It had been rumored for several months, but everybody said, ``Nah, it'll never happen!'' Well, it did! American Airlines has signed a three-year contract with independent Lone Star Airlines for a code-sharing agreement on three selected routes: Dallas/ Fort Worth-Knoxville, Dallas/Fort Worth-Aspen and Aspen-Denver.
A proposed AD would require operators of about 200 Raytheon 1900Ds to replace the right-side exhaust stack on both P&WC PT6 engines. The FAA says it has received reports of damage to cabin windows and wing skin (with associated fuel seepage) caused by exhaust heat. Replacement time is estimated at 10 hours, and parts are being provided at no cost to operators until June 1997, after which the cost will be $6,452 per aircraft. Comments are due November 20. Contact the FAA for more details. Phone: (316) 946-4407.
The latest version of the FAA transition plan reaffirms the target date of 2010 for completing the transition from land-based navaids to full reliance on GPS. An Intelligence item in our October issue (page 13) incorrectly stated the year as 2110.
Dallas-based Superior Air Parts sold its Turbine Division, a supplier of parts for Allison 250 helicopter engines, to Extex, Incorporated of Mesa, Arizona. The purchase adds Allison 250 Series II parts capabilities to Extex's current service of providing parts for Series IV engines. Officials said Superior will continue to furnish customer support for parts it has supplied. Meanwhile, former president and chief executive of Superior, David Sisson, was named president of AVSCO, an Atlanta-based parts supplier.
Barring an upset of Trumanesque proportions by Bob Dole, the polls and pundits were predicting President Bill Clinton will be reelected by a wide margin this month.
Alliance Aviation Services is now operating out of new facilities at Alliance Airport. The facilities include a 32,000-square-foot storage and maintenance hangar and a 20,000-square-foot executive terminal. Services include catering, courtesy ground transporation, on-site rental cars, computerized flight planning and weather data access, and business meeting amenities. (817) 890-1000.
The Canadian Government has asked the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva to investigate Brazil's PROEX export financing scheme used to finance international sales of Embraer's new EMB-145 regional jet.
An ATC tower is now in operation at Anoka County-Blaine Airport, a busy general aviation facility. The tower's hours of operation are 0700 to 2200 daily in the spring and summer; 0700 to 2100 hours in the fall and winter. Edward McKinley is the tower's manager. (612) 786-9490.
First flight of the certification version of Israviation's ST-50 single-engine turboprop will be delayed because rocket attacks this past summer damaged the firm's facility in Israel's Upper Galilee, according to Dany Kleiman, vice president and chief engineer. Kleiman says the company was shut down nearly six weeks while facility repairs were made. First flight of the composite-constructed aircraft is now scheduled for early 1997 instead of next month (B/CA, July 1995, page 16).
With the September sale of its aerospace hardware products division to Odyssey Partners, Dallas-based Aviall Incorporated has finished unloading all its aviation units, except for the parts distribution and component repair businesses. Odyssey, a New York financial firm, says it intends to merge the former Aviall unit into Tri Star Aerospace, a Tulsa, Oklahoma provider of hardware. Aviall began shedding various aerospace units in 1994, shortly after splitting up with Ryder Service (B/CA, August 1993, page 26).
Transport Canada has published a safety-awareness pamphlet to brief passengers flying on private or charter aircraft without a flight attendant. The six-page brochure briefly describes some things passengers should know and do to enhance their own safety. Among the topics are planning, clothing, safety equipment, loading and dangerous goods. Flightcrew responsibilities also are listed. For copies of the pamphlet, ``A Safety Guide for Aircraft Charter Passengers,'' phone (613) 990-5446 or fax (613) 990-1301.
Fred Towers has taken over as manager of flight operations for this charter and management company. Previously, he was manager of business development for Universal Weather and Aviation.
Imagine a regional airline that offers a corporate jet to haul those victims of over-booking. You do not have to imagine, because Rolim Adolfo Amaro, chairman of Brazilian regional TAM plans to do just that. Comandante Amaro has ordered five Cessna Ultras--the first to be his own personal aircraft, and the other four to be detailed to Transportes Areos Regionais (TAM) to support the company's regional carrier.
A six-month trend of stable sales ground to an end in the third quarter of 1996 when declines in all but one category erased slight gains of the first two quarters. But 1996's new business-turbine aircraft sales remain within striking distance of 1995 levels and may yet shake off the impact of slow summer sales to exceed last year's, according to a nine-month review of business-turbine aircraft sales by the Wichita-based research and consulting firm, Aviation Data Services.
Simulators operated by FlightSafety International and Pan Am International Flight Academy are getting upgrades. A Gulfstream IV simulator operated by FSI in Savannah recently received FAA Level D certification. The accuracy of Level D eliminates the need for any inflight training in most circumstances, says FSI. Meanwhile, the Pan Am training operation in Miami is scheduled to receive FAA Level C certification in early 1997 for a Boeing 737-200 simulator that it acquired recently from Lufthansa Airlines.
Montreal, Quebec, Canada-based Innotech Aviation received certification by Bermuda's Department of Civil Aviation as an approved maintenance facility. The approval covers virtually all corporate jets as well as the Fokker F27 series.
By Robert O. Besco, Ph.D. (captain, American Airlines, retired)
Pilots who make mistakes, commit blunders or cause omissions that lead to accidents or serious incidents will have their performance scrutinized, analyzed and verbalized to great lengths.
Eagle jet is not an airplane. It is a clause in the new American Airlines pilot-union scope clause. The provision--still unratified at B/CA press time--would allow AMR Eagle to operate up to 67 regional jets of up to 75 passengers and 75,000 pounds gross weight. That number could increase based on a formula linked to the American fleet.
An incorrect mathematical conversion resulted in the wrong gross weight being used throughout ``Cost Index Analysis: The Poor Man's FMS'' (September, page C6). Instead of reading 8,607 pounds, the weight should be 41,887 pounds.
There are more than 3,700 authorized GPS non-precision approach procedures around the world, according to Bill D. Kellogg, Jeppesen-Sanderson's program manager for NavData. The vast majority of these approaches are in the United States, with a smattering in Canada, Switzerland and Germany.
A dingy-looking floor is a likely candidate for a custom epoxy-urethane floor coating from Redford Corporation. Whether the coating is used for the installation or resurfacing of hangar floors, the company claims it is wear-resistant, high gloss and chemically resistant to acids, hydraulic fluids, oil and fuel. Price: $1.00 to $1.50 per square foot installed. (Example: One gallon of chemical-resistant urethane is priced at $49.20 and covers 300 square feet.) Redford Corp., 1075 Kingwood Dr., Kingwood, TX 77339. (713) 358-4100.
Theunis Botha has been appointed as an executive director for this overhauler of turbine engines, with worldwide product responsibility for the Pratt&Whitney Canada PW100 engine series.
