The grants are part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Grant program—which includes $25 billion in terminal expansions, baggage system upgrades, runway safety enhancements, and air traffic infrastructure upgrades.

Airports on the receiving end of the grants include El Paso International Airport (KELP) in Texas, where $10.6 million will fund the construction of a new general aviation apron and rehabilitate the existing GA apron pavement.

At the San Jose Mineta International Airport (KSJC) in California, $18.1 million will fund a new taxiway and terminal to accommodate additional airline passengers. 

Dallas Love Field Airport (KDAL) in Texas will receive $4.2 million for improvements to the airfield drainage system and the Runway 13/31 safety area to guard against runway excursions.  

“[This] investment is the second largest in AIG [Airport Infrastructure Grants] history,” said Shannetta Griffin, FAA associate administrator for airports. “We’re supporting safety with lighting and runway signage upgrades and improving the traveler experience with new terminals.” 

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared on AVweb.

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President Joe Biden’s 2025 budget proposal would boost the current tax of 22 cents per gallon to $1.06 by 2030, raising an estimated $1.1 billion over the five years. The administration states business aircraft account for 7 percent of FAA airspace workload, but at the present time the current fuel tax only covers 1 percent of the revenue for the federal trust fund for aviation and airports. 

The proposal also includes a major funding increase for the FAA, including money to hire 2,000 air traffic controllers.

• READ MORE: Biden Administration Proposes Fivefold Jet Fuel Tax Hike For Bizjets

According to a background source on Biden’s recent State of the Union address, the administration wants to make private jet operators “pay their fair share.” In the speech itself Biden said he wanted “end tax breaks for big pharma, big oil, private jets, massive executive pay.” 

A coalition of aviation industry groups, however, is pushing back, contending the proposal is draconian and lacks supporting data to justify an increase that would prove detrimental to the small and midsize businesses that rely on business jets.

In a letter sent to Congress on Thursday,  leaders of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA), Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA), International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), National Air Transportation Association (NATA), National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP), and Vertical Aviation International (VAI) outlined their concerns with the plan.

“According to a 2018 Harris Poll, 85 percent of companies relying on an airplane to meet their transportation challenges are small and midsize enterprises,” the aviation coalition said. “The passengers aboard a business airplane are typically technicians, midlevel managers and customers, not C-suite executives.”

The Biden administration’s budget plan also seeks to modify the depreciation schedule on purchased aircraft from five to seven years to match it to the depreciation schedule of commercial airline aircraft.

“It is incongruous to compare the extensive aircraft fleet owned by a commercial airline and offered to the full marketplace for commercial service to the one or two planes owned by a company of a different industry with a different business model,” the coalition said, noting the five-year cost recovery rule applies to many other business assets.

“Reclassifying noncommercial aircraft without a broader look at all depreciation rules lacks valid policy rationale, would upset decades of sound legal precedent, and would negatively impact American businesses’ access to capital, job creation, and growth opportunity.”

The policy and regulatory proposals from the administration would harm business aviation, which also encompasses nonprofit agencies, agriculture, emergency response and air ambulance services, and law enforcement and government agencies, according to the aviation groups. 
“These vehicles facilitate efficient mobility for businesses to create jobs throughout our nation, particularly in communities underserved by commercial service,” the groups said.

The post Aviation Coalition Pushes Back on Biden Fuel Tax Hike Plan appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

As has been rumored for months, Politico is reporting President Joe Biden will nominate FAA and industry veteran Mike Whitaker as the agency’s next administrator on Thursday (Sept. 7). 

• READ MORE: Reports: New FAA Administrator Nomination Expected Soon

Whitaker’s name first came up in May, a couple of months after the former nominee Phil Washington withdrew following a rough ride in the Senate confirmation process. Washington, the CEO of Denver International Airport, was criticized on both sides of the aisle for his lack of direct aviation experience and was also tainted by indirect involvement in a corruption scandal in Los Angeles, where he ran the transit system. 

Whitaker spent 15 years at United Airlines before becoming the FAA’s deputy administrator in 2013. He oversaw the NextGen ATC modernization while in that post and left for the private sector in 2016. He is currently the chief operating officer of Supernal, an advanced air mobility company.

• READ MORE: Phil Washington Withdraws Nomination for FAA Administrator

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And while U.S. military officials still aren’t sure just what the objects shot down are, there is no indication they are related to extraterrestrial activity, according to the Biden Administration.

