Aircraft

International Space Station Expedition 35 Commander Chris Hadfield returns to Earth, and eventually Canada, on Monday. So, what better way to end the mission than doing a personalized rendition of David Bowie's classic "A Space Oddity," in the first music video from space. Hadfield, from the Canadian Space Agency, has been one chatty dude up there in the International Space Station, tweeting constantly during the Expedition 35 mission, which included a precedent-setting emergency spacewalk this weekend to repair an ammonia coolant leak.

In a historic feat for the U.S. Navy, a stealthy bat-winged drone was catapulted off an aircraft carrier's flight deck before it soared above the Atlantic and into the blue sky. On Tuesday morning, the X-47B experimental drone was launched from the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier George H.W. Bush as it floated off the Virginia coast. The test flight was seen as a milestone in drone technology and the program, which has been eight years in the making. "Today we saw a small but significant pixel in the future picture of our Navy as we begin integration of unmanned systems into arguably the most complex war-fighting environment that exists today: the flight deck of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier," Vice Adm. David Buss, commander of naval air forces and known as the Navy's "air boss," said in a statement.

WASHINGTON - Minutes after Greg Hicks learned that the perimeter of the U.S. mission in Benghazi had been breached by men with guns, he punched a cellphone number to reach Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, his immediate boss, who was at the scene. "Greg, we're under attack," Stevens told Hicks, the deputy chief of the mission, Hicks testified to Congress on Wednesday. Then the connection was lost. Hicks never spoke to his boss again. Stevens died soon afterward, as the Benghazi mission went up in flames around him. Members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee were universal in their praise of the gripping, soft-spoken, minute-by-minute account they heard Wednesday from Hicks, the first public testimony from a government official who was in Libya during the assault that killed four Americans in September.

A spindly solar-powered aircraft took to the skies Friday from Moffett Federal Airfield, near San Francisco, on a pioneering coast-to-coast flight that will not use one ounce of fossil fuel. The plane, called Solar Impulse HB-SIA, has an immense 208-foot wing covered with 12,000 solar cells that soak up the sun's rays and power the plane's four electric motors while simultaneously charging batteries. That means the plane can keep flying at night. The goal is not speed, because it's traveling a leisurely 43 mph. Nor is it endurance, because it's making the trip in five legs.

Amid the sleek private jets and small propeller planes taking off from a side runway at Long Beach Airport on Sunday, two giant relics from a time long past stood out. On the tarmac sat a pair of World War II-era bombers that were part of a flying history lesson that has been traveling around the country for years and is in Long Beach until Monday, when it heads to Camarillo. The two dozen or so aficionados who turned out on the chilly, overcast morning were a slice of the few hundred people who have come in recent days to climb inside the bomb bays and cockpits of the metal birds.

A spindly solar-powered aircraft took to the skies Friday from Moffett Federal Airfield, near San Francisco, on a pioneering coast-to-coast flight that will not use one ounce of fossil fuel. The plane, called Solar Impulse HB-SIA, has an immense 208-foot wing covered with 12,000 solar cells that soak up the sun's rays and power the plane's four electric motors while simultaneously charging batteries. That means the plane can keep flying at night. The goal is not speed, because it's traveling a leisurely 43 mph. Nor is it endurance, because it's making the trip in five legs.

JERUSALEM - Israel said Thursday that it shot down an unmanned aircraft that had entered Israeli airspace off the northern coast near Haifa, the second such incident in nearly seven months. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said the drone was first detected as it was flying along the coast of Lebanon toward Israel. When it became clear that the aircraft was not going to stop or change course, Israel dispatched helicopters and F-16 warplanes to destroy it about five miles off the coast, as it flew at an altitude of about 6,000 feet.

A closely watched test flight of an experimental aircraft designed to travel up to 3,600 mph ended in disappointment when a part failed, causing it to plummet into the Pacific Ocean, the Air Force revealed. The unmanned X-51A WaveRider was launched over the Pacific Tuesday from above the Point Mugu Naval Air Test Range in a key test to fine-tune its hypersonic scramjet engine. The aircraft was designed to hit mach 6, or six times the speed of sound, and fly for five minutes. But that didn't happen.

Federal officials said on Tuesday that they are investigating a report from a pilot of an Alitalia passenger jet who said he saw an unmanned aircraft or drone in the skies over Brooklyn. The Alitalia pilot told officials that he saw the aircraft as he approached the runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Monday afternoon. The pilot said the aircraft was four to five miles southeast of the airport and was flying at an altitude of about 1,500 feet. "We saw a drone, a drone aircraft," the pilot can be heard on radio calls captured by LiveATC.net, a website that posts air traffic communications.

