General Accounting Office says the FAA has implemented 64 percent of the recommendations made by it, the NTSB and the DOT. However, the agency has met established implementation time frames for recommendations made by the GAO and the DOT only one-third of the time. The GAO says implementation times for NTSB recommendations were not readily available.
In mid April, the Gulfstream V received full FAA type certification and established three distance records, including a 6,012-nm nonstop leg from Tokyo to New York. In all, N502GV, the G-V demonstrator, flew more than 18,000 miles in seven days, cruised as fast as 512 knots and as high as FL 510. B/CA was on board for the entire mission, and we will have an exclusive report in our June issue. Gulfstream claims 70 orders for the G-V.
The de Havilland Dash 8-400Q is on track for first flight in November from the Bombardier unit's Downsview, Ontario, Canada plant. Flight testing is slated to begin at the Wichita flight test center in early 1998, culminating in certification and deliveries in the first quarter of 1999. In early March, the Pratt&Whitney Canada PW150A engine that will power the 70- to 78-passenger stretch of the Dash 8 family entered its flight test program, operating at up to 5,300 shp during a two-hour flight on Pratt's Boeing 720 flying test bed.
Proceeds from an initial public offering enabled First Aviation to acquire Aircraft Parts International Combs, a major supplier of aircraft parts, from AMR Services. The parts company will remain in Memphis. First Aviation also is the parent company of National Airmotive Corp., an Oakland, Calif. provider of Allison engine service. The IPO was handled by First Equity Group of Stamford, Conn.
National general-aviation trade groups are continuing at full tilt in their efforts to improve the FAA's management structure and funding sources. And they are beginning to feel more and more like a circus plate-spinning act-keeping regulatory assaults at bay and their members' interests aloft so that nothing that can hurt the industry comes crashing down.
Jet Aviation's FBO at Hanscom Field in Bedford, Mass. was appointed as a Raytheon service center. The appointment authorizes Jet Aviation to provide maintenance, inspections and other service for King Airs and Raytheon piston-engine aircraft. Jet Aviation Bedford also is an authorized service facility for the Socata TBM 700 and for McDonnell Douglas helicopters.
The international satellite operation known as Inmarsat, which one year ago revealed plans to reorganize into a more businesslike structure, says it hopes to culminate the process early in 1998. One major goal is to eliminate perceived intergovernmental organization privileges not available to competing companies. Inmarsat was established in 1979 as an intergovernmental organization providing satellite communications services.
A SimuFlite instructor-pilot (in the blue blazer) trains a Gulfstream IV crew on Honeywell SPZ-8000 operating procedures using the company's latest hardware, a G-IVSP integrated real-time avionics systems trainer. At SimuFlite's Dallas facility, the device is used as an intermediate step between ground school and a simulator, and is intended for pilot training and maintenance technician training. The unit has a worldwide database. (An SPZ-8400 system soon will be added, says the company.)
Airlines have gone to great lengths to fill empty airplane seats. Yield management has enabled carriers to anticipate the number of empty seats on a particular flight and offer those seats at a discounted rate. The passenger seat is not an airline's only product, however, which speaks volumes about residual cargo capacity. Cargo is an area that has been largely ignored by the regional airline industry.
German manufacturer Burkhart Grob is proceeding with development of its GF200 executive aircraft and plans to fly pre-series production aircraft this summer, leading to certification in mid 1998. The all-composite aircraft is powered by a single Teledyne-Continental TSIOL-550 engine developing 310 hp at 2,500 rpm. The liquid-cooled Voyager engine is in pusher configuration.
This directory is a selective list of specialized products and services that are not included elsewhere in the 1997 Planning&Purchasing Handbook. The products conform to one or more of the following criteria: avionics, equipment or services that may not be included as standard on all new aircraft; equipment that requires regular replacement; items that provide some measure of support, comfort or protection; and products or services that can be purchased directly by the aircraft operator.
Continued health of the money supply and relatively stable interest rates during 1996 fueled a vigorous aircraft lending climate for the third year in a row. According to officials of the National Aircraft Finance Association, all indications are the trend will continue through this year and into 1998.
The Ha-laska Project, a two-year evaluation of ``free flight,'' will be conducted by the FAA beginning in 1999 in airspace over Alaska and Hawaii. When fully functional, free flight would use GPS and digital datalink for navigation, communications and surveillance, and airborne and ground-based traffic conflict alert systems to allow pilots to fly virtually whatever route and altitude are most favorable for existing conditions (June 1995, page 90).
Terry Yaddaw (left), director of Bombardier Business Aircraft Customer Training, and Creighton Pendarvis, director of training services for Air Routing International, shake hands following the conclusion of a training agreement for buyers of new Canadair Challenger and Global Express aircraft. For no extra charge, crews of newly-purchased aircraft may attend a course entitled ``International Operations, Handling and Security'' to be taught by officials from Air Routing and its affiliate company, Air Security, at Bombardier facilities in Montreal.
Coastal Corp. (Houston)--D.L. Varney retired on April 2 as director of aviation. Logging over 18,000 hours of flying time, he was employed in corporate aviation for 40 years. He is succeeded by Carl J. Moody.
Receivers for bankrupt Dutch company Fokker said final attempts to revive the former airplane maker have collapsed (January, page 13). Since Germany's Daimler-Benz pulled the financial plug on Fokker about a year ago, various parties-foreign and domestic-have been negotiating to salvage the company. But, now the Fokker plant is expected to close permanently this summer, after the last three aircraft are completed.
Bell Helicopter has teamed with Samsung Aerospace of Korea to produce a new light-twin helicopter. First flight of the 427 is slated for December, with certification to follow at the end of 1998. The company said in February that it has logged 50 orders for its $1.875-million helicopter.
The outlook for the civil helicopter market is decidedly upbeat, with most segments of the business reporting improved activity during 1996. The consensus is for modest but sustained growth, a trend that has been evident for each of the last few years.
Caribbean charter carrier HelenAir Caribbean will enter scheduled service July 1, operating flights from St. Lucia to Grenada, Barbados, Trinidad, Dominica and St. Vincent. By the end of the year the carrier hopes to be serving St. Maarten, Guyana and Antigua. The company, chaired by former BWIA executive Edward Wegel, has contracted with Raytheon Aircraft Credit for operating leases on five Beech 1900Cs. The first two aircraft will be delivered by June 15 and the latter three by November 1. The carrier has used Beech 99s in its charter operation.
After nearly 40 years of owning and operating business aircraft, Dresser Industries has closed its flight department, is selling its Gulfstream IV and two Challengers, and is letting go its five pilots and seven mechanics. But the Dallas company intends to remain a user of business aviation-via fractional ownership-according to a company source.
DOT did not comply with Congress' mandate to submit a plan by April 1 for continued funding and upgrading of Loran-C as a backup to GPS. According to an FAA spokesperson, the agency is revising the plan, ``then it will go back to the DOT and finally to Congress.'' But the FAA gave no anticipated date when Congress would receive the plan. In fall 1996, Congress rebuked the DOT sharply for scheduling an early phaseout of Loran-C and ignoring thousands of Loran-C users' protests (November 1996, page 17).