The comments come one week after the military launched a recovery mission to collect the remains of a Chinese high-altitude spy balloon that was shot down off the South Carolina coast by an F-22 Raptor.

• READ MORE: U.S. Military Collecting Debris From Downed Spy Balloon

In the past week, the military ramped up surveillance, which illuminated the presence of more objects, defense officials say.

“In light of the Chinese balloon program and this recent incursion into our airspace, the United States and Canada—through NORAD [North American Aerospace Defense Command]—have been more closely scrutinizing that airspace, including enhancing radar capabilities, which… may at least partially explain the increase in objects that have been detected,” John Kirby, White House national security spokesperson, told reporters Monday afternoon.

The enhanced scrutiny led to at least three incidents over the weekend.

On Friday, a USAF F-22  shot down a “high-altitude” object flying off the coast of Northern Alaska. 

“The object was flying at an altitude of 40,000 feet and posed a reasonable threat to the safety of civilian flight,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said.

On Saturday, another detected object was shot down by a U.S. F-22 after it flew into Canadian airspace from Alaska, also at around an altitude of around 40,000 feet.

Sunday afternoon, shortly before 3 p.m. EST, a third object flying at an altitude of 20,000 feet was taken out by an F-16 that fired an AIM9x Sidewinder short-range air-to-air missile in U.S. airspace over Lake Huron in Michigan.

“Its path and altitude raised concerns, including that it could be a hazard to civil aviation,” the Pentagon said following the incident. “[NORAD] detected the object Sunday morning and has maintained visual and radar tracking of it. Based on its flight path and data we can reasonably connect this object to the radar signal picked up over Montana, which flew in proximity to sensitive DOD sites.” 

U.S. intelligence officials have been studying China’s high-altitude, low-speed aircraft—such as balloons—used for intelligence collection over dozens of countries, Kirby said. 

In each of the four cases reported, the downed aircraft were unmanned, not communicating, not maneuvering, and had no propulsion capabilities, Kirby said.

“We did, however, assess that their altitudes were considerably lower than the Chinese high-altitude balloon and did pose a threat to civilian commercial air traffic,” Kirby said.

• READ MORE: DOD To Expand Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Assessments

In 2021, the Department of Defense launched a new office to study such incidents, which are classified as unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP), near U.S. military training ranges and installations. The move, made in collaboration with the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), aims to expand UAP data collection that intelligence officials say is needed to better understand the nature or intent of the incidents. 

ADNI report described numerous UAP sightings acknowledging that at least 143 reports of “unidentified aerial phenomena” were reported since 2004 that could not be explained.

In October, NASA launched a nine-month study on UAPs, with a focus on aviation safety and to determine their cause, earthly or otherwise.

• READ MORE: NASA Names Research Group to Study UFOs and UAPs

Recent incidents, however, were not extraterrestrial, according to White House officials.

“I don’t think the American people need to worry about aliens with respect to these craft, period,” Kirby said.

• READ MORE: Most UFOs Are Not Out of This World, U.S. Officials Say

The post USAF Shot Down 3 Unidentified Objects That Posed Threat To Civilian Aircraft appeared first on FLYING Magazine.

What’s wrong with red, white, and blue? Reports by CNBC and Politico quote an unnamed Biden administration official who said the “Trump paint scheme” for the next generation of Boeing VC-25B presidential jets “is not being considered because it could drive additional engineering, time, and cost.” VC-25Bs are a military variant of Boeing’s 747-8 airliners.

• READ MORE: Future ‘Doomsday Plane’ Fleet Could Include Used 747s

U.S. Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said in an email to FLYING that “darker colors among other factors on the underside of the VC-25B aircraft might contribute to temperatures exceeding the current qualification limits of a small number of components.”

Trump proposed the new Air Force One colors in 2019, telling Fox News, “the baby blue doesn’t fit with us.” 

The classic white and two-tone blue livery dates back six decades to the Kennedy administration. 

Boeing is currently retrofitting two Boeing 747-8s as VC-25Bs that would serve as Air Force One when the president is on board. Delivery of those aircraft reportedly will be delayed by two or three years, the result of several factors. 

The White House did not immediately respond to FLYING’s request for comment. 

Learn why Trump’s Boeing 757 is “like a bag of cheetos” https://t.co/liXAMLBP0n pic.twitter.com/kSh0rc8x6L

— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) April 24, 2016

Coincidentally, Trump’s private Boeing 757 also sported a red, white, and blue livery. 

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