Also: Airlift Of PBY, Greece Suffers ATC Failure, IA Course, Breeze Pilots Sue Greg Mercer made his money modernizing how people sell things online. Now, he’s using his fortune to attempt success in a far less forgiving industry: personal aviation. The Jungle Scout founder has created a clean-sheet, four-seat aircraft dubbed the Skytron. The design that followed is fully digital fly-by-wire with flight envelope protection. The aircraft is being engineered to actively prevent stalls, overspeeds, excessive bank angles, and other inputs that typically precede loss-of-control accidents. The goal isn’t to eliminate pilots, but to cap how wrong things can go. After more than two decades at NASA and enough time in space to outpace nearly every astronaut in the US alive, Sunita “Suni” Williams is moving into retirement. This means that both astronauts involved in the high-profile Boeing Starliner mission last year have formally ended their service with the agency. The FAA put a drone no-fly zone within 3,000 feet of “Department of Homeland Security facilities and mobile assets,” according to NOTAM FDC 6/4375 posted by the government. The no-fly zone, in essence a TFR, is the same type that the U.S. uses to restrict consumer drones over military bases and Department of Energy (DOE) research centers and facilities. All this — and MORE in today’s episode of Airborne-Unlimited!!!
