Drug runners are the suspects in the December 1997 daytime theft of a Learjet 35 from Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. The aircraft was registered to B.L. Bennett Aviation of Nashville. According to the Aviation Crime Prevention Institute, this is only the second stolen business jet that the Institute has on record, with the first being lifted in 1987.
The golden years of helicopters and the Helicopter Association International (HAI) will be celebrated at this year's 50th Annual Heli Expo set for February 15-17 in Anaheim, Calif. In honor of the occasion, "all HAI members and daytime and full-time registrants will receive free a specially commissioned book-Helicopters: 1948-1998, by Frank McGuire," said HAI President Frank L. Jensen, Jr., who will host the event for one last time before his retirement in March.
-- Aero '98, billed as Mexico's Business Aviation Show, is coming again to Toluca Airport, 30 miles west of Mexico City, on March 11-13. This year, organizers are getting ready for 100 exhibitors and 2,000 visitors, a sizable expansion of the 1997 event that attracted 57 exhibitors and 1,700 to 1,800 qualified visitors.
On page 52 of the January issue, the photo at the bottom of the page is a JetStar, not a Lear Star as the caption reads. (Of course, we knew that!) Thanks to all of the readers who pointed it out.
The flight lasted only four minutes, but it was a big step for Bell Helicopter. On December 11, 1997, test pilots Bob Williams and Eric Emblin picked up the new 427 light twin into a hover in front of the company's Mirabel, Quebec, Canada plant, setting into motion a year-long flight-test program. When it's over, Bell will have its first new type certificate in 20 years and will finally have a worthy entrant in the light-twin market, which until now it has ceded to its competitors.
Most regional aircraft manufacturers disdain the corporate marketplace. A handful of airplanes have made it to the corporate level, and only then as shuttles that operate on a quasi-scheduled basis. Besides, airlines compete for production slots in much bigger numbers.
The southeast boundary of the Atlantic High Offshore Airspace Area will be extended about 80 nm to close the gap with the boundary of the San Juan Enroute Domestic Airspace Area, if the FAA adopts recent proposed rulemaking. The agency says the modification would facilitate the use of the same domestic ATC procedures within the gap that are now used in the Atlantic High and the San Juan Enroute areas. Presently, the gap is subject to different ATC standards as set forth by ICAO.
While the sale of a used Cessna Citation would seem a routine occurrence in today's booming preowned aircraft market, the listing of a 1988 Model SII last fall had the broker community abuzz with speculation. This particular SII, it seems, has a whopping 8,800 hours on its Hobbs Meter-more than twice the usual time for a nine-year-old Citation airframe-and a $2.5-million price tag. The seller? The huge NetJets fractional ownership operation run by charter/management pioneer Executive Jet Aviation.
H.M. Strange was named vice president of industrial operations at the company's Little Rock completion center where he is responsible for new Falcon completions and the operation of the Jet Center, a company-owned maintenance facility.
Operators of more than 10,000 Continental engines must replace crankshafts made using the airmelt process with those made from the vacuum arc remelt process. The FAA ordered the replacement despite vehement opposition by operators. Trade groups claim the AD will cost operators nearly $7,000 per engine (three times the FAA's estimate) and contend that the agency has failed to produce solid justification for the expense.
Jet Aviation, which had managed the Eagle Group's FBO at Las Vegas' McCarran International Airport since early 1996 (August 1996, page 26), recently handed control of the facility back to the Eagle Group. The Jet Aviation signs are down, and the facility now is called Eagle Executive.
In a description of Avtec Fiber Optic Lighting's cabin lighting system in B/CA's 1997 completions report ("Interiors of the Future, Today," December 1997), we incorrectly identified the lamp at the heart of Avtec's fiber-optic lighting system as halogen. Although the Avtec lamp provides a similar intense white light, it is actually a "xenon metal halide lamp." The lamp's manufacturer rates the bulb's life at 4,000 hours; however, after its own extensive testing of the light source, Avtec re-rates it to 7,000 hours.
