Aero International (Regional), the newly established joint venture between British Aerospace, Aerospatiale of France and Alenia of Italy, received FAA certification for the ATR 42-500, the company's newest member of its 46- to 50-passenger regional airliner family. The -500, which received British, French and Italian certification in July 1995, features two 2,400-shp P&WC PW127E engines turning six-blade, all-composite propellers. The first U.S. customer for the -500 is Continental Express.
If the market for 19-passenger regional turboprops is drying up, somebody forgot to tell Raytheon Aircraft or Mike Scheidt, its vice president of airline sales.
Anyone who has visited the Smithsonian Institution's National Air&Space Museum (NASM) on the Mall in Washington, D.C. has undoubtedly been awed by the array of historic aircraft on display at the capital's most popular attraction. However, if you recently wandered through those hallowed halls, viewing treasures ranging from the Wright Flyer to the Apollo 11 command module Columbia, you probably wondered where all the business aircraft are.
Later this summer, a Lockheed L-1011 modified as a flying hospital is scheduled to take off on humanitarian medical relief missions in developing nations and disaster-stricken areas.
Los Angeles City Council is expected to approve a measure that will set Van Nuys Airport's departure curfew to begin at 2200 hours, rather than the current 2300. The measure has been supported by the aviation community as well as surrounding homeowners and other members of the local community. The current curfew prohibits departures, except for emergencies, between 2300 and 0700 hours by any aircraft that generates more than 74 dB on departure.
An FAA-approved means for using and modifying certain electronic checklists is described in new advisory circular, AC 120-64. The criteria are intended for FAR Part 121 and 135 operators, but the FAA says Part 91 operators also can use the document. The information is designed for electronic checklist systems that can be modified by the operator. The circular does not apply to hand-held devices or systems temporarily installed in the cockpit. Copies of AC 120-64 are available from the DOT, M-45.3, Washington, DC 20590.
Atlanta-based members of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) sponsored a two-day conference in May to prepare for ``the great unknown,'' as some controllers call the impending flood of aircraft expected for the Summer Olympic Games. The pep-rally-type event was held in cooperation with the Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games and a number of local aviation businesses to share operational tips and generate a spirit of teamwork among the various parties involved.
Honeywell, together with Pelorus Navigation Systems of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, still hopes to receive FAA Special Category I certification of the firms' SLS-2000 differential GPS satellite landing system by year-end. Initial installation of the SLS-2000, originally scheduled to receive certification in January (B/CA, April 1995, page 24), is at Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport.
At press time, K-C Aviation was negotiating with Zurich-based Jet Aviation to purchase the Dallas company's Aviation Transportation Services and Jet Professionals, Incorporated. K-C Aviation Transportation Services of Montvale, New Jersey provides charter and aircraft management services. JPI, with offices in Shelton, Connecticut, supplies flight-department personnel. Jet Aviation, with U.S. headquarters in West Palm Beach, Florida, manages a fleet of 130 aircraft and operates 25 bases worldwide.
Aviation Research Group/U.S. (ARG/US), the Cincinnati-based firm that specializes in business aircraft operating data, has updated the format of its ``Comparative Performance Report.'' The report is designed to give operators a benchmarking tool that is aircraft-serial-number specific.
FAA released its Challenge 2000 project, and some voices in the industry-such as the National Air Transportation Association-are alarmed about some of its recom-mendations. NATA was especially concerned about the project's focus on the expedited rulemaking process. The FAA cited the ``one-level-of-safety'' Commuter Rule as an example of what the future might hold. If these are ``the FAA plans . . . we should be alarmed,'' said NATA. NATA believes the Commuter Rule was a ``politically motivated'' effort, ignoring industry concerns.
The National Air&Space Museum in Washington, D.C. plans to open a yearlong exhibit on business aviation beginning in June 1998. The centerpiece of the display will be the first Cessna Citation 500 (N501CC). The exhibit also will feature a separate display of the Citation's instrument panel and a cutaway of the aircraft's P&WC JT15D engine. An AlliedSignal TFE731 engine also will be displayed. The NBAA's Business Aviation Special Interest Council raised the $125,000 needed to finance the exhibit.
On January 8, a major winter storm formed over the southern tier of the United States, fed by moisture-rich Gulf air that collided with a frigid Canadian air mass. Those two elements linked in a graceful promenade that waltzed through the Gulf states and up the Atlantic seaboard, laying a carpet of snow on the dance floor up to four feet thick. It earned the name ``Blizzard of `96,'' and 50 years from now, Generation Xers will tell their grandchildren stories of the ordeal.
Just as the Flight Safety Foundation convened this year's Corporate Aviation Safety Seminar in Orlando, FAA planners were putting the finishing touches on their strategy to shift all aviation users from the current mix of ground-based navigation systems to a navigation environment based solely on global navigation satellite systems (GNSS).
