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Power line poles, flashing by at regular intervals, can be mesmerizing—as anyone who has ever taken a long car or train ride across the United States knows. They are no less mesmerizing from about 200 feet agl and 25 feet away, even though a part of your pilot brain is demanding to know why you’re in an airplane this close to 64,000 volts.

Just before dawn Sunday morning, a military helicopter crashed into a ravine on a fog covered hillside near Pukerua Bay, in west-central New Zealand killing three Royal New Zealand Air Force servicemen.

(Bloomberg): As Boeing Co. Chief Executive Officer Jim McNerney held court in Airbus SAS’s backyard at the Paris Air Show last June, he made a promise: He told Wall Street analysts he’d be throwing a party in two weeks, after the 787 Dreamliner’s first test flight.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: As part of the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) plan to modernize the national airspace system, controllers in the Philadelphia area now have the capability to use a satellite-based system to more efficiently and safely track and separate aircraft.

WASHINGTON, D.C.: The Department of Transportation’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) today called on air carrier operators to create and enforce policies that will limit distractions in the cockpit and keep pilots focused on transporting passengers safely.

DALLAS (UPI): Under new U.S. regulations, airlines will face fines of as much as $27,500 per passenger if they hold them on taxiways for more than 3 hours, officials say.

Two people were killed when a hot air balloon with 14 people on board crashed in the United Arab Emirates. Several other passengers were injured, one seriously, in the crash in a desert area east of the capital, Abu Dhabi.

TAMPA, Fla. (PRNewswire via COMTEX): Southwest Airlines (NYSE: (LUV)) today honored the State of Florida with the unveiling of Florida One, a Boeing 737 emblazoned with an artist's rendering of the state flag. Southwest Airlines' top Leadership celebrated the high-flying tribute to the State of Florida at an event in a Tampa International Airport hangar with National Wildlife Refuge Association President Evan Hirsche, and Southwest's Florida-based Employees.

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla. (AFNS): Members of the 45th Space Wing here launched a United Launch Alliance-built Atlas V Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle carrying an X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle at 7:52 p.m. EDT April 22 here.

CAPE CANAVERAL AIR FORCE STATION, Fla.: Boeing [NYSE: (BA)] today announced the successful launch of the Boeing-built Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV), also known as the X-37B, for the U.S. Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office. The OTV was launched on an Atlas V rocket into a low Earth orbit today at 7:52 p.m. Eastern time from Cape Canaveral Launch Complex 41.

Bombardier Aerospace today announced that it has delivered its first Learjet 60 XR and Challenger 850 jets to customers based in mainland China on March 5 and March 26, 2010, respectively.

When you walk into Jetblue's Terminal 5 at JFK these days, you'll find a mini aviation museum slowing growing in their giant, open marketplace area. First, there was a giant jet engine on display, with an interactive display about airplanes and even a button you can push to make the engine spin. But their newest addition, to help celebrate Jetblue's tenth anniversary, reminds us of the days when we all thought we'd have jetpacks in the future; they're now exhibiting a bite-sized private jet with folding wings.

Gyroplanes are probably the least known and most intriguing flying machines. Invented in 1923 by Juan de la Cierva, a Spanish civil Engineer and pilot, they are the precursor of the helicopter.

VALPARAISO, Fla. (PRNewswire-FirstCall): The Boeing (NYSE: (BA)) 787 Dreamliner has begun a series of extreme-weather tests at Valparaiso, Fla. A special hangar at the McKinley Climatic Laboratory at Elgin Air Force Base allows the airplane to experience heat as high as 115 degrees Fahrenheit (46 Celsius) and as low as minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 43 Celsius).

ST. LOUIS: Boeing [NYSE: (BA)] on April 19 conducted the first flight of F-15K41, the first of 21 F-15K Slam Eagles the company is producing under the Next Fighter II contract for the Republic of Korea Air Force (ROKAF). The aircraft, flown by Boeing test pilot Steve Schmidt, took off from Lambert St. Louis International Airport at 2:36 p.m. Central time and landed at 3:44 p.m.

Six military personnel, including a general, have been killed after two helicopters crashed as they tried to take off from a military base in southwestern Colombia.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has formally begun the regulatory process required by the Clean Air Act that may ultimately result in standards mandating the industry's transition to unleaded aviation gasoline (avgas). The EPA has issued an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPR) which is a key opportunity for the general aviation (GA) community to provide comment regarding this possible new environmental standard and into the development of a plan for identifying, evaluating, and ultimately transitioning to an unleaded fuel. This is particularly important given the technical complexity and safety implications of removing lead from aviation gasoline since there is not a high-octane replacement unleaded avgas available today that meets the requirements of the entire GA fleet.

FORT WORTH, Texas: The seventh Lockheed Martin [NYSE: (LMT)] F-35 Lightning II flight test aircraft took to the skies for the first time today, with the overall objective of validating the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant's weapons suite.

NORFOLK, Va. (AFNS): In less than 10 seconds, they were gone. Traveling toward earth at speeds of approximately 150 mph, the operators open their parachutes and slowly drift to the ground. Once safely on land, they repack, board a C-17 Globemaster III and do it again.

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFNS): Four of the remaining eight Doolittle Raiders, known for their nearly impossible bombing raid on Japan during World War II, reunited for the 68th year at the National Museum of the United States Air Force April 16 through 18.