Aviation Center at Stuart's Witham Field is planning a January 1997 groundbreaking for permanent FBO facilities. The new construction will include an executive terminal, maintenance operation and hangar storage. The buildings are scheduled to be completed by May 1997. (561) 781-4720.
Jet South, an FBO at Southwest Florida International Airport, recently opened a 24,000-square-foot hangar for aircraft storage and maintenance. (941) 768-3454.
American Eagle plans to spend $12 million renovating its Concourse ``G'' regional hub at Chicago O'Hare, including the installation of 20 new specially designed jetbridges that will mate up with the carrier's turboprop fleet. The first jetbridge will be in place this month.
Delta Connection Comair has pulled in some of its Canadair Regional Jet markets and added service to existing routes as well as some new cities. The carrier, which recently took delivery of its 38th and 39th aircraft, has reduced its Cincinnati destinations from 56 to 47.
By June 1997, possibly in time for the Paris Air Show, the French government hopes to have set the final terms for the anticipated merger of airliner-builder Aerospatiale and Falcon Jet-manufacturer Dassault Aviation. A blueprint for the merger, expected by January, will cover the legal framework as well as the capital and organizational structure of the merged company. The government expects to own two-thirds of the new entity, while the Dassault family might own up to one-third of the company.
International Aviation Services, Limited is gearing up to offer a multi-phase modification program to bring Boeing 727s into compliance with FAR Part 36, Stage 3 noise levels, as well as to update aircraft performance and systems.
Effective October 10, the FAA modified the Dallas/Fort Worth Class B Airspace by raising the upper limit from 10,000 feet msl to 11,000 feet msl, except in the reconfigured northern and southern sections. In addition, the dimensions of several DFW Class B sub-areas have been redefined.
Lord Corporation says it expects to receive FAA certification this month of an active noise-canceling system for the cabins of DC-9s/MD-80s. The company says its NVX Active System reduces interior noise ``as much as 70 percent.'' The system uses an array of actuators and microphones behind the bulkhead trim to achieve this goal.
Table: JET-A PER GALLON PRICES; (Fillup Flyer Fuel Finder-September 1996) (This table is not available electronically. Please see the November, 1996 issue.) We've read, and written about, the many times when so-called back-up ATC systems failed to do their job (B/CA, ``ATC on the Blink,'' January, page 52, for instance). But we don't often note the times things go exactly right. Here is a recent example of when ATC facilities remained on the air when everything for thousands of miles was without electricity.
New-start Corporate Express of Nashville hopes to fill the void left by American Eagle carrier Flagship in two Nashville markets--Knoxville and Tri-Cities, Tennessee. The carrier is leasing six British Aerospace Jetstream 32s from BAe Asset Management-Turboprops, the first of which was delivered in October, with the remaining five scheduled for delivery by year-end, in time for a January 1997 start date.
Thirteen turned out to be the lucky number for Bombardier as Sunday, October 13 marked the maiden voyage of the company's Global Express. The event officially launched the new business jet's flight-test program scheduled to culminate with Canadian and U.S. certification in the second quarter of 1998. Three more aircraft are slated to join a 2,000-hour flight-test project. The Global Express and the new Gulfstream V are scheduled to be on static display at the NBAA convention later this month in Orlando.
An October 16 airworthiness directive affecting some 24,320 Hartzell propellers was long in coming. As far back as mid 1992, the NTSB urged the FAA to require inspections of Hartzell hubs (B/CA, October 1992, page 28), but it wasn't until 1993-after a Mitsubishi MU-2 crash killed South Dakota's governor and seven others-that the FAA took action. The agency issued an emergency AD, but it called for hub inspections of MU-2 props only (B/CA, June 1993, page 28).
The recent consolidation of Rockwell's Collins commercial and military divisions into the Collins Avionics and Communications Division resulted in a change of leadership at Collins Commercial Avionics (CCA), the unit that supplies the business aviation market. John Girotto, who had been president of CCA, was appointed to lead a new Rockwell unit. Clay Jones, vice president of the Collins Air Transport Division, was named acting president of CCA.
Passengers who desire a choice when it comes to onboard entertainment will like what the Audiofile Audio On Demand System from Pacific Systems has to offer. Each passenger can choose from up to 200 digitally sorted music albums or audio books, and various media can be run simultaneously to accommodate all of the listeners. The 1/2 ATR short, 13-pound Audio-file takes the place of an extensive audio library and media storage system. A total of 144 hours of audio can be stored on a four-gigabyte hard disk.
Did you ever look at the display your FMS was generating on the EFIS or on a CDU page and ask: ``What's it doing now?'' If so, you're in the majority. Pilots, system designers, simulator instructors and accident investigators all tell me that most pilots are confused from time to time by the nuances of newer electronics, and many pilots haven't been able to take command of modern glass cockpits in they way they mastered earlier cockpit displays and avionics systems. Too often, there is a potentially lethal disconnect between pilots and their airplanes.
The Twenty Group, an organization comprised of some 20 independent and non-competitive FBOs that share information and ideas to increase their respective businesses, recently formed another marketing effort known as the Priority One Group.
The crash of American Airlines Flight 965 while on approach to Alfonso Bonilla Aragon International Airport (SKCL) in Cali, Colombia has generated calls from the safety boards of Colombia and the United States for reconsideration of the way modern flight management hardware and software store and display database information, as well as the way flightcrews are trained to use these systems.
Aircraft Windows Repairs has opened a facility in North Port, Florida. The facility management team is Herb Brock, Ryan Cupery, Robert Cupery, John Levy and Ray Gregory. In addition to repair of cockpit and cabin windows, the Torrance, California-based company also repairs navigation-light lenses. The firm also received FAA approval of a hardcoating treatment for nav- and landing-light lenses.
Collins Commercial Avionics and France's Dassault Electronique have, for the time being, parted company over joint development of a ground collision avoidance system (GCAS). The split was due to technical reasons, according to Collins, which has shelved the project. In 1995, the two companies announced a plan to jointly develop a GCAS to be based on Collins TCAS technology (B/CA, August 1995, page 20). Collins is the only one of the ``Big Three'' U.S. avionics makers that doesn't offer a ground collision avoidance system.
The maximum range of business airplanes historically has been limited by fuel, and in some cases by oil, oxygen or other mechanical considerations. New business aircraft are now available with such extreme ranges that the human element becomes a significant factor. Just how do you prepare for and conduct a 12-hour flight that will likely require an 18- to 24-hour workday and cross as many as 12 or more time zones?
Now on the selling block is Rolls-Royce Industries Canada's Bristol Aerospace unit, a Winnipeg, Manitoba-based supplier of engine parts, maintenance for transport aircraft and helicopters, and military gear. ``Over a period of time, Bristol Aerospace's products have gradually moved away from the business areas that Rolls-Royce sees as central to its operation in the next century,'' said Stan Todd, president of Rolls-Royce Canada. Among its diverse line of products is a wire-strike protection system for helicopters.
Among positive elements for general aviation in the 1996 FAA Reauthorization Act is an extension of the Airport Improvement Program, with special emphasis on GA facilities. Also, the new law creates a national commission to review long-term FAA funding options, thus delaying the onus of new GA user charges. On the negative side, the aviation excise tax, temporarily renewed in August, will lapse again on December 31.
A recent crew resource management (CRM) workshop in Charlotte, North Carolina emphasized that CRM covers a wide range of skills. The broad-based event that attracted representatives from the industry, government and the military recognized there are those who are into the next generation of CRM (called advanced CRM or ACRM) and others who are still struggling with the basics.
