Automation and speed will ostensibly enhance the FAA's regulatory compliance inspection activities via a new software program called the Safety Performance Analysis System (SPAS). The agency says SPAS, which has been developed by the FAA and several outside contractors, is designed to allow inspectors to acquire and analyze critical safety data more thoroughly and in a few hours compared to the present several days.
Stockholders of AirTran Corporation ratified a special dividend of 100 percent of the stock of subsidiary Airways Corporation, thereby spinning off the new jet subsidiary to themselves. The action satisfied the pilots and management of senior partner Northwest, who have a scope clause in their pilot contract that prohibits Northwest affiliates from operating aircraft of more than 69 passenger seats. Northwest, which owns an approximate 30-percent stake in AirTran, was exempted from the dividend.
AlliedSignal Engines' TFE731-40, one of a family of new-generation business jet turbofans, recently received FAA certification. The 4,250-pounds-thrust -40 will power the new Dassault Falcon 50EX and Israel Aircraft Industries' Astra SPX. Other members of this latest TFE731 series include the -60, selected to power the Falcon 900EX and certificated in December 1994, and the -20, slated to power the Learjet 45 and scheduled for certification in December. The -40 will carry a 2,000-hour, five-year non-prorated warranty, according to AlliedSignal.
Plagued by continuing losses, TWA's wholly owned Trans World Express subsidiary will shut down its New York Kennedy feed operation on November 6. TWExpress Trans States Airlines, TWA's St. Louis-based affiliate, will fill the service void beginning November 7. A company spokesman said a restructuring and route-paring last September failed to stem the flow of red ink. The regional's board of directors recently reviewed the operations and ``determined it could not maintain profitability,'' he added.
Delta Airlines has announced another major route realignment and, as anticipated, Atlanta partner Atlantic Southeast (ASA) will be a primary beneficiary. The shift involves the elimination of five short-haul Atlanta markets in favor of additional long-haul operations. Delta believes the move will improve system operating results by $65 million to $85 million.
Collins Commercial Avionics recently has been drawing a lot of attention from business aircraft operators. Some of the most innovative and promising new avionics technology in years is being developed in the firm's labs. It's called Pro Line 21.
The level of noise at U.S. airports and surrounding areas continues to decline as airlines and corporate operators replace older, nosier airplanes, equip them with hush kits or reengine them. During 1994, according to the DOT, the proportion of FAR Part 36, Stage 3 aircraft used by U.S. airlines increased from 62.4 percent of the fleet to 66.3 percent. The corporate fleet is doing even better. The NBAA reports that 74 percent of its 5,500-member aircraft comply with Stage 3. The entire airline fleet must meet Stage 3 by December 31, 1999.
FAA awarded a $1.1-million contract to Booze-Allen&Hamilton in connection with the agency's Challenge 2000 project, a comprehensive review of the FAA's regulatory procedures (B/CA, August, page 15). The well-known management consulting firm will help the agency determine what it will need to meet the challenge of regulating the industry as it enters the 21st century. The company is scheduled to complete its part of the review by the end of the year. Spring 1996 is the target date for completion of the entire Challenge 2000 project.
A proposed FAA rule would revise service difficulty reporting requirements for FAR Part 135 and 121 operators with the aim of improving the quality and dissemination of the data. The action was prompted by an internal review of the effectiveness of the reporting and by the air-carrier industry's concern over the quality of the information, said the FAA. Comments on the proposal are due November 13. For more details, contact the FAA at (202) 267-3797.
A Cinnaminson, New Jersey company has a novel approach to ``checking out'' FAR Part 135 air-taxi firms for potential charter customers-particularly corporate flight departments. Instead of waiting to be asked by a potential customer to perform a safety audit on XYZ Air Taxi Company and pay a single fee for a one-time evaluation by a consultant, Wyvern Limited sells a report consolidating the safety audits of a number of selected charter firms based throughout the United States.
Founding members of the new Southeastern Roundtable Safety Committee have scheduled their first meeting for April 23, 1996. Representatives of corporate flight departments based in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and the Carolinas are invited to attend. The aim of the group is to meet every six months to discuss safety issues of mutual concern. For more information, contact David Carlisle of SunTrust Banks' aviation department at (407) 237-4486.
