Edited by Gordon A. GilbertPerry Bradley in New York City
The aerospace industry is on the cusp of a paradigm shift that will see increases in value replace increases in performance as the key market driver, Boeing Chairman Phil Condit said in an address recently to members of the Wings Club in New York City. "We have to fundamentally change our industry so we provide value to the customer," he said. Whether it's the business jet, airliner, military or even the commercial space market, in order to achieve success, companies will have to address cost of ownership, Condit contends.
TAC Air, an Arkansas-based firm with six FBOs in the Central and Southern United States, has gained a foothold in the Midwest with the recent purchase of Sky Harbor Air Service at Omaha's Eppley Field. The facility is now known as TAC Air, and TAC Air veteran Steve Pickle has taken over its management. The company plans to redecorate the interior of the terminal, upgrade ground support equipment and spin-off the FBO's charter operations.
Pratt&Whitney Canada received Transport Canada certification for its PW150 turboprop engine that powers the new de Havilland Dash 8Q-400, 50- to 80-passenger regional aircraft
Air Wisconsin has placed firm orders for four Canadair Regional Jet Series 200LRs. The aircraft will be domiciled out of the carrier's United Express operation at Denver.
Edited by Gordon A. GilbertGordon A. Gilbert in Savannah
A status report on service and equipment issues led off Gulfstream Aerospace's 1998 annual maintenance and operations workshop this spring in Savannah. Approximately 900 people representing nearly half of the worldwide fleet of more than 1,000 Gulfstreams were in attendance, including the operator of the first Gulfstream to enter service-a G-I now being used for charter by an international air taxi company.
Shared ownership and lease programs using preowned aircraft were announced recently by Aviation One, a new company based in Quincy, Mass., and Chrysler Aviation of Van Nuys, Calif. Aviation One launched a program with three refurbished aircraft: a Citation I and II, and a Cheyenne 400LS. A one-sixteenth share lease in a Citation I is $110,000 annually, which includes the monthly management and lease payments and the hourly fee for 44 flight hours per year.
With the easy availability of cellular phones, nationwide pagers and Internet access providers, you might think that we have all of the communication options that we need. Well, there's more on the way. Just look up. In "Satcom's Second Generation" (July 1997, page 60), we outlined the next wave in aeronautical telecom. That article describes a number of ambitious plans to place large fleets of satellites in orbit that will become new networks of cellular phone antennas.
Northwest Airlink Mesaba Airlines is the first U.S. regional to offer first-class service. It had to. When Northwest decided to equip the carrier with British Aerospace Avro RJ 85 quadjets-nominally an 85-seater-to replace aging DC-9s on mainline routes, it faced a 69-seat limit in the scope clause with its pilots.
Discussions within Transport Canada may lead to a new rule requiring that inoperative or removed ELTs on commercial aircraft be a no-go item. Currently under Canadian (as well as U.S.) rules, aircraft are permitted to operate up to 90 days if an ELT is removed for repair or replacement. Canada's concerns stem from its investigation into at least two recent accidents, including the dead-stick descent and crash landing of a Pilatus PC-12 single-engine turboprop near Clarenville, Newfoundland on May 18.
Taneja Aerospace and Aviation Ltd. (TAAL), an India-based aircraft maker, signed a memorandum of understanding with the federal National Aerospace Laboratories to develop a 15-seat utility turboprop. A prototype is scheduled to fly by late 1999. Meanwhile, TAAL plans to introduce a time-share concept called Net-Air. The program will offer clients up to 200 hours of flight time annually for five years in three TAAL-built Piaggio P68C recip twins for an up-front payment of $178,000 and a DOC of $105 per hour.
National general aviation trade groups bird-dogged Congress through its relatively uncontroversial approval of a one-year reauthorization of FAA programs, and now are sharpening their arguments and mobilizing to shape a multi-year aviation bill in 1999. Congress was distracted from aviation issues earlier this year due to its focus on the passage of a six-year highway bill. As a result, lawmakers tabled electric subjects like user fees and a performance-based ATC system.
Notified earlier this year that its net assets had fallen below the $4 million minimum required for listing on the Nasdaq stock exchange, Great Lakes is fighting back. A hearing was scheduled for late June on the carrier's argument that the value of its Chicago O'Hare slots should be taken into account in applying Nasdaq's net-tangible-asset test for continued listing.
The first-or at least the first widely known-guaranteed maintenance cost program in business aviation was created more than 30 years ago. Rolls-Royce introduced "Power by the Hour" (PBH) to support the 3,000-pound-thrust Viper 520 (and later, higher thrust versions) turbojet installed on early models of the de Havilland/Hawker 125.
The city of Austin is planning a May 1, 1999 opening for Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, the former Bergstrom Air Force Base (October 1997, page 14). Construction is now about 70 percent complete at the facility, which has the distinction of being the FAA's largest transformation to date of a military base into a civilian airfield. The airport was opened in June 1997 for air cargo, and those flights have shown "remarkable growth," a spokesperson from the airport projects office told B/CA.
The BBJ is expected to be on static display at the NBAA convention in Las Vegas in October, the aircraft's first scheduled public appearance. First flight of the BBJ is set for this quarter.
For most domestic flight department managers, August arrives with its own list of hazards-sizzling ramps, precarious powerplant temperature limits, high density altitudes, thunderstorms and, most feared, the beginning of the annual budget process.
Edited by Gordon A. GilbertJames Baumgarner and Dave Collogan in Washington
The FAA, the U.S. Coast Guard and DOT officials have decided not to kill the Loran-C program as scheduled in 2000, but instead to upgrade Loran facilities during the transition to satellite-based navigation. Steve Zaidman, FAA associate administrator for research and acquisition, signaled the policy change at a joint meeting during the RTCA's Spring Forum. "It makes sense to fly it a couple of more years," he said at the time. "We should not have a drop-dead date" to decommission Loran.
Factory installation of the TKS deice system and certification for flight into known icing are now available for Commander 114Bs and 114TCs, and Mooney M20Ks. The system, previously certificated on M20Es and M20Ms, consists of a slinger mechanism on the propeller and a glycol-based fluid sprayed over wing and empennage leading edges and the pilot's windshield.
Steven M. Sliwa, Ph.D. announced his plans to resign as president at the end of the year to return to the public sector and "pursue other business interests."
In the growing market of flight attendant training, Blue Diamond Services of Forest Hills, N.Y. bills itself as a specialist in skilled cabin service education for corporate aviation. The founder, Antonio Gooding, a former corporate flight attendant, schedules one- to five-day training sessions on site for a $1,200 fee or at various Blue Diamond locations throughout the country at a cost of $600.
Canadian Business Aircraft Association will stage its August 10-13, 1999 annual meeting with Aerospace North America, formerly Airshow Canada, now that the event is moving to Vancouver, British Columbia from Abbotsford. "We haven't locked ourselves in to all future events until we analyze the impact of the change," commented J.D. Lyon, CBAA president. The need for full conference and hotel capacity, as well as plans to strengthen Airshow's ties with the aerospace industry, sparked the move to Vancouver and a new name for the show, said John S.
A new corporate flight attendant training option lands August 10 on the East Coast. Atlantic Aviation has teamed with Jeff Hare Safety and Survival Sytems to offer a Flight Attendant Training Program at Atlantic's Teterboro Airport location.
