Air safety reporting by The Air Current is provided without a subscription as a public service. Please subscribe to gain full access to our all scoops, in-depth reporting and analyses. Airbus has issued an advisory to airlines operating A320 family aircraft warning of a risk of flight control software corruption in the event of a solar flare. “Analysis of a recent event involving an A320 Family aircraft has revealed that intense solar radiation […] The post Solar flare vulnerability in A320 software forces emergency action by airlines appeared first on The Air Current.

DUBAI — Over the past decade, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has invested aggressively both in futuristic development projects and growing its domestic aviation industry. While electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft would seem to be the apotheosis of both, the eVTOL sandbox trials planned in the Kingdom next year actually represent a more measured and pragmatic approach to evaluating the viability of these aircraft as Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) re-evaluates […] The post Saudi Arabia brings a critical eye to appraising eVTOL readiness appeared first on The Air Current.

DUBAI — For the past four years, Archer Aviation has had a clear strategy for commercializing its electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft: concentrate its engineering resources on developing the vehicle’s electric powertrain, and outsource as much as it can of everything else to suppliers. Now, the eVTOL developer has become a supplier itself, providing its electric motors and batteries to defense tech firm Anduril Industries for its recently unveiled hybrid-electric Omen drone. […] The post Archer, Anduril deal shows defense tech profiting from eVTOL progress appeared first on The Air Current.

DUBAI — The base of airlines currently flying the Airbus A220 have pushed the plane maker toward a more conservative and less performant stretch design that prioritizes time to market over transcontinental range, Airbus Commercial Aviation CEO Christian Scherer said in an interview with The Air Current at the Dubai Airshow. Scherer said he had previously believed transcontinental capability was necessary after hearing repeatedly from U.S. airlines in the early 2000s that were […] The post Customer consensus pushes Airbus toward shorter legs for A220 stretch appeared first on The Air Current.

In the first recounting of the 43-day U.S. government shutdown, pressure placed on politicians by a rapidly destabilizing national airspace system played a central role in ending the longest in the nation’s history, along with expiring food assistance and other key programs. As delays induced by air traffic controller staffing issues compounded with unprecedented scheduled capacity cuts mandated by the Federal Aviation Administration, eight U.S. Senate Democrats voted on Nov. 9 to advance […] The post Seeking a solution to aviation’s government shutdown problem appeared first on The Air Current.

DUBAI — Emirates’ surprise order for 65 more Boeing 777-9 aircraft on the first day of the Dubai Airshow came with an explicit request for the plane maker: build an even bigger 777X. As part of the deal, CEO Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said Boeing agreed to launch a feasibility study for a 777-10. “Emirates’ latest agreement with Boeing also provides strong backing for Boeing’s feasibility study to develop the 777-10, […] The post Emirates buys itself a 777-10 feasibility study with airshow mega-order appeared first on The Air Current.

DUBAI — Four years after announcing its entry into the electric vertical take-off and landing market, Honda is at the Dubai Airshow with the first public update on its progress. Honda R&D is exhibiting a subscale model of its eVTOL, a turbogenerator and a notional cabin mock-up in Dubai in a bid to demonstrate to suppliers and the industry at large that it is committed to commercialization. At the same time, its executives […] The post Honda draws back the curtain on eVTOL development appeared first on The Air Current.

Pratt & Whitney Commercial Engines president Rick Deurloo said the engine maker is “in conversation” with Airbus about its requirement to industrialize for its A320neo Rate 75 monthly goal in 2027. “We’re in constant conversations with the Airbus on ramp,” Deurloo said at a press briefing on the eve of the Dubai Airshow, addressing the PW1100G series engines that are one choice to power the A320neo family. “Right now, the agreement we have […] The post Pratt & Whitney still in talks with Airbus for A320 Rate 75 industrialization appeared first on The Air Current.

