Aircraft

The radar-evading drone that crash-landed over the weekend in Iran was on a mission for the CIA, according to a senior U.S. official, raising fears that the aircraft's sophisticated technology could be exploited by Tehran or shared with other American rivals. It was unclear whether the drone's mission took it over Iran or whether it strayed there accidentally because of technical malfunctions, the official said. Though the drone flight was a CIA operation, U.S. military personnel were involved in flying the aircraft, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the secrecy involved.

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas - The drug runners call it " el mosco ," the mosquito, and one recent evening on the southern tip of Texas, a Predator B drone armed with cameras buzzed softly over the beach on South Padre Island and headed inland. "We're going to get some bad guys tonight, I've got a feeling," said Scott Peterson, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection supervisory air interdiction agent. He watched the drone's live video feed in the Predator Ops room at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, about 50 miles away.

Bob Kahl slips in through a side door of the vast, abandoned hangar and looks at what's left of the assembly plant where he worked for nearly 40 years. He remembers the hum of power tools, the biting aroma of cutting oil, swarms of workers plugging away on a labyrinth of yellow scaffolding. All that's left is a few piles of broken concrete and a sea of colorless dust that coats a Palmdale factory floor the size of two football fields. "Welcome to the birthplace of America's space shuttle fleet," said Kahl, 60, smiling.

Boeing Co.'s profit soared 58% in its first quarter as it built more efficient planes for airlines struggling with high fuel costs. The Chicago company earned $923 million, or $1.22 a share, compared with $586 million, or 78 cents, during the same period a year earlier. Its revenue boomed 30% to $19.4 billion. Boeing said it delivered 137 commercial planes during the quarter, and it has orders to build more than 4,000 others valued at a record $308 billion. The aircraft maker said it has more than 300 orders for its new fuel-efficient 737 Max jetliner.

Airplane aficionados, you’re clear to land. At the LAX Observation Deck, that is. On Sunday, LAX is holding its first “Sunday Morning Coffee” for aviation enthusiasts and the general public, from 8:30 a.m. to 11 a.m. atop the Observation Deck at the airport’s  landmark Theme Building.  Admission, coffee, cookies – all free. But not the parking, which will be at the usual rates. Scanners will allow visitors to listen in on transmissions between pilots and air controllers, and free telescopes will allow close-up peeks at three aircraft that will be arriving that morning -- a sort of a celebrity lineup of arriving flights:  -- Air New Zealand "All Blacks" A320 : Estimated arrival time 9:25 a.m.; departure time 11 a.m. -- Qantas A380:   ETA 9:45 a.m. (for evening departure)

Firefighters aided by a water-dropping helicopter were battling the blaze that broke out Wednesday evening on an aircraft loaded with fuel at Point Mugu naval air station. Three crew members aboard the B-707 were able to escape from the plane and were transported to nearby hospitals with minor injuries, according to the Ventura County Fire Department. The aircraft, which was carrying about 150,000 pounds of fuel, was attempting to take off about 5:25 p.m. from the main runway when it skidded out of control, said Vance Vasquez, a spokesman for the base.

The second test of a U.S. Air Force experimental aircraft in Southern California ended prematurely this week just seconds after launch. A video released Thursday showed a B-52 bomber launch the experimental X-51 WaveRider shortly before it crashed into the Pacific Ocean. In the test that took place Monday, a B-52 took off from Edwards Air Force Base and flew to 50,000 feet near Point Mugu. Once there, the B-52 dropped the aircraft and it fell like a bomb for about four seconds before its booster rocket engine ignited and propelled the aircraft.

LTV Aerospace & Defense Co., a unit of LTV Corp.,. was awarded Air Force contracts totaling $26.8 million for A-7 aircraft spare parts.

NASA might be best known for space travel, but officials there are also determined to shape the future of commercial aviation. The agency says airliners need to be quieter, greener and more fuel-efficient. To attain those goals, NASA handed out nearly $6 million in contracts this week to two aerospace giants: Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. NASA's aim is to develop technology that would enable future aircraft to burn 50% less fuel than current models, cut harmful emissions in half and shrink the geographic areas affected by obnoxious airport noise by 83%. The agency hopes to develop concepts for airliners that could go into service by 2025.

I take a great offense at Easterbrook's article because he's wrong, dead wrong about the problems here in Los Angeles, as well as what general aviation pilots are screaming about. We're scared. When the FAA closed the VFR corridor above LAX, it left general aviation aircraft that include police, fire department, medical, and news media aircraft no way of transition from the north over LAX to the south without getting a clearance from already overworked controllers. With the corridor closed and the TCA raised to 12,500 feet, small aircraft will be forced to "mix" with larger, faster jet aircraft within the TCA. Easterbrook believes we're upset because we can't use LAX. Well, general aviation aircraft can use LAX, as well as the air traffic control system.

