The following are target dates for emerging aircraft. These dates, supplied by the airframe manufacturers, are subject to change--and frequently do--as a result of design revisions, funding, testing delays or extensions, and/or the resolution of unforeseen problems. Each month, this table will endeavor to show the most-current schedule.
FOD caused by misplaced tools on board aircraft can be prevented by the Aeroprobe tool detector system from FOD Technology Group. Before the NiCd-battery-powered system is ready and able to do its detective work, all tools must be permanently magnetized using the system's activator. Then, to locate a missing tool, an operator deploys the detector and probe to sense the tool's magnetic field. An audible signal is triggered in the user's connected headset when a tool is found. Price: $11,440, including carrying case and strap. FOD Technology Group, P.O.
Get ready, the vaunted revolution in long-range navigation and ATC, blending the calculating and modeling power of cybernetics with the omnis cient reach of satellite communications and navigation, is at hand. Like it or not--whether you're a techie or a Luddite--if you fly internationally, you and your equipment will be held to higher standards of accuracy starting this year in the North Atlantic and beginning in spring 1998 in the Pacific.
Hate filling out all those annual insurance company forms that ask for your recency of experience and flight times? Englewood, Colo.-based InForms, Inc. is offering a solution with its AirForms General Aviation software. The program makes it possible for operators to store and quickly update flight-time information in a format that aviation insurance companies will accept, says InForms. Similarly, operators can update aircraft information. The $18.95 program can then be used to print out the entire insurance application for transmission via fax or e-mail.
A blistering editorial by long-time airline analyst Mort Beyer in his MBA Aviation Oracle lambasted the RAA for ``so miserably'' representing the ``some 30 small commuters--some of whom code-share--who are largely or totally independent and live like frightened mice in the elephant cage.'' Beyer chided the association for ignoring the termination of much of the Essential Air Service program, the mainline curtailment of service to 250 mid-size communities and its lack of opposition to ``the deterioration of Middle America's scheduled air service.
Bombardier Business JetSolutions is celebrating its second anniversary as a fractional business jet provider. The company operates a program called FlexJet, and has attracted more than 120 customers to a fleet of 24 aircraft, including (top to foreground) Canadair Challenger 604s, Learjet 31As and Learjet 60s. Business JetSolutions has ordered 25 Learjet 45 aircraft, with options for an additional 25 units. Shares in two Global Express aircraft will be sold following the intercontinental jet's certification in 1998.
Sikorsky is scrapping 18 analog gauges and a caution/advisory panel in favor of a digital integrated instrument display system for the S-76. The flat-panel liquid crystal display IIDS is produced by the Gull Electronic Systems Division of Parker Hannifin. It is now FAA-approved for installation.
There is increased awareness of a technique of correcting vision by the use of a single contact lens for distant vision in one eye and another lens for near vision in the other. Over time, the brain can process these two independent inputs and combine them to give the perception of 20/20 vision at all focal lengths. This technique has been around for years and is advocated by many eye doctors, but ``monovision lenses'' are not legal for pilots. Medical regulations (FAR Part 67) and the FAA's Aviation Medical Examiner's Guide are quite clear about this restriction.
At a meeting on June 26, NBAA members were expected to vote for a change in the name of the association to the National Business Aviation Association. Earlier, the NBAA board unanimously recommended the change, which is intended to represent the association's broadened scope into all aspects of business flying and retain the initials NBAA.
Don't throw away those betting slips just yet if your money is on 1997 easing past 1996 in the race for new-turbine aircraft sales. Sure, out of the gate and on the front stretch 1997 looked sluggish, like a dry-track horse in a race with a true mudder. A lot of activity was out there, it just didn't seem to be taking industry sales anywhere. But as the sales year nears the halfway mark we can now see that 1997 is closing the gap, even as the year was barely a quarter old.
A recent fatal accident in Indiana emphasizes the need to be particularly vigilant when walking near helicopters. The NTSB continues to investigate the May 21 accident in which an executive for Indianapolis-based Conseco, Inc. was fatally injured when he was struck in the head by a main rotor blade after he disembarked from the company's Eurocopter AS 365N2 twin-turbine helicopter and was walking to a waiting corporate jet. According to the NTSB, the accident happened during engine shutdown as the rotor brake was being applied.