In July of last year, the Federal Aviation Administration executed a calculated bet. The agency wagered that moving control of Newark Airport’s airspace from the New York radar facility on Long Island to one in Philadelphia would help remedy one of the worst ATC staffing problems in the country. Promising more than a dozen forcefully relocated controllers they could move back to Long Island after two years, the agency presumably expected it would […] The post FAA asks relocated Newark controllers to stay in Philadelphia appeared first on The Air Current.

Rep. Rick Larsen, Democrat of Washington and ranking member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told The Air Current Wednesday that after being briefed on the underlying Federal Aviation Administration safety data he largely agreed with the reasoning for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s scheduled flight capacity reduction. Larsen was one of the first lawmakers to call for greater transparency after the decision was announced last week. Related: With little recourse, U.S. […] The post Key House Democrat supportive of DOT flight cuts after safety data briefing appeared first on The Air Current.

Boeing late last week received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration to begin the third of five major phases of certification flight tests for its 777-9, which will be the largest single block of evaluations for the long-delayed aircraft program, two people familiar with the program’s progress tell The Air Current. Certification and entry-into-service of the 777-9 has now slid to 2027, the company announced last month, seven years later than its original […] The post Boeing gets FAA nod to begin next major phase of 777X certification trials appeared first on The Air Current.

Senior U.S. airline officials are skeptical of the U.S. Department of Transportation’s safety justification for an unprecedented slew of scheduled domestic airspace capacity reductions instituted early Friday morning at 40 “high-impact” airports across the country. The cuts start at 4% of nationwide scheduled operations, but expand to 10% by Nov. 14 — a never-before-seen move made in anticipation of continued strain on the national airspace system induced by the ongoing government shutdown. In […] The post With little recourse, U.S. airline leaders skeptical of DOT flight cut justification appeared first on The Air Current.

In late 2022, the U.S. Air Force and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) installed artificial intelligence in an F-16 fighter jet and gave it control of the aircraft — sort of. The jet was actually the X-62A VISTA, a highly modified F-16 typically used by the Air Force Test Pilot School to evaluate different flight control schemes. And the conditions in which the AI had control of the aircraft were tightly constrained. […] The post Special Report: Why the aviation industry can’t agree on how to certify AI appeared first on The Air Current.

The following terms appear in The Air Current’s special report on certifying artificial intelligence/machine learning in aviation and are included here as a quick reference, along with some related items. Definitions are drawn from a variety of sources and TAC’s reporting and may vary somewhat from others’ definitions of the expressions. Agent: A software system that uses AI to autonomously perform tasks in response to predetermined goals. Agents are typically developed through a machine learning process called reinforcement learning in […] The post TAC Explains: A glossary of AI/ML terms in aircraft certification appeared first on The Air Current.

With electric aircraft developer Beta Technologies listing on the New York Stock Exchange on Nov. 4, the aviation industry is getting a better look at the company’s key business assumptions — and finding some of its projections around battery economics highly questionable. The registration statement Beta filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission outlines four key revenue streams for the company: selling aircraft to military and commercial customers; selling replacement batteries to […] The post Beta CEO defends projected battery business economics appeared first on The Air Current.

For most of the past four years, Beta Technologies CEO Kyle Clark used the company’s privately-held status as a selling point. For example, when Beta announced a major strategic pivot in 2023 — choosing to certify a more conventional electric airplane ahead of its electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft — Clark presented it as evidence of the startup’s flexibility relative to its publicly-traded peers. “This is the strategic advantage we have over […] The post Beta CEO Kyle Clark wants to run his public company like a private one appeared first on The Air Current.

Boeing is expected to close its $10.55 billion divestment of a key portion of its Digital Aviation Solutions business to Thoma Bravo as early as Monday, Nov. 3, according to two people familiar with the transaction. Boeing leadership signaled on its earnings call earlier this week that the divestment of key portions of the company’s Global Services unit is quickly approaching and will precede the completion of its acquisition of aerostructures supplier Spirit […] The post Boeing divestment of Jeppesen and ForeFlight to close as early as Nov. 3 appeared first on The Air Current.