BFGoodrich completed the acquisition of Rohr, Inc. and will operate the new unit as the Aerostructures Group (December 1997, page 30). Robert H. Rau, previously president and CEO of Rohr, was appointed president of the group. The facility will remain in Chula Vista, Calif., where it makes engine nacelle components and Stage 3 noise reduction systems.
The East 60th Street Heliport in New York City is still operating, despite the New York City Economic Development Corp.'s plan to close its doors by December 31, 1997. An EDC spokesperson told B/CA that the shutdown has now been delayed until the end of this month, due to the need to settle various legal issues. Meanwhile, fuel is not available at the 34th Street Heliport because the facility's new tenant, American Port Services, could not assume liability for the underground fuel tanks at the site.
Less than one-half of one percent of aviation employees tested positive for alcohol over the last two years, according to the FAA. Because of the low violation rate, the agency has lowered the random rate for testing from 25 percent to 10 percent for this year. However, another year of random testing is required before the agency can consider lowering the drug-testing rate below the current 25 percent. Under the rules, the FAA can reduce the testing rates to 10 percent if data received indicate a violation rate of less than one-half percent for two consecutive years.
In a major commitment to increase crewmembers' ability to respond to medical emergencies, Delta Air Lines announced plans to equip all its 560 aircraft with defibrillators by 2000. Whether corporate operators will follow Delta's lead remains to be seen. But the equipment Delta is acquiring, the Heartstream ForeRunner, is one of several defib models suitable for use on corporate aircraft. This equipment and others are described in a recent B/CA feature about defibrillators and training programs for corporate flight departments (June 1997, page 72).
Flight testing of Israel Aircraft Industries' $14.5-million Galaxy midsize business jet will continue throughout the year, leading to FAA certification in the fourth quarter and initial deliveries in early 1999. The aircraft made its first flights on December 25 and 31, 1997 (see photo on page 34). IAI's U.S. affiliate, Galaxy Aerospace Corp. at Fort Worth's Alliance Airport, expects to have firm orders amounting to two years worth of production-from 36 to 48 aircraft-by the time of certification.
Colombia Aircraft Sales in Groton, Conn. has been designated by Sino Swearingen as a distributor for the SJ30-2, scheduled to be available in late 1999
With the Bell-Boeing 609 collecting orders (nearly 50 at last count), Eurocopter says it is once again considering its options for developing a small civil tilt-rotor. The French/German company has been conducting wind-tunnel tests to evaluate configurations for a six- to eight-place tilt-rotor and has had talks with both Agusta and Westland. Eurocopter says it is considering plans to develop a demonstrator that would fly sometime around 2000, but has not yet made a decision to proceed.
March 2 (or within 50 hours time in service from January 2) is the AD compliance date for operators of General Electric CF700 and CJ610 turbofan engines to replace certain serial-numbered turbine torque rings and compressor drive shafts. Other serial numbered rings and shafts must be replaced by January 2, 1999 (or within 300 hours time in service from January 2, 1998). An AD was issued because of the possibility that these parts were manufactured from contaminated materials, said the FAA.
The sales of new business-turbine aircraft were comfortably ahead of 1996, according to a preliminary report by Aviation Data Services. New jet sales gained overall, with those gains running stronger in the international arena than in the U.S. market. Conversely, new turboprop sales in 1997 trailed 1996's only slightly, not enough to offset the strength of new-jet sales and within easy striking distance to match or best the prior year.
According to the North Atlantic Implementation Management Group, the latest take on the expansion of reduced vertical separation minimum (RVSM) airspace is that the increase in the upper limit to FL 390 and the lowering of the floor to FL 310 will be implemented simultaneously on October 8. Previously, the downward expansion was scheduled for an April 23 effective date (January, page 17). Group members represent Canada, Iceland, Ireland, Portugal, the United Kingdom and the United States.
