“Aviation” on The Daily Caller

Replacing the aging fleet of aerial refueling tankers has been an Air Force priority since 2002.  That year, Congress approved funding for Boeing to lease up to one-hundred 767s to replace the 50-year-old KC-135 tankers.  However, the deal fell apart in the wake of a 2004 bribery scandal that resulted in the convictions of a top Pentagon procurement officer and a senior Boeing official. (more)

Airbus SAS’s A380 superjumbo, designed to carry 500 people per flight between the world’s biggest airport interchanges, is carving out an unexpected new market with direct travel to non-hub cities. (more)

DALLAS (AP) — Federal officials are seeking a record penalty of $24.2 million against American Airlines over maintenance lapses that caused thousands of canceled flights in 2008. (more)

The flight attendant whose dramatic departure from a JetBlue plane at a New York City airport has transformed him into a folk hero to some wants his job back, his lawyer told reporters Thursday. (more)

A new federal rule cracking down on lengthy tarmac delays is showing signs of success. (more)

Some airlines try to hire flight attendants who are young and attractive. JetBlue Airways has a type, too: cops and fire fighters. (more)

Two hundred and fifty-nine miles per hour. That’s how fast the Sikorsky X2 flew during a recent test flight in Florida. The flight broke a record that had stood since 1986 when a Westland Lynx managed 249 mph. (more)

Boeing Co., the No. 2 U.S. defense contractor, should lose as much as $271 million in government payments for satellite launch services because it violated federal accounting rules, according to the Pentagon’s audit agency. (more)

A Canadian Forces pilot has survived after ejecting himself from a fighter jet moments before it crashed during practice for an airshow. (more)

Despite a near uprising within the conservative blogosphere, it turns out Bo, the White House dog, didn’t get his own plane for the family vacation.

President Obama’s trip to Bar Harbor, Maine did cost the small airport where the president landed hundreds of thousands of dollars in estimated lost revenue over the weekend, Hancock County Bar Harbor Airport Manager Allison Navia told The Daily Caller. She added, however, that it was typical of a presidential visit and they hoped to make up the lost funds with the publicity. (more)

A Chicago area father is suing Southwest Airlines, alleging his 14-year-old son was forced to sit next to a woman who allegedly made sexual advances toward the boy and offered him illegal drugs during a flight to Florida. (more)

An Air France jet flying on a route which claimed hundreds of lives last summer was forced into an emerged landing today following a bomb scare. (more)

In the airline industry, the fittest do not always survive. But that has not stopped start-up carriers like Virgin America from trying. (more)

True to its aeronautic roots, NASA is evaluating a new generation of supersonic airplane designs to see whether they can reduce sonic-boom levels. (more)

New Yorkers will have more flight choices and fewer delays as the longest runway at John F. Kennedy International Airport reopens this week after a four- month closure for a $348 million repaving and updating. (more)

The Terrafugia Transition, a light aircraft that can convert into a road-legal automobile, is to go into production after being given a special weight exemption by the US Federal Air Authority. (more)

United Airlines has taken hypermiling to the skies. (more)

In the world of aviation, X planes hold a special place. They’re a glimpse into the future, a look at what’s coming in a later generation of aircraft–and, to a degree, spacecraft as well. Over the last seven decades, they’ve been a proving ground for developments including delta wings, tailless aircraft, and supersonic flight. (more)

(CNN) — A flight attendant with a pilot’s license ditched her normal duties and stepped in for a sick copilot of an American Airlines flight before the plane landed in Chicago, Illinois, airline officials said. (more)

Officials say more lenient screening procedures for airline employees at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport enabled a Delta Air Lines flight attendant to carry a gun onto the first leg of round-trip flight from Atlanta to Indianapolis. (more)