FAA Announces Next Generation of ATC

By 2014, all airplanes will be monitored in the United States using global satellite positioning instead of the radar system currently used. Known as the Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast system, or ADS-B, the new system is expected to be safer and more cost efficient than existing air and ground traffic control technology. UPS, Australia, and the FAA have been successfully testing it for years.

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Student Readers Rewarded with Airplane Ride

Grade school book reading clubs have reached a new height-literally. Third graders at a Naples, Florida elementary school who read more than 100 books by a certain date earned a free airplane ride in a single engine Cessna aircraft. Many of those who earned the short ride in the plane experienced flight in a small aircraft for the first time.

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Cessna Considering New Light Sport Aircraft – Airplanes

Cessna has announced they’re considering producing a new light sport aircraft, similar to the now-retired 152. They plan to display a full-scale version of the aircraft at this year’s Experimental Aircraft Association convention in Oshkosh. Cessna hopes that feedback from attendees will help them decide whether to proceed with development of the new aircraft.

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UK Report Offers Clues to Rumored US Spy Airplanes

A recently declassified UK Ministry of Defence report suggests that the United States Air Force may be developing spy planes capable of record breaking speed. The United States has a history of building secret spy planes dating back to the U2 spy plane and the SR71 Blackbird. Traditionally, the US government doesn’t acknowledge the existence of such planes until years later, and in the case of the F117 Stealth Fighter, not until it was in use for more than a decade.

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