When the FAA adopted a new regulation governing aircraft seat construction and testing in 1988, few in the industry foresaw major problems with the rule.
Almost from the moment Orville and Wilbur first fired up the hand-built piston engine mounted on the lower wing of their Flyer biplane, pilots and mechanics have longed to know what was going on inside their aircraft's powerplants and systems.
Increasingly, internationally recognized standards for the manufacture and preparation of products for use in maintaining and servicing aircraft has received serious consideration in the aviation industry. The ISO 9000 quality standards have recently received considerable attention in the air-transportation community, and the several ISO standards-9001, 9002 and 9003-often have been compared to U.S. FARs and standards the JAA is developing in Europe.
The Professional Aviation Maintenance Association (PAMA) relocated its headquarters to Washington, D.C. on June 1, and appointed a full-time executive director to oversee PAMA activities.
The year was 1964. Remember that one? The young Beatles, Tonkin Gulf, ``Gilligan's Island,'' the New York World's Fair and the first Ford Mustang. . . . The place was Denver, Mile High City, Stapleton Airport, home to United Airlines' flight training center, a.k.a. ``DENTK,'' its company mail address. The occasion was a training flight for landing practice in a Douglas DC-7.
Socata, the subsidiary of Aerospatiale that produces single-engine aircraft, recently acquired Mooney's 30-percent interest in the TBM-700 single-engine turboprop. The company dissolved TBM S.A., the joint-venture holding company, and TBM N.A. in North America. Aerospatiale General Aviation in Grand Prairie, Texas will now provide TBM-700 support and marketing. Mooney helped launch the TBM-700 in 1987 by providing technological and marketing support.
Jim was making the single-pilot trip that was traditionally his corporation's final flight each week. He had flown the company turboprop into a midwestern airport to pick up the 55-year-old sales manager after that executive had finished dinner Friday evening with a major client. Now Jim and his passenger were heading back to base on the East Coast. The home airport was IMC, but no significant weather was forecast en route.
June 27 is the deadline for comments to the FAA on its far-reaching proposal to upgrade FAR Part 135 regional airline rules (B/CA, May, page 11). Under the provisions of the proposal, scheduled carriers using aircraft with 10 to 30 passenger seats would have to meet Part 121, the standards that now apply to scheduled operations in aircraft with more than 30 passenger seats. For further information, contact the FAA's Alberta Brown at (202) 267-8248.
Loral Corporation and the FAA have agreed on a contract that will allow the New York-based company to provide future workstations for air traffic controllers. The work-station project came to a virtual standstill last year when it was part of the long-troubled, and now largely-defunct, Advanced Automation System being developed by IBM's Federal Systems Company (B/CA, February 1994, page 28). The new workstations will be called the Display System Replacement (DSR).
In an effort to maintain closer contact with Learjet customers, the Learjet Advisory Panel has established an electronic bulletin board system (BBS). Panel members are representatives from manufacturers and FlightSafety International, operators and others. To access the system, users need a 386 or higher PC, a modem (set to N-8-1) and a communications program. After registering with the system's main menu at (915) 949-5517, users also will be given access to other areas in the system, including bulletins, libraries, message areas and e-mail.
After a five-month study, a nine-member team of FAA engineers and airworthiness inspectors and experts from other government agencies discovered no design flaws in the flight-control system of Boeing 737s. The study of the aircraft was undertaken since, to date, the NTSB has been unable to determine the cause of the 1991 crash of a United Airlines 737 at Colorado Springs, Colorado and a USAir 737 near Pittsburgh in September 1994. The two crashes killed 157 people.
Fees were increased for certain certification services the FAA performs outside the United States. The agency says the new schedule is the first update of fees since 1982, although the FAA's costs for performing these services has escalated significantly in the last 12 years. Fee increases apply to the administering of written tests, proficiency checks, and similar services to pilots and mechanics. For more information, contact the FAA at (202) 267-3301.
Netherlands-based Fokker Aircraft has received certification from the United Kingdom's Civil Aviation Authority for its F70 twin-jet. The aircraft received Dutch and U.S. certification in September 1994, and the first production unit, a 48-seat corporate shuttle, was delivered to Ford Motor Company in October. Fokker hopes to receive certification for autoland capability later this year (B/CA, December 1994, page 28). Meanwhile, Fokker is implementing a major restructuring plan aimed at returning the company to financial stability.
Ecuadorian officials now have the assistance of the U.S. NTSB in their investigation of a May 4 Gulfstream G-II accident near Quito, Ecuador. The Safety Board sent an investigator to Ecuador and offered additional assistance, as needed. All seven persons aboard, including top executives from oil firms in Argentina and Chile, were killed when the aircraft hit mountains at 13,000 feet msl shortly after midnight. Authorities have ruled out poor weather as a cause. The G-II (S/N 83) was leased to American Jet S.A. of Buenos Aires.
