Electric drive will reduce emissions and it’s ready to roll

Avantair is beginning to return aircraft to service after voluntarily grounding its fleet late last week following a discrepancy uncovered in its maintenance tracking program. The fleet grounding, which began June 6, was the second for the Clearwater, Fla.-based fractional ownership provider in the past nine months.

The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association is writing to the Department of Homeland Security to seek answers on why a growing number of pilots and aircraft are being searched at the request of Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) officials and on what authority the searches are taking place. AOPA is also developing a checklist for pilots who encounter such situations.

California lawmakers are keeping up pressure on FAA to impose mandatory operating restrictions for helicopters over Los Angeles, but the agency believes the regulatory process “is not well suited” to solving regional noise issues and is pushing for a series of collaborative voluntary measures.

Used market trends, slowing flight operations and plummeting aircraft values are pointing to continued market woes as the summer approaches, industry data shows.

FAA took a concrete step toward replacing leaded aviation gasoline, asking fuel producers to submit proposals by July 1, 2014 for possible options to transition to an unleaded fuel. The agency released a request for proposals June 10 for data packages for potential replacement fuels that could be developed by 2018.

Bombardier always faced a challenge convincing skeptics it could enter the narrowbody-airliner sector successfully with the CSeries. Damage wrought to the commercial aircraft industry's reputation by Airbus A380 and Boeing 787 issues has not helped.

Following the design freeze for the first version of the MS-21 narrowbody, Russia's United Aircraft Corporation is inching toward starting production of the initial test aircraft. UAC is has opted to work on the biggest variant first. According to UAC subsidiary Irkut Corp., which leads the MS-21 development, configuration of the first variant—the 212-seat MS-21-300—has been frozen and the design for the fuselage has been sent to UAC production sites in Irkutsk and Ulyanovsk.