Tag: FAA

FAA to Invest Over $100M Into Sustainable Aviation

The New York Times reported that the US Federal Aviation Administration awarded over $100 million in grants to companies including Boeing, GE, and Pratt & Whitney on Friday. The grants are “part of the Biden administration’s effort to combat climate change,” as airlines have agreed to target net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, though “it is not clear how they will achieve that goal.”
Full Story (New York Times)

FAA Audio Details Police Helicopter Chase of UAV

The Daily Mail (UK) reported that The Drive acquired air traffic control audio from the Federal Aviation Administration this week revealing details about a sophisticated mystery UAV that evaded Tucson Police and US Customs and Border Protection helicopters in February. The recordings “show that pilots and air traffic controllers were baffled by the drone, which they described as ‘super sophisticated’ and possibly satellite-controlled, and hovered over Davis-Monthan Air Force Base.” The UAV “was not visible with night-vision goggles and eventually exceeded the maximum flight ceiling of the helicopters.”
Full Story (Daily Mail)

FAA Orders Operators to Test Switches On 9,300 Boeing 737 Planes for Possible Failures

Reuters reports that on Thursday, The FAA “issued a directive to operators of all Boeing Co 737 series airplanes to conduct inspections to address possible failures of cabin altitude pressure switches.” The order, which “covers 2,502 U.S.-registered airplanes and 9,315 airplanes worldwide,” requires operators “to conduct repetitive tests of the switches and replace them if needed.” The FAA indicated that malfunctioning switches “could result in the cabin altitude warning system not activating if the cabin altitude exceeds 10,000 feet (3,050 m), at which point oxygen levels could become dangerously low.”
Full Story (Reuters)

FAA Doesn’t Expect Certification of Boeing 777X Before 2023

Bloomberg reports that the FAA sent a letter to The Boeing Company on May 13 expressing concerns about the company’s newest version of the 777 “because of what U.S. regulators called a test-flight incident and multiple other issues with software and inadequate data.” The FAA wrote that the agency “anticipates a significant impact to the level of regression testing, change impact analysis, and the potential to increase the number of certification flight tests that will need to take place.” The FAA told Boeing that it does not expect to certify the jet before the second half of 2023.
Full Story (Bloomberg)

UAV Startup Flytrex Receives FAA Approval to Expand Grocery Delivery to Thousands of Homes

Insider reports that Flytrex has received approval from the Federal Aviation Administration “to expand backyard drone delivery to thousands of homes in North Carolina, the company announced Tuesday, May 25.” Flytrex has been testing their UAV operations under the FAA’s ongoing pilot UAV program for months. The company “previously delivered food and beverages at a golf course in North Dakota. But its biggest FAA experiment started in late 2020 when it took to the skies carrying trash bags from a Walmart store in North Carolina.” Initial testing included drops made to houses about a half-mile from the store. With the FAA certification, Flytrex can now “operate its drone system above people, allowing for the largest-scale backyard drone deliveries of goods known to date,” the company said in a statement.
Full Story (Insider)

FAA Asks Boeing for New Analysis of Electrical Grounding Problem on 737 MAXs

Reuters reports that the FAA has “asked The Boeing Company to supply fresh analysis and documentation showing numerous 737 MAX subsystems would not be affected by electrical grounding issues first flagged in three areas of the jet in April, two people familiar with the matter told Reuters.” The “electrical problems have suspended nearly a quarter of its 737 MAX fleet,” and the call for additional analysis “injects new uncertainty over the timing of when Boeing’s best-selling jetliner would be cleared to fly by” the FAA. The “production-related electrical grounding problem” was first found “in a backup power control unit situated in the cockpit on some recently built airplanes.” The problem “was then found in two other places on the flight deck, including the storage rack where the affected control unit is kept and the instrument panel facing the pilots.
Full Story (Reuters)

Ryanair CEO Expects FAA to Certify Boeing 737 Max 200 This Week

Aviation International News reports that Ryanair hopes the FAA and the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) “will finalize the licensing process of the Boeing 737 Max 200 in the coming days, paving the way for Europe’s largest LCC to finally take delivery of its first example in April.” Ryanair Group CEO Michael O’Leary said during an online press conference Wednesday, “We hope that the [Max] 8-200 will be certified by the FAA sometime later this week and then by EASA later this week or early next week.”
Full Story (Aviation International News)

Musk Criticizes FAA After Cancellation of SpaceX’s Starship Test Flight Thursday

The Washington Post reports that SpaceX CEO Elon Musk criticized the FAA after the agency canceled the launch of SpaceX’s Starship test flight Thursday. Musk wrote in a tweet, “Unlike its aircraft division, which is fine, the FAA space division has a fundamentally broken regulatory structure. … Their rules are meant for a handful of expendable launches per year from a few government facilities. Under those rules, humanity will never get to Mars.” On Thursday, the FAA said in a statement to the Post, “We will continue working with SpaceX to resolve outstanding safety issues before we approve the next test flight.”
Full Story (The Washington Post)