AIN Blogs

AIN Blog: President’s Bizav Blast Affects Entire Industry
July 8, 2011 - 8:46am
Paul Lowe

Just days after commending President Obama for his June 28 visit to an Alcoa plant in Davenport, Iowa, Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) president and CEO Marion Blakey found his next day broadside against business aviation “baffling and disturbing.”
AIN Blog: Torqued: Maintenance Errors Could Be Fatal
July 8, 2011 - 8:43am
John Goglia

Some days I feel like Richard Clarke the fateful summer before the tragedy of 9/11, when his hair was all on fire as his warnings about the mounting threats by Al Qaeda against the U.S. fell on deaf ears. We all know how that turned out.
AIN Blog: Behind the Scenes at Business Jet Traveler
July 8, 2011 - 8:38am
Jennifer Leach English

Here at Business Jet Traveler magazine, we know that it’s officially summer because our 2011 Buyers’ Guide has shipped.
AIN Blog: The Final Shuttle Mission Looks Down on a Vastly Changed World Beneath
July 8, 2011 - 8:22am
Nigel Moll

At 11:29 this morning, the final space shuttle flight got under way as Atlantis rose from the launch pad on a column of fire from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The threat of thunderstorms had remained at bay, and, some 2.5 minutes later than planned, STS-135 headed skyward to punch through an overcast on its way to spending 12 days in the void above.
AIN Blog: China Is Making a Big GA Mistake
July 6, 2011 - 11:49am
Matt Thurber

Now that Caiga has finalized its purchase of Cirrus Aircraft, it is more than abundantly clear that Chinese companies (most owned by the government) are making huge investments in general aviation (GA) infrastructure. But the Chinese government is making a gigantic mistake that will make it difficult for these investments ever to pay off.
AIN Blog: Another Take on the President’s Take on Corporate Jets
July 6, 2011 - 5:17am
Jeff Burger

President Obama had barely concluded his June 29 press conference when my e-mail box began filling up with responses from the general-aviation industry. The NBAA expressed “dismay” and announced that it was sending a “strongly worded” letter to the President about his remarks, which it said “reflect a total lack of understanding” of the field.
AIN Blog: From an Industry Struggling To Recover, “Gee Thanks, Mr. President”
July 1, 2011 - 6:30am
Kirby J. Harrison

As part of an industry still struggling to recover from a recession and continuing attacks by the media and politicians alike, I was appalled by President Obama’s press conference Wednesday in which he used his bully pulpit to vilify corporate-jet owners. Not surprised. But appalled.
AIN Blog: U.S. Defense Programs Feeling the Pressure
June 30, 2011 - 8:06am
Bill Carey

Prominent U.S. defense programs are feeling pressure from more than just Congress and Pentagon cost police. Before and during the Paris Air Show, Boeing’s KC-46A tanker and Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II faced flak from the aviation press and, in the latter case, an ally’s speech.
AIN Blog: Boeing Embraces Spirit of Paris
June 29, 2011 - 11:22am
Gregory Polek

As I flew home amid the screaming babies in the back of a packed 767 from Charles de Gaulle Airport to New York’s JFK, something struck me as different about this Paris Air Show, apart from the exceptional number of orders and so-called commitments the world’s civil aircraft manufacturers had managed to collect for broadcast at Le Bourget.
AIN Blog: McDonnell Douglas A-12 Avenger II Is Still Haunting the Courts
June 28, 2011 - 11:17am
Curt Epstein
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The McDonnell Douglas A-12 Avenger II’s radical, wedge-shaped design still looks exotic, even in the 20 years since the program was cancelled after an outlay of billions of dollars that failed to produce even one real airplane. The proposed Navy attack bomber has fascinated me ever since the first time I saw an artist’s rendering of it.

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