Troubled insurance giant American International Group Inc. filed a lawsuit against the former head of its aircraft leasing business, Steven Udvar-Hazy, contending the Los Angeles billionaire stole company secrets, wooed away customers and pilfered business deals after he started a competing firm in 2010. The New York insurance company and its Century City unit, International Lease Finance Corp., or ILFC, filed suit Tuesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. The 33-page complaint listed the defendants as Udvar-Hazy, his current company, Air Lease Corp., and 30 employees who left ILFC to work with him. AIG asserted in the lawsuit that the defendants collectively connected 16 flash drives to ILFC computers and downloaded nearly 13,000 ILFC files, which included price data concerning the value of aircraft fleets, past contracts, letters of intent and statements of work.

The results are in from last summer's attempt to test new technology that would provide the Pentagon with a lightning-fast vehicle, capable of delivering a military strike anywhere in the world in less than an hour. In August the Pentagon's research arm, known as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, carried out a test flight of an experimental aircraft capable of traveling at 20 times the speed of sound. The arrowhead-shaped unmanned aircraft, dubbed Falcon Hypersonic Technology Vehicle 2, blasted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, northwest of Santa Barbara, into the upper reaches of the Earth's atmosphere aboard an eight-story Minotaur IV rocket made by Orbital Sciences Corp.

A small aircraft has crashed off Florida after it was seen aimlessly circling the Gulf of Mexico and repeated attempts by authorities to make contact with the pilot failed. At one point, military aircraft were called in for a possible attempt to intercept the troubled plane to protect public safety. The fate of the pilot -- the only person on board -- remains unclear. But there were some suggestions that the plane hit the water "gracefully," according to CNN commentators who were watching the dramatic situation unfold live.

Daniel Cavanaugh was standing in a Virginia Beach, Va., convenience store parking lot when he noticed the F/A-18 Hornet. The Navy jet appeared on path to land at Naval Air Station Oceana. But Cavanaugh instinctively knew something was wrong. It was flying awfully low. And the jet seemed slow and sluggish -- unusual for such a powerful piece of machinery. "He just got real low like he was going to land," Cavanaugh said of the pilot. Then, suddenly, "he dropped out of the sky. " Cavanaugh described what happened next to Virginia TV station WTKR:  "Boom.

The type of jet that crashed into a Virginia Beach neighborhood Friday, the F/A-18 Hornet, is familiar to many Americans. It's been a workhorse of the U.S. military for almost 30 years -- not to mention the jet of choice for the Blue Angels, the Navy's aerobatic team. The twin-engine aircraft was introduced in 1983 as the replacement for the military's F-14 Tomcat, which reached notoriety in the movie “Top Gun.” The F/A-18 played a prominent role in Operation Desert Storm in the 1990s.

Los Angeles County sheriff's officials overpaid a private contractor nearly $11 million for work that wasn't needed and aircraft equipment they already had, according to allegations in a sheriff's memo obtained by The Times. The internal report recommended that supervisors within the emergency air support division be investigated for potential conflicts of interest and violations of county purchasing rules. Aero Bureau supervisors, the report states, allowed the Carlsbad avionics firm, Hangar One, to bill for unjustified expenses while outfitting a fleet of helicopters.

Kuwaiti troops fired two missiles at a "hostile" plane that violated the country's airspace, and the aircraft was believed to have been shot down, a senior government official was quoted as saying. Ali Sabah, governor of the Ahmadi region in southern Kuwait, where the oil industry is based, told the newspaper Al Anba that the plane was detected by Kuwaiti radar. "Two missiles were immediately fired on the unknown aircraft, which disappeared on the radar screens.

In the latest sign of China's rising importance in the global aviation industry, Cessna Aircraft Co. said it would develop a plan to build business jets with the state-owned Aviation Industry Corp. of China. The announcement paves the way for Cessna of Wichita, Kan., to become the first U.S. aircraft maker to manufacture business jets in China, the fastest-growing market for the multimillion-dollar planes. "We believe China represents a significant opportunity for growth," said Scott Donnelly, chief executive of Cessna's parent company, U.S. conglomerate Textron Inc., at a signing ceremony Friday at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

President Obama seized on a new jobs report as evidence that "the economy is getting stronger" as he pitched a set of manufacturing initiatives in territory key to his reelection chances. "The key now, our job now, is to keep this economic engine churning," Obama said from the floor of a jet engine manufacturing plant in Petersburg, Va. "We can't go back to the same policies that got us into this mess. " Obama's trip, deemed official and not campaign business, came hours after the Labor Department announced that the economy had added 227,000 jobs in February, a stronger showing than economists had expected but not enough to move the 8.3% unemployment rate.