Yves Rossy, a Swiss born pilot strapped on a jet-powered wing and jumped from a plane today soaring high above the Alp’s.  The five minute flight reached speeds of 186 miles per hour.  "This flight was absolutely excellent," the former fighter pilot and extreme sports enthusiast said after touching down on an airfield near the eastern shore of Lake Geneva.

Britain's Paul Bonhomme dominated the qualifying sessions of the Red Bull Air Race in San Diego on Saturday finishing with the fastest time of the day.

Paul Bonhomme got the 2008 Red Bull Air Race World Series off to a flying start today with a resounding victory against Hannes Arch of Austria in front of 400,000 spectators in Abu Dhabi.

Hot on the heels of certification and first customer shipments of Aspen Avionics’ Evolution Primary Flight Displays (PFDs), the company unveiled this week at the Sun ‘n Fun airshow in Lakeland, Florida, its upcoming line of Multi-Function Displays (MFDs).  Built on the same certified hardware platform as its PFDs, Aspen’s MFD line adds additional situational awareness tools, and increases safety by providing a fully redundant backup to the Primary Flight Display.  The company plans to ship its MFDs in the first quarter of 2009.

The EFD1000 MFD and EFD500 MFD, announced last summer at Oshkosh, combine high-resolution, sectional-style moving maps with dedicated and overlaid hazard awareness displays (weather, traffic and terrain).  The EFD1000 MFD adds a second, independent air data, attitude and heading reference system (ADAHRS), for full PFD redundancy at a remarkably affordable price.  These next members of the Evolution Flight Display system deliver on its promise of modularity, expandability and upgradeability.  Continuing the company’s philosophy of bringing the most advanced technologies to general aviation cockpits and budgets, the MFDs will sell for less than $8,000. 

“As we did with our PFD product development, we are actively seeking feedback and feature requests from pilots and dealers about what they would like to see in a Multi-Function Display,” said Aspen Avionics President & CEO John Uczekaj.  “Market demand for the Evolution PFDs has been strong, and we expect the same enthusiastic response to our MFD products,” said Uczekaj.