Schweizer Aircraft's new Model 330SP single-engine turbine helicopter is the step-up replacement for the original Model 330. Getting thumbs up from the FAA are three major (and retrofittable) changes: main rotor blades with more area, high-stance landing gear and a larger main rotor hub. The Elmira, N.Y. company said performance improvements over the Model 330 are a 13-percent increase in maximum cruise speed (92 to 104 KTAS), a 17-percent increase in the maximum specific range and a seven-percent increase in maximum specific endurance.
Photograph: VANTAGE TUCKS IN LEGS FOR CRUISE TESTS. Activation of the retractable landing gear recently opened the way for the proof-of-concept VisionAire Vantage to progress through high-performance flight testing. To date, the six-place, single-engine business jet has reached 35,000 feet msl and more than 350 KTAS in nearly 20 hours of flight time. The St. Louis company plans to produce four additional aircraft by early 1998: two for continued flight tests and two for ground tests (May, page 130). Talk about putting one in a holding pattern.
Magellan Systems Corp.'s portable SkyStar moving-map GPS receiver does triple duty as a navigator, preflight planning tool and an in-flight manager. The unit enables pilots to access five personalized checklists and five customizable aircraft data files for weight and balance calculations, best-glideslope determinations and E6B functions. An updatable Jeppesen database provides airport details, radio navigation data and air-space information.
Operators required to meet EPA, OSHA and DOT hazmat rules may be interested in the compliance workshops offered by the Environmental Resource Center in Cary, N.C. One- to three-day courses are offered in various cities until the end of September. For registration information or to obtain a course summary brochure, phone (800) 537-2372.
Bombardier expects Global Express No. 3 to resume test flying in July after undergoing repairs to the skin on the bottom of the aircraft, which was damaged from an April 25 gear-up landing at Downsview Airport in Ontario, Canada. No one was injured in the accident, which occurred just four days after S/N 9003 made its first flight. Investigation of the circumstances surrounding the mishap continues, but Bombardier did disclose that the crew mistakenly left the gear operating handle in the up position.
Monte Mitchell, until recently the executive director of the Aircraft Electronics Association, received enormous applause at his retirement celebration at the AEA annual convention in Palm Springs in April. AEA members' praise for Mitchell was indeed appropriate, but the Association's long-term success has had as much to do with the eye-watering pace of technical developments in avionics as it has had with Mitchell's efforts.
Salt Lake City-based Perry Group and Fokker Services in the Netherlands chose the Rolls-Royce Tay 620 to replace the F28's Spey turbofans for their proposed upgrade of the Fokker F28 (February, page 20). The partners hope to announce a go decision at the Paris Air Show this month or shortly thereafter. The aircraft will sell for $9 million. For more details, see article beginning on page 96.
The sale of 20 Hawker 800XPs and the decision to increase support of 22 Hawker 1000s already in the NetJets program does not mean Raytheon Aircraft has given up launching its own fractional program. The company has for months been quietly researching fractional ownership and aligning staff for a possible program of its own. Raytheon Aircraft Chairman Art Wegner said he continues to be interested in a shared ownership plan covering Beechjets and King Airs.
A heavy-damage acrylic restoration kit from Micro-Surface Finishing Products tools up operators to do their own refinishing of scratched, crazed, gouged and hazed aircraft windows. The product is designed so that the user can render optically clear windows using standard tools and few steps in the process. Suggested retail price: $68.75. Toll-free technical support is available. Micro-Surface Finishing Products, Box 818 Wilton, Iowa 52778. (319) 732-3240; fax: (319) 732-3390.
Photograph: Hawthorne Dulles became the second FBO on the airport when it opened in September 1990. The full-service facility plans to occupy a new 18,000-square-foot hangar and a 12,000-square-foot office complex on the west side of the airport by year-end. The city that made the filibuster famous--it's little wonder that airport development has lagged behind demand for aviation facilities.
Now available from Sporty's Pilot Shop is the DTN Weather System--a weather service provider that does not require a computer or dial-up charges. Subscribers can choose from three weather packages: the Basic Weather Package ($1,183) with over 70 full-color radar and satellite weather maps, Aviation Center Level I ($1,555) for the regional flyer and up to 18,000 feet msl, and Aviation Center Level II ($2,143) for pilots flying aircraft nationally and internationally up to 45,000 feet msl.
Bombardier and Lufthansa hope to start operations of their new Berlin-based charter company, European Business Jet Services, in the fall (January, page 18).