Anticipating the day when drones will be a routine sight in California skies, lawmakers have proposed tax breaks to encourage companies to build the unmanned aircraft in this state and restrictions to protect the public from invasions of privacy. The Federal Aviation Administration is working on guidelines to allow the widespread flying of small drones in U.S. airspace starting in 2015, anticipating that law enforcement agencies and others may have 10,000 of the aircraft flying five years later, The Times reported recently.

An aircraft resembling a shark-nosed missile detached from a flying B-52 bomber and then shot above the Pacific Ocean at more than 3,000 mph in a historic test flight for the Air Force - and for the future of aviation. The unmanned X-51A WaveRider sped westward for four minutes, reaching Mach 5.1, or more than five times the speed of sound, before plunging into the ocean as planned. It flew for longer than any other aircraft of its kind and traveled more than 264 miles, reigniting decades-long efforts to develop a vehicle that could travel faster than a speeding bullet.

JERUSALEM - Israel said Thursday that it shot down an unmanned aircraft that had entered Israeli airspace off the northern coast near Haifa, the second such incident in nearly seven months. Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said the drone was first detected as it was flying along the coast of Lebanon toward Israel. When it became clear that the aircraft was not going to stop or change course, Israel dispatched helicopters and F-16 warplanes to destroy it about five miles off the coast, as it flew at an altitude of about 6,000 feet.

A North Hollywood teenager was sentenced Monday to 30 months in federal prison for aiming a blinding laser beam at a private jet and a police helicopter last year. U.S. District Judge Stephen V. Wilson imposed the penalty on Adam Gardenhire, 19, who pleaded guilty in October to one felony count of aiming a laser beam at an aircraft. The case is the second prosecution of its kind in the country since the laser law was signed by President Obama in 2012. According to court records, Gardenhire deliberately aimed a commercial-grade green laser beam at a privately owned Cessna Citation and a Pasadena Police Department helicopter on the evening of March 29, 2012.

WASHINGTON - As federal authorities accelerate plans to license thousands of surveillance drones over U.S. soil by late 2015, some legal experts and lawmakers are warning that unmanned aircraft could threaten privacy on an unparalleled scale. An opening shot in an expected battle to limit use of domestic drones came Wednesday when 24 civil liberties and privacy organizations submitted a formal petition to U.S. Customs and Border Protection demanding that the agency stop flying 10 unarmed Predator drones along the Mexican and Canadian borders until clear guidelines are established.

Federal officials said on Tuesday that they are investigating a report from a pilot of an Alitalia passenger jet who said he saw an unmanned aircraft or drone in the skies over Brooklyn. The Alitalia pilot told officials that he saw the aircraft as he approached the runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport on Monday afternoon. The pilot said the aircraft was four to five miles southeast of the airport and was flying at an altitude of about 1,500 feet. "We saw a drone, a drone aircraft," the pilot can be heard on radio calls captured by LiveATC.net, a website that posts air traffic communications.

SAN DIEGO - Two defense contractors and a corporation have been found guilty of being part of a fraud and bribery scheme involving phony payments for the repair of military aircraft at North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado. Robert Ehnow and Joanne Loehr, owners of Poway-based companies, were convicted Monday of showering Navy officials with gifts and cash in exchange for millions of dollars in payments for work supposedly done on planes at the Fleet Readiness Center. Loehr's firm, Centerline Industrial Inc., also was convicted.

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.

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)

WASHINGTON - Federal officials believe a small aircraft that reportedly looked like a drone and flew close to a landing airliner at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York was probably a model aircraft sent aloft from Long Island. Whatever the object, the FBI and the Federal Aviation Administration issued a public alert Tuesday seeking assistance in identifying the operator and the aircraft, which a nearby pilot described as “black in color and no more than 3 feet wide with four propellers.” It was spotted about 1:15 p.m. Monday by the pilot of Alitalia Flight 608 as it approached runway 31R at JFK. The pilot radioed, “We saw a drone, a drone aircraft!

Anticipating the day when drones will be a routine sight in California skies, lawmakers have proposed tax breaks to encourage companies to build the unmanned aircraft in this state and restrictions to protect the public from invasions of privacy. The Federal Aviation Administration is working on guidelines to allow the widespread flying of small drones in U.S. airspace starting in 2015, anticipating that law enforcement agencies and others may have 10,000 of the aircraft flying five years later, The Times reported recently.