A Slovakian company, Klein, has made the first flight of its flying car, the Klein Air Car, which unlike many so called flying cars these days not only looks like a flying car but functions like one, too. The company earned European approval for it on roadways recently, as well. It seems to fly well and as a car, well, it’s kind of cool looking—dare we say “Bat Car?” If this isn’t a first for flying cars, it’s in exclusive company.
Audrey Poberezny, who was there at the formation of EAA, died at the age of 95. The widow of EAA founder Paul Poberezny, who died in 2013, and the mother of Tom Poberezny, who headed EAA for years after Paul retired, Audrey was a much beloved presence at the association for decades. Plane & Pilot sends condolences to her family and many. Memorial plans are pending.
Avidyne announced a cool safety data gathering and analysis partnership to allow owners of business aircraft to record, store and have analyzed flight data in a way similar to how airlines have done it for years, a system known as FOQA. Planes outfitted with certain avionics from Avidyne and partners Atlas and Helios, will automatically send flight data to cloud data company CloudAhoy, which will automatically analyze the data and send it back to the operators.
In a Plane & Pilot Survey the vast majority of respondents thus far said that political polarization had had little or no effect on their aviation lives. The responses to our non-scientific survey indicated that more than half (51 percent) of respondents said that political polarization had not affected their flying lives at all, and another 38 percent said its effects were marginal. It wasn’t all rosy though. About a third of survey takers (32 percent) said that political disagreements had negatively impacted their friendships. There’s still time to chime in on our survey here.
Baron Wolman, a famed Rock ’n’ Roll photographer who was a gifted aviation photographer as well, died this week at 83. Wolman captured the iconic photographs of the Eagles formation aerobatic team (composed of Christen Eagles flown by Gene Soucy, Tom Poberezny and the late great Charlie Hillard).
The solo pilots of a pair of J-3 Cubs survived a midair collision in Weslaco, Texas, on Tuesday. Based on the looks of a photo of the wreckage tweeted by the chief of the Weslaco Police Department, it’s wonder that anyone survived it. The chief said both men were conscious when they were taken to the hospital. No word yet on the how the Cubs came to harm.
There’s a bit of a run on pre-owned business aircraft right now, AOPA reported. The demand, according to Asset Insight, for late-model used bizjets might be an early indicator of a recovering aviation sector. The supply of high-quality low-time used jets is limited, and a seller’s market there indicates potential future sales for makers of new planes.
A photo of what is believed to be the RQ-180, a top-secret spy drone surfaced online. The photo, snapped a few weeks ago, would be the first to show the next-gen surveillance aircraft in flight, or at all, really, that is, if the plane in the photograph is the RQ-180. In a previous article, we had speculated that it might be a next-gen top-secret Air Force fighter jet.
AOPA President Mark Baker warned that there could be stiff opposition if the FAA suggested mandating new equipment to help GA integrate with drone and potentially urban air mobility traffic. Baker suggested that the recent ADS-B mandate was more than enough for most owners.
A Cessna 310 crashed shortly after takeoff from North Las Vegas Airport, killing both occupants of the Cessna light twin. Video of the plane seemingly struggling to maintain altitude with one propeller not rotating (and possibly not feathered) surfaced shortly afterward but stopped short of showing the actual loss of control or impact.
