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Hawker Beechcraft has received approval from a federal bankruptcy court to continue paying employees, vendors and suppliers. There are still many questions about the filing and what it means to current and retired workers. Wichita bankruptcy attorney Bill Zimmerman says planes will continue to be built and, for all practical purposes, Hawker Beechcraft will continue operating during its restructuring. "The whole idea is to maintain value by continuing to operate," said Zimmerman. Something catching employees' attention is a statement on the company website that Hawker may have to terminate its pension plan. Zimmerman says it's not a done deal and...

After a decades-long streak of troubled weapon acquisitions, the Air Force is looking to get off on the right foot as it seeks to buy a new intercontinental stealth bomber. The Pentagon’s new budget proposal gives the Air Force the green light to begin designing a new bomber with a target date for starting production in the mid-2020s. The goal is to acquire up to 100 new aircraft at a cost of about $55 billion. But skeptics already are casting doubts on the plan. They consistently point to the B-2 batwing stealth bomber as a cautionary tale. The Pentagon spent...

In the thick of the Cold War, the Soviet Union built an immense vessel to carry their troops across the seas and into Western Europe. Equipped with nuclear warheads and able to blast across the sea at 340 mph, the Lun-class Ekranoplane; part plane, part boat, and part hovercraft — is a Ground Effect Vehicle (GEV). A GEV takes advantage of an aeronautical effect that allows it to lift off with an immense amount of weight, but limits its flight to 16 feet above the waves. Its altitude can never be greater than the length of the wings. Think of...

The United States Air Force is facing questions from Hawker Beechcraft Corp. after a recent GAO decision effectively removed them from the running in a bid to build our next generation of light attack aircraft.... Hawker Beechcraft, which has been excluded by the U.S. Air Force from competing for a contract to supply a new light attack aircraft, is fighting mad and fighting back. The Wichita-based manufacturer of business jets and turboprops filed suit yesterday with the Court of Federal Claims following notification that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) declined to review its protest of the Air Force decision, which...

Raw power!

The X-37B Mystery Spacecraft Just Had Its Nine Month Mission Extended Indefinitely Robert Johnson Dec. 3, 2011, 9:15 AM Image: US Air Force The pilotless X-37B Orbital Vehicle has been silently circling the planet for the past nine months and the Air Force has announced it will continue its classified mission indefinitely. W.J. Hennigan of the Los Angeles Times reports the X-37B resembles a smaller version of the space shuttle and is said to test various new technologies in space. Via CSM: "We initially planned for a nine-month mission, which we are roughly at now, but we will continue to...

The F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variant completed ship suitability testing aboard the USS WASP (LHD-1) off the coast of Virginia in October 2011. Combined, F-35B test aircraft BF-2 and BF-4 accomplished 72 short takeoffs and 72 vertical landings during the three-week testing period.

Bookings for U.S.-made products designed to last at least three years fell by 0.8% last month, the Commerce Department said. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had expected a 1.0% decrease. Transportation orders slumped 7.5% to account for virtually the entire decline... ...Excluding transportation, however, orders climbed 1.7% in September. Demand increased for computers, primary metals, fabricated metals, heavy machinery and electrical equipment.

the Pentagon announced Friday that the remains of 10 airmen missing in action from World War II will be buried next week at Arlington National Cemetery with full military honors. The Department of Defense said in a news release that the crew was on a bombing mission over Berlin in April 1944 when their B-24J Liberator aircraft crashed near East Meitze, Germany. There were no survivors. The crash site was located in 2003 and human remains were turned over to U.S. officials. Additional remains, as well as metal ID tags and a class ring, were gathered over the next few...

Nearly half of the federal government’s firefighting air tankers are siting idle at a California airport, grounded by the Obama administration in a contract dispute just weeks before wildfires swept through Texas killing a mother and her child, and destroying 100,000 acres. The massive blazes forced Texas Gov. and Republican presidential hopeful Rick Perry​ to abruptly call off a campaign appearance in South Carolina earlier this week to respond to the crisis, and may force him to cancel his first debate appearance Wednesday night. The U.S. Forest Service terminated the contract with Aero Union five weeks ago to operate...

The aircraft began arriving Thursday afternoon, and more will be flown to shelter today, according to Capt. Joseph Keith, executive officer for the 134th Air Refueling Wing of the Tennessee Air National Guard.

"Both general aviation and commercial aircraft use the public airspace and air traffic control facilities, and the public has a right to information about their activities." Oh, please. We all use public streets and sidewalks, which doesn't mean the police have a right to monitor our movements and let the world know where we go.

China's first aircraft carrier on Wednesday left its shipyard in the country's northeast to start its first sea trial, the state news agency Xinhua said.

DENVER -- A quadriplegic man from Fort Collins was forced off a Frontier Airlines plane because a pilot said it wasn't safe for him to fly. His mother, Kathleen Morris, said there was no problem two days earlier when her son flew Frontier from Denver International Airport to Dallas to attend a family wedding. But Sunday afternoon, when he boarded in Dallas to come home, John Morris and his family said they were humiliated. "When a flight attendant saw John strapped in, they said they would have to clear it with the captain," said Kathleen Morris. She said that her...

BREAKING: Officials are on scene of an aircraft that landed at Reagan National Airport in Washington, DC after a bomb threat was made against the aircraft. Details are still sketchy, however, sources tell BaltimoreJewishLife.com that a K-9 unit has detected a suspicious bag on board the aircraft. The aircraft and area around it has been evacuated. More information on this story will be posted on BaltimoreJewishLife.com when received.

If you're afraid of flying, reading this post may or may not make it worse. On one hand it describes a story about the smell of a burning plane engine, the expressions of encumbered panic and the experience of coming to terms with death. On the other hand, everybody lives! Reuters photographer Beiwharta had just started to fall asleep on a flight with his family from Singapore to Jakarta when two loud bangs jolted him into a frightening reality. Based on Beiwharta's account of what came next, the activity on a crashing plane is just like you might imagine. The...

We‘ve already showed you Northrop Group’s stealth drone, the X-47B (watch here). Now Boeing has entered the fray with its Phantom Ray, a stealth-style drone that just completed its inaugural test flight at Andrew’s Air Force Base. But the Phantom ups the ante: instead of being just an unmanned drone controlled by remote control, it can be controlled by a computer. The LA Times explains: Boeing Co.‘s experimental drone, dubbed Phantom Ray, flew to 7,500 feet and reached speeds of 205 mph in its first flight. The 17-minute flight took place April 27, but Boeing officials did not confirm details...

To fly the military's baddest, most technologically advanced planes, you once had to have what Tom Wolfe called "that righteous stuff" -- the willingness to strap yourself to a jet-fuel laden machine and push it to the very limits of its mechanical capabilities. Nowadays, unmanned systems have taken the human danger out of some combat missions, though human pilots remain at the sticks. But not for long. The Navy's experimental X-47B combat system won't be remotely piloted, but almost completely autonomous. Human involvement won't be of the stick-and-rudder variety, but handled with simple mouse clicks. Speaking to reporters at the...

Electric airplanes are getting more numerous, with the latest making its initial flight in Augsburg, Germany. The Elektra One, developed by Calin Gologan of PC-Aero, was flown by test pilot Jon Karkow. Since that flight, the aircraft has completed an additional three flights for up to 30 minutes. It will next be upgraded with a variable pitch prop and retractable landing gear. Karkow was the project leader and test pilot for the around-the-world Virgin Global Flyer, and more recently served as technical program manager for the Virgin Galactic commercial space program at Scaled Composites in California. The single-seat Elektra One...