Tag: FAA

FAA Approves Varda Space for Unlimited Reentries

Aviation Week reports, “Varda has three successful capsule reentries under its belt and new permission from the FAA to return its spacecraft through the atmosphere as often as it wants. On June 18, the FAA issued an expanded part 450 reentry license to Varda Space for its Winnebago–or W-Series–capsules. The precedent-setting regulatory approval has the potential to help expand the nascent in-space manufacturing and research and development industry.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)

 Video

Reentering W-2
Varda Space Industries; YouTube

Aviation Autonomy Experts Discuss What it Will Take to Ensure Safer Skies

FROM THE INSTITUTE
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) operates the busiest and most complex airspace in the world with more than 45,000 daily flights operating to over 5,000 public use airports. The United States is now experiencing the limits of what the current system was designed to handle and maybe the limit of what any human-centric system can achieve.
Full Story (Aerospace America)

Trump Orders FAA to Repeal Ban on Overland Supersonic Flight

Flying Magazine reports, “President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order instructing the FAA to repeal its ban on supersonic flight over U.S. land. The order said that, with advances in noise-reduction technology, supersonic flight is ‘not just possible, but safe, sustainable, and commercially viable.’ New noise standards will be developed that weigh ‘community acceptability, economic reasonableness, and technological feasibility,’ the White House added.”
Full Story (Flying Magazine)

FlightSafety International Partners with ZeroAvia to Train Pilots on Hydrogen-Electric Aircraft

Flying Magazine reports, “FlightSafety International is preparing aspiring aces for a hydrogen-powered future. The company on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with ZeroAvia, a hybrid-electric engine developer, to build flight simulators, ‘digital learning platforms,’ and other training materials geared toward the introduction of hydrogen fuel cell electric aircraft. The partners said they will work with regulators to ‘explore future governance of training for new, clean alternative propulsion technologies’ for pilots and maintenance technicians.”
Full Story (Flying Magazine)

FAA is Getting Closer to Certifying ZeroAvia’s Electric Propulsion System

Aerospace Global News reports, “ZeroAvia has moved one step closer to certification of its first commercial product, having received Certification Basis for its 600kW electric propulsion system (EPS) from the FAA – a key document outlining the applicable airworthiness regulations with which the manufacturer must comply. The G-1 Issue Paper (Stage 2) contains a formally confined agreement, designating the standards to which ZeroAvia will validate the design requirements of its EPS.”
Full Story (Aerospace Global News)

FAA Introduces Downwash Caution Area for Vertiports

Aviation Week reports “When the FAA released draft updated engineering guidelines for vertiports in September 2024, it introduced the requirement for a caution area to provide protection from the high wind velocities produced by the propellers of electric air taxis during vertical takeoffs and landings. The introduction of the downwash caution area (DCA) was the result of flight surveys of multiple prototype electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) aircraft for the FAA.”
Full Story (Aviation Week)