The Embraer EMB-145 was originally conceived in early 1989 as a 45-passenger, stretched Brasilia designed to meet the growth needs of the American Eagle carriers in the mid-1990s. 20 AMR Eagle took 50 options on the 50-passenger Saab 2000 high-speed turboprop, and that was ostensibly the end of that competition. Ironically, the 145 has rolled out and is in flight test as a 50-passenger regional jet, and AMR Eagle still has not exercised any options for the Saab 2000. Indeed, competition between the two aircraft may only be beginning.
New from Mid-Continent Instrument Company is its MD 41 GPS Annunciation Control Unit for AlliedSignal KLN 89B or KLN 90B GPS receivers. The unit transfers information sent to the pilot's navigation display between the VOR and an approach-certificated GPS system. One of the first TSO-approved avionics products of its type, the MD 41 is self-contained, replacing the multiple switch and relay wiring normally required for installation of approach-certificated GPS receivers.
Signature Flight Support (Orlando)-Douglas H. Crowther was named area general manager of this FBO's facilities at Washington Dulles and Washington National airports.
Teleflex and GE Aircraft Engines established a new company to repair fan blades and compressor airfoils. The new firm, Airfoil Technologies International, will operate from existing facilities in Mentor, Ohio and Ripley, England. Donald R. Johnson, formerly with GE Engine Services, is president of the new company. David Model, formerly with Teleflex subsidiary Sermatech, is vice president. Meanwhile, Montreal, Quebec, Canada-based Innotech Aviation was selected as an authorized service center for the Williams-Rolls FJ44 business-jet engine.
From the left seat of Cessna's largest business jet, you'll find controls, design conventions and ease- of-use features that will make any Citation pilot feel comfortable. The day we flew N752CX, the second production aircraft, from Wichita on a local area demonstration flight, the temperature was 26C-plus and as humid as the Everglades.
A former DuPont Company executive is the new chairman and chief executive officer of Wilmington, Delaware-based Atlantic Aviation. Ben E. Waide, who once ran DuPont's flight operations, assumed his new role on November 10. Stockton Smith, grandson of Atlantic Aviation founder Henry B. DuPont, resigned from his positions as Atlantic chairman, CEO and board member, saying it was time to pursue other aviation interests. Smith assumed the chairmanship in 1992.
Sky Ox has introduced a line of portable oxygen systems known as the Pilot in Control (PIC) Mini Commander Series. Choose from tanks weighing seven pounds, with a nine-cubic-foot capacity ($431.21), and weighing four and one-half pounds, with a six-cubic-foot capacity ($421.21). Both sizes of aluminum tanks have a new, two-outlet regulator. (A four-outlet regulator still is available.) Aircraft Industries, Inc., Sky Ox Ltd. Div., P.O. Drawer W, 27328 May St., Edwardsburg, MI 49112. (616) 663-8544.
Effective November 1, fees are being charged for certain flights that originate in the United States and fly over Canada. Fees are determined by the following formula: (square root of the MTOW in tons) x (distance in kilometers flown in Canadian airspace) x $0.026142. Fees apply to flights from a U.S. airport to two or more Canadian airports to Alaska and from a U.S. airport via Canadian airspace to Asia or Europe. No fees apply to a flight between U.S. airports that may include passing through Canadian airspace. For details, phone (613) 990-3797.
Germany's Munich Airport recently increased the landing fees for operators of aircraft that do not meet ICAO Chapter 2 (FAR Part 36, Stage 2) noise levels. Operators with Chapter 3 (Stage 3) aircraft pay a basic landing fee, while Chapter 2 operations had been charged 125 percent of this rate. On October 1, the fees on Chapter 2 operations increased to 150 percent of the basic rate. Chapter 2 flights between 2200 and 0600 hours now pay 175 percent of the basic fee.
New online services available from Jeppesen include a program that calculates international navigation charges, plus a joint venture with CompuServe to provide weather-data graphics. The navigation-charge service calculates the respective fees in about one minute after users input such information as their planned route and aircraft weight. Using the CompuServe Jeppesen Forum now allows pilots to retrieve graphics depicting up-to-date significant weather activity and forecasts.
Bellevue, Washington-based M. Shannon&Associates, which has owned an STC since June 1994 to permit single-pilot certification of Citation 500s and 550s, received a new STC that eases training requirements and will, according to Shannon, reduce annual single-pilot training costs by approximately 40 percent. Use of the STC is available from Shannon for under $10,000 per aircraft.
