Boeing told attendees at the Paris Air Show that it doesn’t expect to sell any more 747s for commercial air travel. Although the aircraft continues to sell slowly as a freighter and VIP transport, Boeing has only two remaining orders for the passenger version 747-8—not counting those sold to the bankrupt Russian carrier Transero, which surely will not be taking delivery of its jets.

Airbus will fit deployable flight data and cockpit voice recorders on new A350 XWB aircraft beginning in 2019 and on the rest of its long-range fleet soon thereafter. A deployable flight data recorder is designed to separate itself from the aircraft in a crash. They are particularly useful for crashes over water where accessing or even finding aircraft wreckage may be difficult or impossible.

The House bill to reauthorize the FAA for the 2018 fiscal year—starting Oct. 1—includes ATC privatization, as most general aviation groups had feared. AOPA, EAA, GAMA, NATA, Helicopter Association International and NBAA released a joint statement opposing the bill: “After a thorough and detailed review of Chairman Bill Shuster’s (R-PA) proposal to remove our nation’s air traffic control operations from the Federal Aviation Administration, we have concluded that these reforms, while well intentioned, will produce uncertainty and unintended consequences without achieving the desired outcomes.”

The special-mission variant of Diamond Aircraft’s DA62 made its debut at the Paris Air Show this week. The key structural change for the DA62 MPP is a strengthened nose assembly. While the nose section of the civilian variant of the DA62 is designed only to carry some modest passenger baggage, the DA62 MPP has been modified to support electro-optical and infrared camera turrets up to 220 pounds.

Every year for the last 39 years, the FAA has conducted a survey to help estimate the level of general aviation activity. Scott Wagner works for TetraTech, the independent research firm that collects the data. “We’re interested in activities for general aviation and Part 135 aircraft,” he told AVweb this week. “We take a sample of the population and send out surveys to owners and operators.”

EViation is planning a clean-slate aircraft design to carry six to nine passengers, plus crew, on legs up to 600 miles in length, with exclusively electric propulsion. The three-motor design puts one tractor-prop on each wingtip, with one pusher on the tail. The Israeli start-up hopes locating propellers on each wingtip will reduce induced drag, while simultaneously reducing the size of flight surfaces used for yaw control.

Boom Supersonic, which has been working for a few years to develop its ideas for a supersonic airliner, unveiled its final design for a subscale prototype on Tuesday at the Paris Air Show. The company said it will fly the demonstrator next year. “We now have everything required to build history’s first independently developed supersonic aircraft — the funding, technical design and manufacturing partners,” said Blake Scholl, founder and CEO of Boom Supersonic.

The F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which has been in the works since 1996 and first flew more than 10 years ago, made its first flight demo on Monday afternoon, at the Paris Air Show. Lockheed Martin pilot Billie Flynn told Aviation Week, “We are going to crush years of misinformation about what this aircraft is capable of doing.” The fully acrobatic flight demo aimed to wow the critics, with a full-power takeoff, steep climbs and a squared-off loop.

Airbus is developing a high-speed helicopter that will cruise at 215 knots while maximizing efficiency and minimizing cost, the company said at the Paris Air Show on Tuesday. The Racer demonstrator, now in development, will be ready to fly in 2020. “This new project, pulling together the skills and know-how of dozens of European partners through the Clean Sky 2 initiative, aims to bring increased speed and range at the right cost, thanks to a simple, safe and proven aerodynamic formula,” said Guillaume Faury, Airbus Helicopters CEO.

E-volo, the German company that has been developing a two-seat VTOL for several years, has signed an agreement with the government of Dubai to test-fly autonomous air taxis in the emirate by the end of this year, the company announced on Monday at the Paris Air Show. Also at Paris, Workhorse Group, a U.S. company, unveiled a prototype of its own personal hybrid helicopter/VTOL concept aircraft, the SureFly.

On Monday, on opening day at the Paris Air Show, Airbus revealed some new design features for the A380plus, now in development, while Boeing debuted its larger-capacity 737 Max 10. The “enhanced” A380plus will provide airlines with better economics and improved operational performance, Airbus officials said. New winglets – shown for the first time on an A380 at the Paris Air Show – will be larger than the wingtips used today, but are designed to fit within existing airport structures worldwide.

The U.S.’s busiest FAA flight examiner was remembered as a generous, humble man whose love of aviation knew no bounds. Services were held last week at Madison County Executive Airport near Huntsville, Alabama, for Clyde Harold Shelton, who died after a brief illness at the age of 86.

Newly reorganized Lancair International is planning to fly the first version of its Mako high-performance kitplane to AirVenture this year and a news release from the company says the first article is coming together well.

The Paris Air Show starts Monday and aviation pundits have counted 16 aircraft making their debut at the big show, including the Cirrus SF50 Vision Jet.

Last month, on a calm day, we were number two for takeoff on 27R in ATL. Delta was holding short number one … Delta: Delta 123 requests wind check … Tower: No answer … Delta: Delta 123 requests wind check. … After a few seconds Delta cleared line up and wait … Delta: Delta 123 wants a wind check … Tower (slowly with emphasis): Delta 123 wind is 250 at 2 gusting to 3!