Six months after signing a Tay engine support agreement with Rolls-Royce, Airwork says it's ready to accept powerplants for their first mid-life inspections. In addition to employing Rolls-Royce-trained technicians, Airwork says its Millville, N.J. facility has field troubleshooters at the ready, rental engines available and 24-hour AOG service. Meanwhile, Airwork and its sister company, Garrett Aviation, are in the process of being purchased by General Electric (April, page 25).
After a regulatory review program that lasted 11 years, the FAA released its rewrite of pilot certification requirements of FAR Part 61 and the training rules of Parts 141 and 143 (August 1988, page 21). The new rules go into effect August 4, but the FAA is accepting comments until June 3. At first look, the changes appear to be mostly positive for business aviation. In one of the major revisions, the new rules eliminate the requirement for six hours of instrument flight in six months to maintain instrument currency.
Saab Aircraft has signed a memorandum of understanding with Airbus Industrie that could lead to its becoming a risk-sharing partner in the 550-passenger A3XX jetliner. The MOU is only for the concept phase of the proj-ect, during which Saab will assign engineers to the design team for about one year. Saab could build ``selected areas of the main fuselage'' if the project continues.
Everything being tickety-boo at Chez Luigi, it was no longer resistible to fling to Florida for a long-awaited reunion with old friends living hard by the Atlantic in an enclave of Ft. Likkerdale named Lighthouse Point.
In a letter to Texas Governor George Bush and several members of the state legislature, the National Air Transportation Association warned that imposing a planned 10-cents-per-gallon fuel tax and lifting exemptions on sales taxes for aircraft parts and repairs equipment would drive many general aviation service companies to move their facilities to neighboring, ``more tax-friendly states.'' The FBO trade group said the proposed tax changes could cost aviation businesses more than $300 million a year.
April 23, 1998: Pacific routes--By this date, ICAO hopes to replace the existing NorPac and Hawaiian composite route structures, reducing lateral separation from 100 to 50 nm and longitudinal separation from 10 to seven minutes, with four minutes as an ultimate goal. December 31, 1998: Fuel storage tanks--Underground fuel storage tanks installed before December 31, 1988 must be modified or replaced to ensure corrosion, overfill and spill prevention.
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.
