Bombardier's proposed bail-out of Fokker in 1996 had Boeing and a 90-seater in the scenario. B/CA is told that the Bombardier plan would have scrapped both the Fokker 70 and 100 as being too heavy, too costly to maintain and behind the technology curve.
In September, the FAA is scheduled to approve or disapprove a proposed noise compatibility plan for Arkansas' Fort Smith Airport. The plan was submitted under FAR Part 150 and the public may comment. For more information, contact the FAA's Tim Tandy in Fort Worth at (817) 222-5635.
In our ``1997 Salary Survey'' (April, page 42), salaries for department managers and directors of operations were transposed. The 11 department managers make an average of $94,717, while the four directors of operations have salaries averaging $48,000.
Garrett Aviation's Augusta, Ga. maintenance facility was appointed as a factory authorized service center for Falcon Jets. This unit, the fourth Garrett location selected by Dassault Falcon Jet, also is approved for CFE738 line maintenance. The other three Garrett units with Dassault approvals are in Los Angeles, Houston and Springfield, Ill.
Rockwell Avionics and Communications (Cedar Rapids)--E.J. Senen is the new vice president of marketing for the Collins Air Transport Division. He succeeds Shannon M. Murchison who retired after 43 years of service.
Farmingdale, N.Y.--Construction is starting on new facilities for the Million Air FBO at Republic Airport. Over the next 11 to 13 months, the company will build an 11,500-square-foot terminal, a 30,000-square-foot hangar and two 10,000-square-foot hangars. The new terminal will have a crew lounge with a satellite TV, private snooze rooms, modem and Internet connections and two conference rooms. Tel: (516) 752-9022; fax: (516) 752-9099.
Prime Fleet, a new fractional ownership venture between Prime Airborne of Stratford, Conn. and Fleet Capital Leasing of Providence, R.I., will announce this month the first lease program devised for shared ownership of corporate aircraft. While a one-quarter share of a used Falcon 50 would sell for $3.5 million, the five-year lease price would be $40,000 per month. Monthly management fees and hourly rates would be the same regardless of whether a share is owned or leased.
Comments are due May 12 on the FAA's proposal to require commercial operators, including air taxi companies, to maintain passenger manifests for all flights within the United States. The proposal follows a similar one issued in late 1996 that would apply to all flights to or from the United States (November 1996, page 20). The proposals are a direct response to complaints against larger air carriers involved in major disasters. Applying the rules to air taxi operators is ``ridiculous,'' says the NATA.
Minnesota Aviation Trades Association (Minneapolis)--Alan Nitchman, vice president and general manager of Elliott Aviation's Minneapolis FBO, was elected to a two-year term as president of the association.
Productivity is the essential quality for making a profit in the regional airline industry, and as one leading airline executive put it, ``You build from profitability, not to profitability.'' Productivity is derived from speed, field performance, capacity and the versatility to operate profitably over varying sector distances.
It's twice the honor for Cessna, which has landed its second Robert J. Collier Trophy. This year, the National Aeronautic Association chose Cessna Aircraft and the Citation X business jet for its Collier winners, and saluted the company for what it believed was the greatest aeronautical achievement in the United States for 1996. The Citation X was hailed as the first production commercial aircraft in U.S. aviation history to achieve a cruising speed of 0.92 Mach. In 1985, Cessna and its business jet line won the Collier Trophy for its passenger safety record.
Aircraft Window Repairs Co. recently added delamination repair to its window restoration services. The company, with facilities in Torrance, Calif. and North Port, Fla., says that more than 75 percent of the transparencies it evaluates are repairable. Glass, acrylic or laminated windows sent to the company are evaluated for reparability at no charge.
Steve Townes, former president of Sabreliner's SabreTech maintenance unit, recently was named president and chief operating officer of Hunter Aircraft Corp. in Alexandria, Va. Prior to joining Sabreliner in late 1995, Townes was a vice president at The Dee Howard Co. and then held the same position at Stevens Aviation. As the new head of Hunter, Townes will lead the firm's rebuilding effort, which is currently targeted at acquiring maintenance and repair companies with between $2 million and $40 million in business.
NBAA will confer its prestigious Jack P. Doswell Award on Torch Lewis, an icon in the business aviation industry and the singular writer of B/CA's popular Greenhouse Patter column. Lewis, a former U.S. Marine Corps pilot and flight department manager, was selected to receive the award for his lifelong support and service to business aviation and for his participation in the NBAA. The NBAA will present the award to Lewis at the association's 50th annual meeting September 23-25 in Dallas.
A non-TCAS collision avoidance system has been introduced by BFGoodrich. The system, called Skywatch, retails for $24,285, about half the price of the company's TCAS I. The Grand Rapids, Mich. company says that after receiving replies to its Mode C interrogations, Skywatch predicts the responding aircraft's potential conflict and provides an aural as well as visual warning. The system can track up to 30 intruder aircraft simultaneously and display the eight most-threatening targets.
A more than $30-million effort to enhance reliability of the AlliedSignal LF 502/507 turbofan engines that power the British Aerospace 146 family should begin bearing fruit for operators this month. In April, AlliedSignal began offering block upgrade programs that incorporate some 24 separate fixes engineered and certified in 1996. The problem areas were identified through intensive dialogue with the affected airlines, according to Jon Baetty, AlliedSignal's regional turbofan program director.
It probably was a coincidence that the NBAA's 24th annual International Operator's Conference (IOC) just happened to coincide with implementation of ICAO's revised vertical separation minimums (RVSM) on North Atlantic nav tracks on March 27, but the conjunction of the two events couldn't have been more timely. RVSM and Required Navigation Performance 10 standards (RNP-10), slated to go into effect in 1998 in the North Pacific, were hot topics among the 500 attendees at the four-day seminar and information exchange.
The aircraft modification business continues to be robust at practically every level. For this year's update, B/CA talked with nearly 100 companies in the modification business, and the overwhelming majority reported that business was ``good'' to ``excellent,'' or ``outstanding.'' Our poll wasn't formal, and some responses clearly were relative rather than numerical. (The head of one company said that business was moderate. His company's growth was ``only'' 15 percent over the previous year.)
The Master Executive Council for United Air Lines' ALPA unit has voted that its members should fly the regional jet. Just as their counterparts at American's Allied Pilots Association approved a tentative labor agreement that would assign RJs to the American Eagle regional subsidiaries, the United MEC said it had determined that, ``the presence of the RJ in the air-transport marketplace will impact the security of the careers of United Air Lines pilots. . . .''
Members of the Dassault Falcon Jet team responsible for supporting the firm's new Falcon 50 charter operation, Oriental Falcon Jet Service, in China include (from left): Pamela Lorenzo, manager of U.S. charter sales; John Rosanvallon, president of Dassault Falcon Jet; Ronald A. Zielinski, vice president of international marketing; and Jeff Habib, director of sales for North Asia.
Continental and the city of Cleveland have joined in a $120-million expansion at Cleveland Hopkins International Airport that includes an $80-million regional-jet concourse for the new Continental Express EMB-145 ExpressJet fleet. The concourse will be connected to Concourse C via an underground tunnel and moving sidewalks, and will provide 12 regional-jet gates with jetbridge loading plus 24 turboprop loading positions.
AOPA's seventh annual fly-in is set for June 7 at the association's headquarters at Frederick Municipal Airport in Maryland. Guests will be able to meet with AOPA staffers and visit the association's headquarters. In addition, the event features aircraft displays and a seminar program. A temporary tower will operate between 0700 and 1800 hours, and special ATC procedures will be in effect. Air traffic reservations are not required.