Petro-Green's ADP-7 washing agent is formulated to emulsify unsightly, odorous fuel or hydraulic fluid leaks and overfills near above-ground fuel storage tanks. The user mixes the concentrated product with water, then sprays the affected area. Once the seepage is thoroughly doused, the mixture can be flushed from the paved apron onto soil, where bacteria can biodegrade the residue. Price: $78.50 for a six-gallon pail, which could treat 150 to 200 gallons of spilled fuel. Petro Green, P.O. Box 814665, Dallas, Texas 75381. Phone and fax: (972) 484-7336.
Dassault has stretched FAA B-Check inspection intervals for the Falcon 50 from 1,200 to 1,500 hours, with similar intervals for the Falcon 900 expected soon. All other currently built Falcons are now at 1,500 hours.
An FAA official told B/CA that the agency is returning in 15 days on average any ``properly'' and ``correctly'' filled out requests required by the Pilots Records Improvement Act, and that's well within the 30-day mandated window. When that window is exceeded, he said, it's because the requested information is ``incomplete, incorrect or otherwise flawed'' and has to be bumped back to the requester for correction. AC 120-68 details the information-sharing procedures and includes the appropriate application/request form.
After January 1, 1998, the FAA will no longer approve noise mitigation funding under FAR Part 150 for noncompatible land development that is allowed to occur. The agency will approve funding of only remedial noise mitigation measures for existing inappropriate land use and only preventive measures for potential new noncompatible use. The agency says the policy should encourage airport operators to curtail inappropriate land use.
There is no market for a commercial tiltrotor, at least in the near future, said Eurocopter President Jean Francois Bigay at the Paris Air Show. ``The concept is very exciting technically, but today nowhere in the world encourages vertical flight. . . . If speed is of the essence--and that is the tiltrotor's main advantage over a helicopter--then the tiltrotor must be able to fly into city centers,'' Bigay said.
``This whole ASD business is evolving very quickly,'' says Jack Thompson, a Flyte Comm spokesman. ``We originally thought most of our customers would be corporate flight departments, air charter operators and FBOs. But a growing portion of our users are getting these data over telephone lines by using our calling card program. You can enter an airline, flight number and a destination and out pops the ETA for your flight.
Phoenix Corp. in Selmer, Tenn. has received an STC for the installation of Czech Republic-built, 750-shp Walter turboprops and five-blade Avia-Hamilton propellers in King Air A90s, B90s and C90s. Phoenix says the engines are clones of the PT6, but have several improvements, such as no fuel nozzles and reduced noise output. The $270,000 cost of the mod compares to $400,000 for overhauling the aircraft's P&WC PT6 engines, according to Phoenix.
Atwater, Calif.--Castle Airport, which has been adding services and facilities for general aviation aircraft since transitioning from a U.S. Air Force Base in 1996, now offers users an instrument approach. In late May, the FAA commissioned an ILS and a VOR for the airfield's 11,800-foot long Runway 31. FBO services are provided by Trajen Flight Support. (209) 725-1455.
Signature Flight Support recently expanded its operation at Chicago's Midway Airport with the acquisition of the ramps, parking area, hangars and line service business of adjacent competitor Monarch Air Service. The demise of Monarch leaves Midway with three FBOs. In addition to Signature, there is Million Air and Aero Services Avitat.
Certification of the Honeywell/Pelorus SLS-2000 at Minneapolis/St. Paul and Newark International airports is expected before summer's end. The system originally was scheduled to be certificated in January 1996 (April 1995, page 24). In any case, the SLS-2000 is expected to be the first digital GPS approach system to be approved.
USAirways Chairman Stephen Wolf told the company's shareholders in May that the carrier is talking to two manufacturers concerning regional jets for its three wholly owned Express carriers-Allegheny Commuter, Piedmont and PSA (formerly Jetstream International). This contradicts earlier comments that the carrier was not interested in the 50-passenger jets.