A ``Land and Hold-Short Lighting System'' is now in use on Runway 22L at Boston-Logan International Airport. The system, intended to provide pilots with an easy identification of the hold-short point, consists of five in-pavement white lights arranged in a line across Runway 22L, parallel to and 250 feet from the centerline of Runway 27. The lights pulsate whenever simultaneous operations are being conducted on Runways 22L and 27. Logan's ATIS will inform pilots whenever the system is in operation.
Expansion-minded Gulfstream International will open a secondary hub at Birmingham, Alabama effective November 1. The Miami-based regional will offer four daily nonstops to Columbus, Georgia, and Mobile, Alabama; three daily one-stops to New Orleans and one weekend one-stop to Tallahassee, as well as three daily one-stops between Mobile, Alabama and Tallahassee, Florida.
December 31-TCAS: Turbine-powered FAR Part 135 aircraft with 10 to 30 passenger seats must have TCAS I systems installed. January 1, 1996-Alcohol testing: FAR Part 135 operators with 10 or fewer employees to whom alcohol-testing rules are applicable will have to be in compance. April 20, 1996-GPWS: All air taxi and commuter turboprops equipped with previously approved advisory systems and having 10 or more passenger seats have until this date to replace those systems with TSOed GPWS units.
United Kingdom's Civil Aviation Authority has approved Loral Data Systems' Fairchild A200S, a new solid-state cockpit voice recorder with a two-hour recording capability. Earlier, the system received TSO C123 approval by the FAA and was granted European EUROCAE ED-56A certification. Sarasota, Florida-based Loral says the A200S meets the international technical requirements for CVRs that must be incorporated in air carrier transports by March 1997.
Midwest Express Holdings has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering (IPO) of 5.140-million shares of common stock. Holdings is a newly formed Delaware corporation that will own both Midwest Express Airlines and its subsidiary, Astral Aviation, which operates as Skyway Airlines. Both are owned by Kimberly-Clark, which will retain approximately 20 to 30 percent of Midwest Express. Salomon Brothers, Goldman Sachs&Company and Robert W. Baird&Company are managing the underwriting group.
The Air Line Pilots Association unit at Delta, meanwhile, is seeking an injunction that would prevent the airline from turning over those jet routes to ASA. In a petition filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the union said that Connection carriers traditionally have flown aircraft of 70 seats or less.
The under $4-million Premier I, the first business jet designed by Raytheon Aircraft, is scheduled to fly in late 1997 and receive FAA single-pilot approval in late 1998. Formally introduced at the NBAA convention in September, the Premier I is a six passenger, 11,450-pound aircraft that will be powered by two Williams-Rolls Royce FJ44-2 turbofans rated at 2,300 pounds-thrust each.
Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota, in partnership with Hamilton Standard, hopes to receive FAA certification by the end of the year of an aircraft version of the V-8 engine that powers Toyota's luxury car, the Lexus. The 360-hp, water-cooled engine features twin turbochargers and a dual-channel full-authority digital engine control (FADEC). Hamilton Standard is supplying the FADEC in addition to a four-blade, composite propeller. Most recently, the engine has been flying as the right-side powerplant on a Cessna 340 testbed aircraft.
Another try at certificating a P&WC PW305-powered Falcon 20 retrofit is under way. If all goes as planned, Greenwich Aircraft Corporation (GAC) of Sausalito, California will receive FAA approval of the modification in 1997, and GAMCO of Saudi Arabia and BizJet International in Tulsa will perform customer conversions. An earlier attempt at a similar program, led by the now-defunct Volpar Aircraft of Van Nuys, California, failed five years ago to achieve certification after more than 50 hours of flight-test in a PW305-powered Falcon 20.
The U.S. Department of Commerce selected Sam Williams, Ph.D. to receive its 1995 National Medal of Technology. Dr. Williams was honored for his ``unequaled achievements as a gifted entrepreneur, risk-taker and engineering genius in making the U.S.A. number one in small gas-turbine-engine technology and competitiveness, and for his phenomenal leadership and vision in revitalizing the depressed United States general aviation, business jet and trainer jet aircraft industry.'' The award is scheduled to be presented to Dr. Williams at White House ceremonies this month.
British, French and Italian civil-aviation authorities have certificated the new 46- to 50-passenger ATR 42-500. At a cruise speed of 305 knots, the -500 produces a lot more ``umph'' than earlier models. It is powered by Pratt&Whitney Canada PW127E turboprops, with six-blade Hamilton Standard Ratier 568F propellers.
