AIN Blogs

AIN Blog: The FAA Shutdown Wasn’t over EAS
August 5, 2011 - 8:17am
Paul Lowe

So it took a torrent of battling press releases, multiple sound bites and numerous press briefings before we finally learned the real hang-up over the FAA extension bill, and it wasn’t three little airports in West-by-god-Virginia and two other states.
AIN Blog: Is certification really necessary?
August 5, 2011 - 5:29am
Matt Thurber
Levil Technology sells a small AHRS that provides attitude information for iP...

Spending a week at the annual EAA AirVenture Oshkosh show never fails to exhilarate and inspire, but at the same time it can frustrate. The good news is that we U.S. citizens are extraordinarily lucky to live in a country where the federal authorities have decided that it's OK to allow us the freedom to design, build and fly an aeronautical device of our own creation, with few restrictions.
AIN Blog: BJT’s Reader Survey–A Bet That Paid Off
August 3, 2011 - 11:14am
Jeff Burger

Sometimes, editors simply have to guess. No, not about the facts in their articles, but about what editorial projects will pay off on the time, effort and resources invested in them. 
Burt Rutan: The Measure of His Success
July 29, 2011 - 11:41am
Nigel Moll

How does one measure the success of an airplane designer?
AIN Blog: Aviation Makes Environmental Progress on Several Fronts
July 27, 2011 - 4:51am
Bill Carey

I recall being at first surprised, then relieved, by the oft-quoted statistic that aviation accounts for just 2 percent of global CO2 emissions. It seems like such a small amount in the grand scheme of greenhouse gases. But a recent report by the World Economic Forum cautions against complacency on the emissions front.
AIN Blog: Regionals’ Growth Bubble Deflating
July 22, 2011 - 8:22am
Gregory Polek

The regional airline business lost more of its luster last week, when Delta Air Lines announced it would retire its entire Saab 340 turboprop fleet and “adjust” flying in 24 small markets, 16 of which benefit from Essential Air Service subsidies.
AIN Blog: Last Shuttle Flight Marks End of an Era
July 22, 2011 - 8:16am
Curt Epstein
The July 21 landing of the space shuttle Atlantis marked the end of a 30-year...

After a span of 30 years the space shuttle program ended on July 21 when Atlantis landed safely at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The landing represented the conclusion of the 135th flight of the reusable space plane, and for me, the end of the only manned space program I had ever really known.
AIN Blog: Biojet Cocktail May Produce a Big Hangover
July 20, 2011 - 10:54am
Mark Huber

At this year’s Paris Air Show, some big players bellied up to the biojet bar. Boeing flew one of its new 747-8s from the U.S. to the show fueled by a mix of 85-percent jet-A and 15-percent camelina plant oil derivative; Honeywell–the jet-engine and avionics manufacturer–made the trip using a 50-50 mix in a Gulfstream G450.
AIN Blog: Solar Impulse Impresses, Even When Not Flying
July 19, 2011 - 6:22am
R. Randall Padfield

The electrically powered Solar Impulse (HB-SIA) is an amazing airplane and I was anxious to see it fly during the Paris Air Show. Unfortunately for me and probably many others who attended the biennial event, the weather did not cooperate until the last day of the show, June 26.
AIN Blog: Saving an Aviation Institution
July 19, 2011 - 5:33am
David A. Lombardo

I was rearranging the contents of one of my bookshelves to make room for a stack of books that had been read but had no permanent residence. As I rapidly made space reassignment or discarded decisions about the flotsam and jetsam of 20 years of life in the same house, I came across my pilot log book from the late ’60s and early ’70s. 

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