Photograph: EJA Chairman Richard Santulli (left) and NetJets Europe CEO Hannes Ziegler NETJETS LAUNCHES EUROPEAN OPERATION Executive Jet Aviation in late June launched NetJets Europe, a fractional ownership program that mirrors the company's NetJets program in the United States. Three Citation S/IIs currently are operating from NetJets Europe's Lisbon, Portugal base, and the company has booked flights through the end of the summer.
Honeywell's Primus 1000 system for the EMB-145 features a five-tube configuration with eight-by-seven-inch displays. The glare- shield module houses the flight-guidance system mode control in the center, flanked by left- and right-side display controllers. In addition, separate caution and warning light annunciators are mounted outboard of the avionics controls, and they command the flightcrew's attention when needed.
The Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA) in June denied the $28 million breach-of-contract appeal against the U.S. Air Force by TPI International Airways. TPI immediately filed for reconsideration of the decision.
A July ruling by a federal appeals court that Honeywell infringed on a Litton Industries patent for ring laser gyro inertial navigation systems (INS) partly reinstates a 1993 jury verdict against Honeywell. That verdict, which called for Honeywell to pay $1.2 billion in damages, was overturned by a judge in January 1995.
In a move to concentrate its services solely on aircraft maintenance, refurbs and completions, Dallas-based K-C Aviation plans to sell its Transportation Services and Jet Professionals units to Jet Aviation. Transportation Services is K-C's charter and management unit operating out of Montvale, New Jersey. Jet Professionals provides consulting and personnel services from its main office in Shelton, Connecticut. The sale would increase Jet Aviation's management fleet to 215 aircraft worldwide.
With about a month to go before the curtain rises on England's Farnborough Air Show, indications point to a record-breaking turnout by exhibitors and spectators. According to the Society of British Aerospace Companies (SBAC), the sponsor of the biennial event, the number of exhibitors is expected to surpass the 667 companies that exhibited in 1994. More than 150 aircraft are scheduled to participate in static and flying demonstrations. And SBAC anticipates that up to 150,000 attendees from 30 nations will attend the show.
Certain FAR Part 139 certification requirements would be applicable to airports served by scheduled aircraft with 10 to 30 passenger seats, under another provision of the draft FAA reauthorization bill being reviewed in the House. Currently, Part 139 applies only to airports served by airliners with more than 30 passenger seats. Some organizations, like the National Air Transportation Association, see the proposed requirements as an operators' cost burden that does not provide any commensurate payback in increased safety.
Officials of ATR and French aviation agencies are furious over the NTSB's final report on the 1994 inflight accident involving icing and loss of control of an ATR-72. The NTSB blamed the crash on ATR's failure to give pilots information about how freezing precipitation affects control of the aircraft. The NTSB also took the French aviation directorate to task for ``inadequate oversight'' of ATR and the failure to provide the FAA with data about previous ATR incidents.
Photograph: Alliance Engines President Jim Spinder (center) with Al Hilde (left) and Jeff Brown in the company's new TFE731 test cell. Hilde and Brown, co-owners of a Jackson, Wyoming FBO, joined in the recent management buyout of Alliance Engines. ALLIANCE ENGINES--UNDER NEW OWNERSHIP After some turbulence early on, Alliance Engines appears to be on stable ground, and its new owners claim the powerplant repair and overhaul company should be in the black by the end of the summer.
The Solargizer battery maintenance system gets rid of crystallized sulfates (sulfation) on lead-acid battery plates. The result is longer battery life and performance for aircraft and ground-support equipment. A solar panel absorbs sunlight and converts it to electricity to power the system. Wires attach to the positive and negative battery terminals, and a constant electronic pulse de-sulfates the battery's lead plates and sends the sulfates back to the battery acid. Solargizer comes in 12-, 24- and 36-volt models with solar panels. Kit price: $99.95 to $239.95.
Once you have written an operations manual, how do you ensure that it will continue to reflect current company or industry operating practices as well as applicable regulations? Furthermore, how do you guarantee that all flight-department personnel and company-aircraft passengers are informed of new or amended procedures? The first step in keeping your manual current is to make sure that the original version includes only essential, changeable information.
In March 1997, the Zimex Business Aviation Center is scheduled to open at Zurich International Airport. Groundbreaking ceremonies for the FBO's operations building and hangar were held on May 30. In addition to housing the business aircraft maintenance operations of Limess Aviation, the new facility also will contain the offices of Zurich-based Zimex Aviation Group, which offers charter, management and other business aircraft services. A customs clearance office also will be located there.