Chemical Technologies Group (CTG) has developed Jet A Fuel Lubricity Additive for Jet A fuel used in ground support equipment. OEMs have found that low-lubricity Jet A causes premature wear in fuel pumps. CTG's additive was formulated to prevent such wear and tear. Price: $143 per case of 12 quarts (one quart treats 300 gallons of fuel); $152 per case of two, two and one-half gallon containers. Chemical Technologies Group, 5165 Broadway, Ste. 241, Buffalo, N.Y. 14043. (201) 226-6316; fax: (201) 228-0068.
Performance Data Solutions software is a performance and preflight plan- ning program for Learjet 35A/ 36A crewmembers, and was designed for use with a Psion 3a or 3c palmtop computer. The program performs takeoff, enroute, approach and landing performance calculations, along with weight and balance calculations based on the specific Learjet's performance manual.
FAA has contracted with Hughes Information Technology Systems of Reston, Va. to supply a new system to upgrade ATC computer maintenance monitoring and control. The FAA says the National Airspace System Infrastructure Management System (NIMS) is designed to help technicians keep ATC equipment up and running. It is scheduled to start operating in 1999.
Aviation has been captured by an irony--a very great irony. Men and women who expected to participate in a great adventure of individualism and personal control are memorizing tedious procedures manuals. Spirited people who hoped for a career of spontaneous action are forced to program computers. It is an irony. It is a great irony called . . . automation.
In addition to the appropriate sunglasses, leather jacket and big wristwatch (analog readout of course), you can add a credit card to complete the ensemble for the stereotypical pilot image.
Table: Emerging Aircraft Target Dates: (This table is not available online. Please see the June 1997 issue) July 17: LAX Class B--Effective date for the revised Los Angeles Class B Airspace. Among the revisions: ceiling will be lowered 10,000 feet msl and boundaries will be defined by lat/long instead of VOR radials or DME arcs. August 4: New FAR Parts 61 and 141--On this date, the long-awaited rewrite of the requirements covering pilot certification, training and flight schools goes into effect.
What a difference a month can make. Last issue we reported a steep drop in first-quarter sales of new and used busines-turbine aircraft--with a caveat. We hedged because of a known, albeit undocumented, logjam of transactions, sales for which the paperwork had not yet worked its way through sundry national and international reporting networks to Aviation Data Services, the premier aviation research and analysis company, based in Wichita, Kan.
Occasionally there's more to learn by looking back than by staring at today or trying to crystal-ball the future. Last year's end numbers illustrate the point--weak start turned into a solid gain. Only international new-turboprop sales declined, in the end. Looking back only a month also works. Four weeks ago March looked like only life-support sales kept it alive, down as it was: off 194 units and 77 percent. The quarter looked only slightly better, down 264 planes for a 39-percent decline.
The 7000/CE (shown) and the 5000/CE Argus moving-map displays with color graphics are available now from Eventide. Pilots can choose their own color schemes to ``color-code'' data such as Class B and C airspace. Graphics are displayed in red, green and yellow. New hardware and software additions to these Argus models include flight recording, an internal barometric pressure sensor, a rotary encoder for easy data entry and data-base updates. Price: $8,995 for the 7000/CE (3.2- by-4.8-inch cutout) and $6,995 for the 5000/CE (standard 3.2-inch-square cutout).
Mary Schiavo may not be seeking employment in DCA, but she effectively burned her bridges in leaving her post as inspector general of the DOT, accusing the FAA of toothless inspections and a deaf ear to safety warnings. She has written a book called, Flying Blind, Flying Safe, in which she fries and refries the FAA for carelessness, callousness and complete indifference to red flags of potential hazard amongst our nation's skeds.
American Eurocopter has developed a repair for the tail booms on some 132 U.S.-registered BK117s, and approval was expected from both the FAA and the LBA (Germany's aviation regulatory agency) by press time, said Tim Rudick, the firm's director of customer support in Grand Prairie, Texas. Inspections of the twin-turbine rotorcraft were mandated following the crash of a BK117 in New York City after an apparent tail boom failure. A Colgate-Palmolive executive was killed, and another passenger and two pilots were injured.
K-C Aviation says that when its dedicated aircraft paint hangar, which is currently being built, opens in October, painting capacity will double to 35 aircraft a year. The hangar, in Appleton, Wis., will be large enough to accommodate a Global Express or Gulfstream V.
Operations by U.S.-registered aircraft within North Korea's Pyongyang Flight Information Region east of 132 degrees east longitude are prohibited until further notice. The ban is effective pending the resolution of what the FAA calls ``outstanding questions related to safety of flight.''
