cannot count on widebody sales anytime soon, so their hope is to get narrowbody production back to normal.

Among the few differences between the FAA and some regulators on the Boeing 737 MAX’s re-entry into airline schedules is how pilots should be empowered to handle an erroneous stick-shaker stall-warning.

FedEx Express on Dec. 15 received the first ATR 72-600F freighter, a new version ATR launched in 2017 thanks to a firm order from the delivery giant for 30 of the type.

An Irkut MC-21-300 narrowbody powered by Russian PD-14 turbofan engines made its first flight from Irkutsk, Russia, on the morning of Dec. 15.