By Garth Calitz South Africa’s long-running general aviation battle over the so-called 12-year engine rule appears to be approaching a significant turning point. After years of consultation, debate, technical arguments, regulatory reviews, and enough paperwork to probably qualify as an aircraft component in its own right, the 36th Amendment to the Civil Aviation Regulations has finally been signed off by Transport Minister Barbara Creecy. The Minister signed the amendment on

By Garth Calitz South African Airways can appoint an Acting Group Chief Executive Officer. There is nothing particularly unusual about that. Companies do it all the time when a permanent executive leaves, goes on leave or becomes unavailable. But SAA is not simply another company filling an empty executive chair. It is the holder of an Air Operator Certificate and operates large commercial passenger aircraft under South Africa's Part 121 regulations. That means there is an im

By Garth Calitz The court battle over South Africa’s Working on Fire programme may have appeared to have reached a finality when the Pretoria High Court cleared the way for Tefla Group to take over the R1.8-billion contract, but it may not be over. While Working on Fire/Kishugu has already failed in its urgent attempt to stop the transition, AfriForum is now pursuing a different route — one that could potentially expose the procurement record behind the controversial award. A

The DTA JP1 is a two-seat hybrid-electric eVTOL that takes a somewhat different approach to the emerging personal electric aircraft market. Rather than relying entirely on batteries, the French-designed aircraft combines electric propulsion with a hybrid power system, allowing DTA to target substantially longer endurance than many small battery-electric aircraft. DTA says the JP1 can remain airborne for up to two hours, with a claimed range of approximately 180 miles with two

Textron Aviation has announced the delivery of the 500th Cessna Citation CJ4, marking more than a decade of production for the light business jet and providing a milestone for the programme as development of the next-generation Citation CJ4 Gen3 continues. The milestone aircraft, a Citation CJ4 Gen2, was delivered to a customer in the Philippines. The delivery also reflects the international customer base for the CJ4, which has been used for corporate transportation, owner-op

The US Army is preparing to modernise its rotary-wing pilot training pipeline, and the aircraft selected to play a central role is perhaps not the helicopter many observers would have expected. Robinson Helicopter Company’s R66 has been selected as the training platform proposed by M1 Support Services (M1), following a four-phase evaluation under the US Army’s Flight School Next (FSN) initiative. The Army has announced its intent to award the Flight School Next contract to M1

India’s AMCA programme has entered a significantly more serious phase during 2026. What was once largely a long-term design exercise is now becoming an industrial programme, with the Indian Ministry of Defence inviting bids for the development and manufacture of five flying prototypes and a structural test specimen. The development programme carries an approved investment envelope of approximately ₹15,000 crore, making AMCA one of India’s most ambitious indigenous aerospace p

Honda Aircraft Company is celebrating two decades since its formal establishment, marking 20 years of innovation, aircraft manufacturing and business aviation development from its headquarters at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, North Carolina. The anniversary represents a significant milestone for a company that has taken Honda's engineering philosophy from the automotive world into one of aviation's most demanding sectors. From the distinctive HondaJet to

By Garth Calitz The Republic XF-84H was an exceptional aviation experiment: a turboprop fighter featuring a supersonic propeller, producing an astounding level of noise and earning a reputation that has endured long after the aircraft vanished from the skies. There are aircraft that are remembered because they were successful. Others are remembered because they changed aviation. And then there are aircraft remembered simply because engineers were brave enough, or perhaps opti

By Garth Calitz Air Botswana, Botswana’s national flag carrier, is facing a growing operational challenge as two of its Embraer ERJ-145 regional jets remain grounded in Namibia, despite earlier expectations that they would return to service by July 2026. Their continued absence has contributed to schedule reductions and the cancellation of routes including Gaborone–Windhoek and Maun–Windhoek. The situation highlights a familiar problem in African regional aviation: owning or