FAA plans to bump the upper limit of the Dallas-Fort Worth Class B Airspace from 10,000 feet msl to 11,000 feet msl. This and other changes to the airspace were described in a recent notice of proposed rulemaking, and are separate from major airspace revisions for the DFW area that are scheduled to take effect on October 10. Those significant changes, designed to increase traffic capacity by 75 percent, will be handled by two new control towers, six new vortacs, four new ASR-9 airport surveillance radars and 19 new communication facilities.
This year's Berlin Air Show (ILA `96) at Schunefeld Airport, May 13-19, was the largest in the event's 87-year history. According to the show's sponsors, 578 companies from 30 countries exhibited (compared to 422 exhibitors from 30 countries in 1994); trade show visitors numbered 65,000 (compared to 24,300 in 1994); and the 216,500 total registrants was a gain of more than 50 percent from 1994. Just over 260 aircraft took part in the static and flight displays, and more than 4,000 persons attended the show's 59 seminars and conferences.
Unattended, automatic operation of unicom stations would be permitted under a proposal by the Federal Communications Commission, but restrictions would apply. Specifically, unicoms in automatic mode must transmit only in response to a pilot briefly keying the microphone and must transmit only when the frequency has been silent for at least three seconds. Also, only one unicom station will be permitted to operate in automatic mode at any airport. Contact the FCC's Roger Noel for details at (202) 418-0680.
The other shoe has fallen. The FAA is giving up its struggle to work out the bugs in using Mode S transponders for reducing separation, providing datalink and for supporting ``free flight.'' Instead, the agency has proposed rescinding the current requirement for Mode S in commercial operations, except for aircraft required to have TCAS II. Four years ago, the first shoe fell when the FAA yanked a rule calling for transponders installed in all transport aircraft after a certain date to be Mode-S capable (B/CA, July 1992, page 17).
International Society of Aviation Maintenance Professionals recently was established as a nonprofit organization whose aim is setting and maintaining ``high ethical and performance standards that will help individual maintenance technicians be recognized as professional.'' Annual membership dues are $50, and members in good standing will have to comply with specific performance and continuing education standards. For more information, contact the group's president, Christine A. Leonard, in West Chester, Pennsylvania. Phone: (610) 399-9034; fax: (610) 399-9035.
Orlando-based Signature Flight Support, already one of the largest U.S.-based FBO chains, reportedly signed an agreement in April to acquire all four of International Aviation's FBOs. International operates FBOs in Santa Fe, New Mexico; Teterboro; West Palm Beach, Florida and White Plains, New York. The planned acquisition is the first since Richard Dodson was named president of Signature in 1995 in the midst of the company's off-again, on-again ramp fee program (B/CA, May 1995, page 20).
A new advisory circular provides general guidance and specific checklists for obtaining FAA approval of the low-altitude wind-shear training programs required by FAR Part 121 and Part 135 operators. The 10-page AC 120-50A is available free of charge from the DOT, Distribution, M-483.1, Washington, DC 20590. The circular also reminds operators that they can purchase a two-volume wind-shear training aid publication from the National Technical Information Service in Springfield, Virginia. Phone: (703) 487-4650.
Requiring background checks for air-carrier pilot applicants is the newest item to be added to the NTSB's ``Most Wanted'' list-a compilation of what the Safety Board believes are the most critical transportation safety concerns that need resolving. The NTSB also deleted commuter aircraft safety from the list because of implemented improvements. Therefore, of the current list of 18 items, aviation issues account for five.
Part of the FAA's ongoing evaluation of an MIT-developed datalink service was the recent flight demonstration of a cockpit display traffic indicator (CDTI). Position information on traffic out to a range of 10 miles was generated by a ``linking'' of position data from GPS satellites with Mode-S-equipped aircraft and displayed automatically on a Ryan traffic and collision alert device (TCAD). In earlier evaluations, an ARNAV unit displayed traffic within 5 nm (B/CA, October 1995, page 39).
If you're used to ignoring the goings-on in Washington, you may want to make an exception and get up to speed, because the current situation is perilous. Every B/CA reader would be significantly affected by one or more legislative and/or regulatory proposal now on the table in Washington. Would a $100,000 annual fee on each corporate jet be the last straw that pushed your employer to sell the company aircraft? Such fees are contemplated in both pending Senate legislation and in an internal FAA study.
President Clinton's Earth Day call for new rules to address alleged aircraft noise problems over the Grand Canyon National Park and other national parks is not justified, says the United States Air Tour Association (USATA). Officials of the Alexandria, Virginia-based USATA cite existing rules that already regulate national park overflights, and they quote from the National Park Service's own study that shows that 92 percent of all visitors to the Grand Canyon report that overflight noise is not a problem.
