SPANISH GLEEAN AMERICAN company working on advanced autogyro development is planning to go into business in a joint venture with the Spanish.Groen Brothers Aviation (GBA) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the government of Aragón, Spain to complete FAA certification, production, marketing and delivery of GBA's Hawk 5 Gyroplane.The Hawk 5 is a five-seat turboprop vertical takeoff and landing gyrocopter based upon GBA's original ... more

THE first Dassault Falcon 7X has flown from the French factory at Bordeaux to Little Rock in Arkansas, USA for completion.In a rare example of French-American cooperation, all Falcon 7X aircraft will be completed at Little Rock, Dassault's largest facility in the world with 1800 employees. "Little Rock has been preparing for this moment since the Falcon 7X program was announced in 2001," said John Rosanvallon, head of Dassault Fal ... more

NAPLES, Italy based Vulcanair has relaunched its high-wing twin turboprop at the A-Viator. Priced at $1.85 million, the 11-seat aircraft will be fitted with glass cockpit as standard. Vulcanair took over the assets of Partenavia, the original manufacturer, in 1998. It has concentrated on the piston twin P68 since then. The latest version is the Vr with retractable landing gear and two 200hp Lycoming IO360 engines. W: www.vulcanair.com ... more

CARTER Aviation Technologies test pilot, George Mitchell, has successfully executed several vertical take-offs of the company's new gyro prototype.The 150feet high takeoffs were the result of a new rotor system that Carter developed for the gyro. Mitchell said, "It was phenomenal! But it took a little getting used to. It's not something you do with the average gyro. The "g" meter showed 2.25 Gs on takeoff!" Carter Presid ... more

AN industrial design student has put together this vision of personal helicopter travel for the future.Elisabeth Soós has just graduated from University of Applied Sciences in Graz, Austria and built this one-metre long scale model with the help of BMW.Elisabeth, who did her internship at BMW Designworks, California said,"It's not an official BMW project but it was a cooperation with BMW - that means I could use their milling machines ... more

TRIALS of special transponder codes for aircraft flying near to Luton and Stansted controlled airspace start in February.Pilots flying around the edges of the Luton and Stansted zones but not needing air traffic services can squawk '0013'. NATS, who is running the trial, says this will allow an air traffic controller who observes an aircraft displaying this code and which is infringing or is likely to infringe controlled airspace to make a ... more

'Reims Rocket' Cessna 172 certified by EASAA FLOAT-equipped Cessna 172 has been certified in Europe. It took more than two years to achieve the certification - believed to be the first of its kind.The aircraft is a 1968 French-built FR172F - known as the 'Reims Rocket' after the factory's location. It has been fitted with Wipline amphibious floats by ACS Engineering at Perth Airfield and registered as 'G-DRAM'.Power is a 210hp 6-cylinder Co ... more

School for wannabe racers opens season      TWO one-day schools for would-be air racers will be held on 29 and 30 March at North Weald Airfield. The schools are a prelude to a season of eight weekends of racing from April to September, organised by the Royal Aero Club.Any pilot with at least 100 hours P1 is eligible to race. The races are time handicapped to allow a mixture of aircraft to compete on an equal basis, ... more

THE country made famous by British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen in the movie Borat has bought its first foreign-manufactured helicopter for law enforcement. Kazakhstan's Internal Affairs Ministry has bought a new Robinson R44 Raven 11 to support police in the capital city of Astana.In a ceremony pictured right, Astana Mayor Askar Mamin presented Major General Dozumov, head of the Internal Affairs Department of Astana, with the keys to the blu ... more

First of new 160hp aerobatic from New Zealand due in UKTHE first of the new breed of Alpha aerobatic training aircraft will arrive in the UK this month (February). It is a top spec model, the 160hp 160AI, which has been sold to a private buyer by UK distributor, Mistral Aviation.The Alpha range of 120hp and 160hp two-seaters has been developed from the former Robin 2160 by New Zealand company Alpha Aviation, based at the booming General Avi ... more

Modern day Icarus takes to the skies with jet-propelled wing HIGH-flying daredevil Yves Rossy has just made public a video of his ambition to fly like Icarus, by using a strap-on wing with jet engines. Wearing the jet-wing like a backpack, Yves jumps out of an aircraft at altitude and freefalls until he is gliding. At this point he ignites the jets and flies around at speeds up to 200km/h! When his fuel runs out, he simply pulls the rip cor ... more

COLUMBIA has launched its 2007 model range with new paint schemes and extra standard features including a remote keyless door system. The new paint graphics are named after waterfalls close to the factory in Oregon, USA. Visitors to Columbia's website can experiment with different paint schemes using an interactive paint selector. In the cabin, two-position rudder pedals are now standard, alongwith integral cupholder/approach plate holder a ... more

CIRRUS has upgraded its Avidyne glass cockpit to show a three-page 'Risk Assessment Tool' every time the aircraft's engine is started. The new screens cover "a personal inventory before takeoff regarding limitations, weather, flight planning, passenger briefing, and readiness to fly".Cirrus boss Alan Klapmeier told LOOP, "As a CIRRUS owner and pilot, I appreciate the friendly reminder to make sure that I am personally prepare ... more

An Army Air Corps pilot has flown an Apache attack helicopter carrying four Royal Marine commandos strapped to the side in a unique rescue mission.The mission was launched after Royal Marines from 45 Commando discovered one of their comrades, Lance Corporal Matthew Ford, was missing after attacking a major Taliban stronghold. The 39 year-old pilot, known only as Tom, suggested four personnel could be strapped onto the Apaches so they could ... more

A LIVE link between a flying Diamond DA42 in Austria and the world's biggest defence trade fair in Abu Dhabi next month will provide real-time video footage for show visitors. The DA42 will be equipped with both infra-red and visible light cameras, plus a Scotty Satcom (satellite communications) suite, to provide daily transmissions to the show, known as IDEX. Diamond Airborne Sensing, a subsidiary of Diamond Aircraft, claims its specially ... more