TikTok Aviation Panic; Your Lost Meets their Found; and FAA Shows Airports A Lotta Love

Urban Aerial Transportation company Joby Aviation bought German hydrogen technology developer H2Fly last year. Terms were not disclosed, and Joby so far has been tight lipped about how it plans to incorporate H2Fly's business into its own.

It was announced earlier this week that Selma, Alabama, will be home to the United States' first remotely operated air traffic control tower. Details are sparse. No word on a launch date or details of how the tower will be operated.

A TikTok user who identified himself as an air traffic controller caused quite a stir when he "revealed" that many air traffic control towers close at night, leaving it up to the pilots to sort out arrivals on their own. We cleared the matter up in a story addressing the true claims the controller made.

The FAA handed out more than half a billion dollars' worth of grants to airports across the country in order to "help improve airports around the country and [thereby] better serve all Americans."

SITA conducted a test of its SITA WorldTracer Lost and Found Property portal, which could be used to track items lost in the airline airport environment. Bereft owners of phones, laptops and other lost items can register their item with the site, which will automatically match found items with those reported lost.

Republic's bid to lower from 1,500 hours to 750 hours the total time required for pilots to get their ATP and qualify to fly as first officer in a commercial airliner is getting substantial negative commentary from posters and flight schools. Republic claims that its course would be equivalent (or better) than the military's pilot training. Pilots who flew in the military can qualify to fly right seat with just 750 hours.

EAA will fÃªte the Bowers Fly Baby at this year's EAA AirVenture Oshkosh Fly-In. The popular homebuilt, which is 60 years old this year, was a pioneering design in the amateur-built movement.

American Airlines grounded more than 100 of its planes, reportedly because it doesn't have the pilots to fly them.

A USMC MV-22 Osprey tiltrotor crashed in California earlier this week, killing all five crewmembers. The big utility aircraft was based at California's Camp Pendleton.

Electric propulsion developer Magnix and project partner Tier 1 Engineering made a flight of a Robinson R44 powered solely by electric motors. The company said that the flight lasted just three minutes, though it wants to extend that time considerably (which we kind of figured that out on own).

Plane & PilotStaff