Air Services at Hopkins International Airport recently completed the addition of 45,000 square feet of ramp space. All of the FBO's ramp surface is capable of handling aircraft with the weight bearing of Boeing 727s. Also, customer auto parking now can handle over 100 vehicles. New security fencing surrounds the auto parking lot as well as the airport perimeter. (216) 267-3711.
State-owned Embraer was privatized on December 7, 1994, less than two years after being placed on the privatization list by the federal government. Through a public auction of shares of common and preferred stock, the company became controlled by a stockholders' consortium associated with CIEMB-the Investment Club of Embraer Employees. It controls 52.11 percent of the company's capital. Since privatization, the consortium has invested $320 million in new capital through November.
Bing T. Lantis is this small-aircraft manufacturer's new president and CEO. He succeeds Jacques Esculier, who left the company to accept a position with AlliedSignal Aerospace in Singapore. Jeffrey Dunbar, former vice president of sales, is now COO.
International Aviation has opened a renovated FBO at New Jersey's Teterboro Airport. International Aviation purchased the facility from the former Teterboro Aircraft Services. Areas remodeled include the passenger lounge, two crew lounges, a conference room and showers. The company also added another hangar. Christopher A. Breese is operations manager. (201) 288-1880.
AlliedSignal dropped a plan to coproduce engines in China after the U.S. Commerce Department warned the Morristown, New Jersey firm that a request to export engine technology know-how to China would be denied. Commerce and other U.S. regulators expressed concern about the Chinese government's possible use of the technology for military applications. Despite its deferring to Washington's wishes, the company remains convinced that the government's concerns are misplaced.
General aviation airports finally may have an advocacy group. Supporters of the newly established General Aviation Airport Coalition are looking forward to what they feel will be a better representation of their special interests before government officials and public entities as compared to existing trade organizations' advocacy efforts (See B/CA, September, page 28).
This full-service FBO, under new ownership since July, announced a new management team headed by Allen G. Hoyt as president and Ken Hawk as vice president of FBO services. L.M.
Richard W. Emery and J. Robert Duncan forged this partnership to foster the development of new businesses and services in aviation and related industries. Emery is the former president of KC Aviation; Duncan is current chairman of Duncan Aviation and Alliance Engines.
When a cloud first develops, it consists of droplets that are 10 to 20 microns in diameter. Each droplet forms around a tiny 0.1- to one-micron-diameter aerosol particle or cloud nuclei. The mass of a 100- and 1,000-micron drop is 1,000 to one million times as large as a 10-micron droplet. The critical question is, ``How do 1,000 to one million drop-lets that are 10 microns in diameter get together to form 100- and 1,000-micron drops, respectively?'' There are two ways.
Strong sales of new business aircraft continued through 1995's first ten months, showing an 8.0 percent increase in worldwide deliveries of new turbines over the same period in 1994. The market's year-to-date position is supported by a 20.4 percent jump in U.S. sales of new jets and turboprops-an uplift that more than offset a 17.1 percent drop in sales of new aircraft overseas, and a 13.4 percent global slump in resales.
COMSAT Mobile Communications disbanded its COMSAT Aeronautical Services unit, consolidated the unit's operations into a single marketing group and reduced the number of staff handling aeronautical satellite communications products. However, the Clarksburg, Maryland firm says it remains ``fully committed'' to continuing customer support and to introducing new and enhanced products. An example is the recently announced update of its Aero-C messaging service that makes it ``easier and faster'' to send data, fax and e-mail messages to and from aircraft.
Noise-abatement programs under FAR Part 150 have been proposed for Wisconsin's Kenosha Regional Airport and Georgia's Savannah International Airport. Under Part 150, interested parties can submit comments on the programs to the FAA. The agency is scheduled to approve or disapprove the programs by March 1996. For further information on the proposal for Kenosha, contact the local FAA Airports District Office in Minneapolis. Phone: (612) 725-4222. For more details on the Savannah proposal, contact the Airports District Office in College Park, Georgia.
Things are very different at Embraer today. There is a new president, new officers, and the company now reports to bottom-line-minded shareholders rather than the Brazilian government. With such a dramatic change, however, come new options and new decisions as to the direction the regional aircraft manufacturer will take under its new owners. Ozires Silva, the former air force colonel and founding chief executive of Embraer, recently sat down with B/CA in his So Paulo office and talked about some of those options.
Fresno start-up Air 21 has taken delivery of its first two former USAir F28-4000s and may take up to 14 before all is said and done. The carrier-headed by former Wings West President and Fairchild Aircraft executive Mark Morro-concluded a lease and leasing options agreement with USAir in mid-October. However, it said that due to a mutual non-disclosure agreement between the two companies, ``neither company may disclose the terms of the leasing agreement or how many lease options are involved in the multi-aircraft transaction.''
