Mercury Air Group of Los Angeles has purchased Stevens Aviation at Nashville International Airport for $4.2 million in cash. The acquisition brings Mercury's holdings at the airport to over 100,000 square feet of hangar space, over 10,000 square feet of office space and a 5,150-square-foot terminal building on 39 acres. Dale Krupla will be kept on as operations manager. Mercury now operates 13 Mercury Air Center FBOs throughout the United States. The company says it plans to open a new facility at Charleston, S.C.'s International Airport in April 1998.
The PW306A engine, while un-proven, is an evolutionary outgrowth of the PW305 that powers the Learjet 60 and Hawker 1000. Unlike the PW308, however, the PW306A has less temperature margin. It's rated at 5,700 pounds of thrust for takeoff and is flat rated to ISA+9 degrees C. An automatic performance reserve function enables the PW306A to maintain its rated takeoff thrust to ISA+16 degrees C during one-engine-inoperative takeoffs.
New-equipment manufacturers should be beaming; dealers and brokers also should be starting to smile. The turbine-aircraft business is good, particularly ignoring for a moment the preliminary numbers for July 1997. In the six-month final analysis by Aviation Data Services, sales of new turbine-powered business aircraft quietly edged ahead of 1996, looking at worldwide totals, new jets and turboprops in the United States and international jet arenas. Only international turboprop sales trailed slightly.
Clearwater, Fla.-based Opinicus Corp. has finished a performance upgrade program and won FAA Level C qualification on its Fairchild Dornier Do 328 simulator in Portland, Ore. Opinicus, incorporated in 1998, also designs simulator hardware and software for Citations, Falcon Jets, Learjets and King Airs.
Effective September 30, the FAA intends to terminate the U.S. Coast Guard's Omega long-range global navigation system to make way for GPS technology. The system, which the United States manages through bilateral agreements with six partner-nations, uses the VLF (very low frequency) band.
Photograph: Photograph: Brian Barents, president of Galaxy Aircraft Corp. Photography courtesy of GAC Thursday, September 4 should be a pivotal day in the history of the new Galaxy Aerospace Corp. (GAC). Less than one year after the Pritzker family and IAI formed a joint venture aimed at putting the 1126 Galaxy on the fast track to customer deliveries, IAI is rolling out the first aircraft. The Galaxy is the first contender in the hot, new, super midsize class of turbofan business aircraft.
FAR Part 25 structural loads design requirements have been revised in order to eliminate the differences with corresponding requirements for large aircraft certificated under Europe's JAA (November 1995, page 16).
An item in a recent European Business Aviation Association bulletin says that business aircraft are ``not always playing according to the rules'' established by Europe's Central Flow Management Unit (B/CA, April 1995, page 15). These include landing slots for London's Heathrow Airport and en route slots that are reserved by business aircraft operators, but are neither used nor canceled. The EBAA is worried that violations by a few operators could prejudice European ATC authorities against all business aircraft operators and lead to more-restrictive measures.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. has chosen Meggitt Electronic Components, Endevco Products, to be its exclusive supplier of vibration accelerometers for the Health&Usage Monitoring System and active vibration control system on the S-76 and S-92 helicopters.
An updated third edition of FAA Medical Certification: Guidelines for Pilots by Richard O. Reinhart, M.D. is now available from Iowa University Press. Readers can look to this volume for an explanation of the aviation medical certification process, how to maintain or regain certification, invalid reasons for grounding, and ways to improve and maintain health.
The Honeywell Primus 1000 avionics suite has posed major challenges during the certification process because of its unprecedented four-tube EFIS/EICAS configuration. All previous EFIS/EICAS installations have used five or six tubes, thereby easing the burden of designing reversionary displays. With four tubes, designing backup modes is much more difficult. Learjet, Honeywell and the FAA finally reached agreement on the display modes and appropriate symbology, thus removing a major obstacle to certification.
This table shows the results of a July survey of U.S. fuel suppliers. The survey, by Fillup Flyer Fuel Finder in Cincinnati, reflects fuel prices reported by up to 1,863 FBOs. All prices are full retail--before any discounts--and include taxes and other fees. Contact Fillup Flyer for individualized customer fuel surveys and logistical data maps at (800) 333-7900 or on the Internet at www.fillupflyer.com.
In the wake of the July 19 midair collision involving a Cessna 172 and a Beechcraft Bonanza near Chicago's Meigs Field, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association recommends that Congress immediately halt the contract-tower program and that the FAA resume operation of all privately operated facilities. ``Lives should not be at the expense of bottom-line profits,'' a NATCA spokesperson said.
A Texas jury awarded two families a combined $12 million in connection with the fatal 1994 crash of a Sea Link-operated Eurocopter AStar off Galveston, Texas, after a hydraulic servo in the main-rotor flight controls allegedly failed. The pilot was the sole survivor and testified that he lost control while the aircraft was cruising at 2,000 feet. Four passengers were killed. Two families previously settled a suit.
This FBO network announced these shifts in staffing: Keith Goodrum has been appointed project manager for the Boeing Business Jet completion program. Promotions went to Pat Murphy as director of sales support and to David Harsay as customer service representative.
Sen. Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.) has sponsored an amendment seeking a six-month reprieve--no later than February 1, 1998--from pilot record-sharing requirements for Part 135 on-demand operators. The delay would allow the agency to work out ways ``to facilitate the passing of information'' and discussions with the industry. The senator argues that Part 135 operators need information from the FAA ``in a more timely manner than the airlines'' and acknowledged that the agency is trying to respond within 15 days.
FAA has pulled from the shelves the Atlanta Helicopter Route Chart. Helicopter route charts carry no expiration dates, and the Helicopter Association International--to no avail--had urged the agency to at least sell existing stock. Currently, the FAA and NOAA maintain seven helicopter route charts designed to help rotary-wing pilots avoid fixed-wing traffic, obstacles and noise-sensitive areas in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and Washington, D.C.
German technicians are being trained at Bombardier Aviation Services in Connecticut, and construction is on target for the fall opening of a factory service center for Bombardier Challenger and Learjet aircraft at Berlin-Schonefeld Airport in Germany. The facility, a joint project of Bombardier Business Aircraft and Lufthansa Technik, will cover 80,729 square feet, with a 50,000-square-foot hangar, workshops, conference rooms and offices. Currently, 160 Learjet and Challenger aircraft are based in Europe.