Atlantic City International Airport will acquire another major maintenance operation in early 1997 when Raytheon Aircraft Services is slated to open a facility there. Meanwhile, Midlantic Jet Aviation is set to complete the construction of its repair station at ACY in the fall (B/CA, May, page 18). When Midlantic-a current provider of transient aircraft fueling and tiedown services at the airport-finishes construction, the company will close its Millville, New Jersey maintenance facility.
More than a dentist was needed to figure out that the terms ``upper'' and ``lower'' in reference to the surface of a wing were inadvertently switched in a series of ADs published earlier this year. The ADs require pilots of turboprop airliners to perform certain visual inspections to detect ice in flight. Corrections to these ADs were recently published to advise operators that in the case of some aircraft, the wording should have referred to ``upper'' surface of the wing and, in the case of other aircraft, the wording should have been ``lower'' surface.
Over the next 18 months, AlliedSignal will consolidate its Commercial Avionics Systems manufacturing operations into new and existing facilities in the Kansas City area. Having acquired other avionics companies over the last 13 years, the division has production plants in Redmond, California; in Olathe and Lawrence, Kansas; in Fort Lauderdale, Florida; in Prescott, Arizona; and in Singapore. Formerly, these locales were home for Bendix Corporation, King Radio and Sundstrand Data Control products.
An advertising and public relations agency is expected to be selected soon to develop a national campaign for GA Team 2000, a general aviation industry effort to attract at least 100,000 new student pilots annually, about twice the current number. A Request for Proposals from agencies was issued in late May, and the campaign is scheduled to get under way in January 1997 (B/CA, May, page 11). At press time, some 45 companies, associations and other organizations had signed up as founding members of GA Team 2000 by making an initial financial contribution to the program.
The RAA officially launched its new image-enhancing public relations campaign at its recent Annual Spring meeting in Orlando. Tagged ``Plane Sense,'' the campaign was developed by the Washington, D.C. PR firm of Ogilvy, Adams&Rinehart. It is targeted at travel agencies, airline employees and the traveling public.
Fairchild Aircraft is teasing the marketplace with a full stand-up cabin mock-up of its 19-passenger Metro--a project the company abandoned a number of years ago. Company Chairman Carl Albert, who long pooh-poohed the stand-up cabin, now has changed his mind.
FlightSafety International recently added a full-size corporate aircraft cabin mockup to its Atlanta-based flight attendant training program established in 1995. The mockup, which replicates a large-cabin business aircraft, provides a setting for demonstrating the correct procedures in situations ranging from a dark and smoke-filled cabin to emergency-exit operation and (simulated) cabin depressurization. Four removable emergency exits correspond to those in the Canadair Challenger, Falcon 50, Hawker Jet and Gulfstream.
The big Globalstream long-range business jet was three hours out of LAX on its way to Singapore when the satcom began ringing off the hook. The CEO took the call, keying holovid mode, and the holographic projector instantly rendered the marketing director's visage in crisp 3-D. ``I've got the updates on those LunarTech sales projections, chief,'' the talking head said as it floated eerily in the ether. ``The ones based on their new mining claims in the Sea of Tranquillity? I think you'll find them very interesting reading. . . .''
Maverick Airways, with aspirations of becomimg the new Rocky Mountain Airways with a fleet of de Havilland Dash 7s, has re-applied to the DOT for an operating certificate. The company, which consists of a number of former Rocky Mountain employees, initially applied last September, but the DOT dismissed that application at the request of the airline due to a restructuring of its financing plan.
The Joint Aviation Authorities has postponed a decision to require European-registered commercial business jets to meet ETOPS (extended overwater operations). Under the proposal, commercially operated business jets with more than 19 seats would be limited to a 60-minute, one-engine-inoperative range of an airport without ETOPS approval, while aircraft with 19 or fewer seats would have a 120-minute OEI limit. There is no ETOPS requirement for FAR Parts 91 and 135, nor is the FAA considering one.
The proud name of Garrett-first as an engine manufacturer, then later as a factory-level engine maintenance facility-and its Phoenix headquarters will be retained under its new owner, UNC Incorporated. After the acquisition process was finalized in May, UNC established the Aircraft and Engine Services Division to embody both Garrett Aviation Services and Airwork in Millville, New Jersey. Dave Clemons, formerly president and CEO of Garrett, heads up the new division.