File this under: two disparate data points that may have significant geopolitical implications. On Oct. 27, IndiGo, India’s largest carrier, said it resumed service between Kolkata and Guangzhou, marking the reopening of a non-stop commercial air link to China after five years. IndiGo will restart flights between Delhi and Guangzhou on Nov. 10 and China Eastern will fly between Shanghai and Delhi on Nov. 9. Entirely separately, on Oct. 28, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited […] The post India opens two key aviation links with China and Russia amid U.S. pressure appeared first on The Air Current.

Loading the Elevenlabs Text to Speech AudioNative Player... At a GE Aerospace investor event earlier this month, a Wall Street analyst asked a topical question. If GE were to abandon the Open Fan — the exotic open rotor design it is developing with its CFM International partner, Safran — what advanced technologies from that effort could be applied to future ducted engines? As a GE Aerospace executive explained the company hasn’t yet reached […] The post GE pushes back on Open Fan skepticism appeared first on The Air Current.

Fifteen years after the Federal Aviation Administration announced it would require aircraft operating in most U.S. airspace to be equipped with GPS-based Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) “Out” technology, Congress appears poised to require those same aircraft have ADS-B “In,” which displays that information about nearby traffic in the cockpit. Rotorcraft Operations Transparency and Oversight Reform (ROTOR) Act sponsors Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and Democrat Sen. Maria Cantwell say the effort will improve safety […] The post After DCA crash, Congress acts to mandate decades-old aircraft tracking tech appeared first on The Air Current.

The Federal Aviation Administration has cleared Boeing to increase 737 Max production to 42 planes per month, up from a previous cap of 38 per month that had been in place since an improperly installed plug exit broke away from Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 in January 2024. The removal of the production cap is a major milestone for the plane maker as it has sought to regain the trust of its regulator, customers […] The post FAA gives Boeing all-clear to raise 737 Max production appeared first on The Air Current.

LAS VEGAS — Electric vertical take-off and landing developer Archer Aviation is acquiring Lilium’s patent portfolio for 18 million euros (around $21 million) following a competitive bidding process that also attracted rival Joby Aviation. Archer said it will gain around 300 of Lilium’s patents through the deal, including key patents related to ducted fans, propeller systems, high-voltage systems, battery management, aircraft design, flight controls and electric engines. Founded in 2015, the German eVTOL […] The post Archer comes out on top in bidding for Lilium’s patent portfolio appeared first on The Air Current.

Loading the Elevenlabs Text to Speech AudioNative Player... NISKAYUNA, N.Y. — In 2015, CFM International, the joint venture between GE Aerospace and Safran, reaffirmed a bold promise: the maintenance costs of its next-generation Leap engine family — with its higher internal temperatures and exotic materials and coatings — would be similar to those of its CFM56 that had been flying under the wing of the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 for years. A […] The post GE’s quest to keep an engine on the wing where it belongs appeared first on The Air Current.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s messaging for the nation’s air traffic control workforce shifted from exclusively supportive to also frustrated on Wednesday as the U.S. government shutdown now enters its ninth day. “My message to the air traffic controllers who work for DOT is ‘Show up for work,’” Duffy said during a Wednesday afternoon Fox News appearance. “You’ve got a job to do.” That’s a departure from Duffy’s comments over the last week, which […] The post Duffy to air traffic controllers: ‘Show up for work’ appeared first on The Air Current.

Electric aircraft developer Beta Technologies has officially filed public documentation for an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States, confirming a Sept. 23 report by The Air Current on its intention to sell shares on the open market. For the past four years, privately-held Beta has remained relatively tight-lipped on its finances and future plans compared to its publicly-traded peers. Now, the company is disclosing new details about its business — including […] The post Beta Technologies discloses new partnership, product details in IPO filing appeared first on The Air Current.