Piper Aircraft appointed AMR Combs as its new distributor for Mexico. The Combs facility is located at the Servicios Aereos del Centro SA (SACSA) FBO on Mexico City's Toluca Airport. The Honeywell/Pelorus local area DGPS has been selected for installation at the Armidale Regional Airport in New South Wales, Australia. Certification is expected in the second quarter of 1996.
The Canadair Global Express likely will be assembled at de Havilland's facility in Downsview, Ontario, Canada because Canadair's Montreal facility is chock-a-block with Canadair Regional Jets (CRJs) and Challengers. Five CRJs, two Challengers and one CL-415 water bomber roll out of the Montreal plant each month, and Canadair eventually will add its new 70-passenger regional jet to the mix. De Havilland will produce the tail section of the Global Express.
FAA issued a rule to remedy a discrepancy between a 1974 AD on ``No Smoking'' placards and also recently amended FAR Part 25 regarding that signage. The agency revised the AD to clarify that operators need only comply with either the AD or Part 25, not both. Initially, the AD required worded placards to be mounted on lavatory doors on all transport-category airplanes, while Part 25 requires placards in words or symbology to be mounted on or near the door.
FAA launched a plan to speed up the application of technology and procedures to reduce runway incursions. The airport-safety plan was issued following a fatal runway incursion accident at St. Louis' Lambert International Airport (B/CA, January, page 12) and the NTSB's harsh criticism of the FAA's delay in commissioning technologies and adopting policies to prevent such incidents (B/CA, April, page 16). The number of runway incursions in 1994 increased to 204 from 186 in 1993, reversing a downward trend that began in 1991.
The FAA's proposed ``Commuter Safety Rule'' will add about $1 million to the price of a 19-passenger airplane. The cost of proximity floor lighting alone will cost $50,000 per airplane. That is what some regional airlines are being told by their aircraft suppliers. If that is true, it could challenge the economic viability of the 19-passenger airplane and mean the loss of air service to many small communities that simply cannot support larger equipment.
Bombardier and AMR Combs will offer shared ownership of Learjet 31As, 60s and Canadair Challengers via a new, Dallas-based firm: Business JetSolutions. By October, 16 aircraft are set to be in the program. Ownership is being sold in 100-hour blocks (one-eighth shares). Rob Gillespie is president of Business JetSolutions, while AMR Combs' Dale Niederhauser is president of JetSolutions LLC, the operations arm of the program. Dennis Keith, previously director of flight ops for Frito-Lay, was tapped to head the sales and marketing effort.
Carl W. Hirschmann, founder of Jet Aviation, and its chairman and president until 1990, died on April 28. He was 74. Since Jet Aviation was founded in Switzerland in 1967, it has become one of the largest business aviation full-service companies, employing more than 1,700 people in 25 facilities worldwide and operating a fleet of more than 130 corporate aircraft. Jet Aviation has functioned under the leadership of Hirshmann's son Thomas since 1990.
As part of Israel Aircraft Industries' ongoing process to privatize several of its units, including the business jet line, the company disclosed it is looking for additional risk-sharing partners. IAI says this search for partners is being ``conducted in parallel'' with development of the Galaxy and the Astra SPX programs. Despite reports to the contrary, IAI says the search for a partner ``is not a prerequisite to the programs and by no means should it affect the original development and production schedules.'' IAI ``is committed'' to the programs.
Guidelines for safe operation of portable electronic devices (PEDs) are expected to be issued in August, and will discuss results of tests done under the auspices of a Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics committee. Six airliners and a Gulfstream IV were used to determine what effect PEDs might have on avionics. John Sheehan, committee chairman and vice president of Phaneuf Associates, a Washington, D.C.-based consulting firm, said research conducted to date has produced ``no smoking guns'' indicating serious problems.
International business aircraft operators are reminded that January 1, 1998 is the deadline for upgrading VHF communication and navigation receivers to meet improved FM immunity performance standards. The standards, recommended by ICAO in its Annex 10 ``Aeronautical Telecommunications,'' took effect January 1 for newly manufactured VHF radios. But operators will want to determine if currently installed radios need to be modified to meet the 1998 deadline.
Canadian manufacturer Bombardier selected the new P&WC PW150 to power its proposed 70-passenger, de Havilland Dash 8-400 regional airliner. The PW150, a derivative of the PW100 turboprop family, is scheduled for certification in mid 1998, but at press time, Bombardier had not yet made a go decision for the aircraft. The Dash 8-400 has been in on-and-off development since the mid 1980s and had an original launch date of late 1989 (B/CA, May 1989, page 99).
