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No Cruise for you
Did your Thanksgiving holiday plans include going to the movies to see the Top Gun sequel? Well, sorry, Goose, COVID-19 has shot down the movie’s release—again. Paramount Pictures has postponed the release of Top Gun: Maverick for the fifth time. Instead of opening November 19, 2021, the Top Gun sequel, starring Tom Cruise, will instead debut Memorial Day weekend next year, on May 27. The movie, completed in July 2019, was rescheduled from June 2020 to December 2020 to November 2021 and now May 2022, sending yet another of the fall’s top movies out of 2021 because of the rise in coronavirus cases and the delta variant. AOPA Pilot will whet your appetite for the highly anticipated release with a feature story this spring. Stay tuned. Really—stay tuned.
Branson’s wayward ride
Was billionaire Richard Branson’s first flight to space on July 11 in danger, or was Virgin Galactic guilty only of crossing an airspace line? The Associated Press and other media outlets report that the FAA has ordered Virgin Galactic to conduct no further flights pending an investigation of the July flight’s trajectory, which strayed outside of the protected airspace for one minute and 41 seconds of the 15-minute rocket ride to 53.5 miles above the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. The New Yorker magazine writer Nicholas Schmidle has raised questions about Virgin Galactic’s safety culture. Schmidle wrote that warning lights, first yellow, later red, that appeared about a minute into the rocket burn on July 11, indicated that the craft was off-course and in danger of not having enough energy available at apogee to glide back to the spaceport where the media awaited the return of Branson and the Virgin Galactic crew. Virgin Galactic “may not return the SpaceShipTwo vehicle to flight until the FAA approves the final mishap investigation report or determines the issues related to the mishap do not affect public safety,” the FAA said.
Cirrus expands to new states
Cirrus Aircraft, the market-leading maker of piston airplanes and single-engine jets, announced new facilities in two states, including a new Cirrus Flight Training facility and satellite engineering center in Arizona, along with another satellite facility in Texas that supports product development. Cirrus announced expansion of its operation centers, including Cirrus Innovation Centers in Chandler, Arizona, and McKinney, Texas, that are already operational. The Cirrus Flight Training expanded to Scottsdale, Arizona, in October.
The company said it conducted a nationwide search to identify ideal locations, choosing Arizona and Texas for their proximity to existing customers, and the availability of skilled talent.
“The expansion of Cirrus Flight Training in Arizona continues our mission of providing world-class training through both our company-owned facilities and partner network around the world,” said Cirrus Aircraft CEO Zean Nielsen. “We are excited to begin offering this premium flight training service in Scottsdale that builds on our Cirrus Services initiative to redefine personal aviation through a world-class customer service experience.”
The Chandler Innovation Center provides avionics, electrical, and software engineering, while the McKinney center supports all engineering disciplines; both facilities contribute to product development and will have formal ribbon-cutting ceremonies in November.
Headquartered in Duluth, Minnesota, Cirrus expanded to Knoxville, Tennessee, in ٢٠١٦ where it moved training for all its aircraft, deliveries, and service and support. The company’s composite production facility is in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
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