In January, newly-formed Sino-Swearingen broke ground for the SJ30 assembly plant in Martinsburg, West Virginia, after years of abortive attempts to bring the light jet into production. Sino-Swearingen is a joint venture of San Antonio-based Swearingen Aircraft and Taiwan Aerospace. Under the planned venture, Swearingen would deliver its first SJ30 in 1996 (B/CA, November 1994, page 22).
A high-speed airborne fax service has been introduced by England's British Telecom (BT). Operating at 4.8 Kbit/s, twice the speed of previous systems, the satellite-based service is offered via Skyphone, a London-based consortium of BT, Norwegian Telecom and Singapore Telecom. Initially, the service is being offered in the Atlantic Ocean Region West area covered by Inmarsat.
Bananas come in bunches and, unfortunately, so do airplane accidents. No focus need be made on where, when or how many recent fatal accidents have occurred. The press and network television have more than adequately covered them. This is not to fault the media, because when a large number of folks are killed in one spot, it is front-page stuff.
Pilots of commuter aircraft operating under FAR Part 135 (aircraft with 30 seats or less) virtually will have to meet the same qualification and training standards as those of major carriers operating under Part 121, if the FAA adopts a recent notice of proposed rulemaking. Crew resource management training also would be mandated. Comments are due March 14. For details, contact the FAA in Washington, D.C. at (202) 267-8096. In a separate notice, the FAA launched a regulatory review of both air taxi and commuter operations under Part 135.
Despite satellites and onboard navigation systems of almost phenomenal accuracy, the business of guiding aircraft between North America and Europe continues to rely on human air traffic controllers to provide safe separation standards in a crowded and largely non-radar operating environment. And it is done without any direct communication between pilot and controller. Once out of VHF line-of-sight range, communications are relayed through Flight Service Stations via HF radio.
To many in the aviation community, the well-known acronym NDH--no damage history--is an assuring notation. But some owners, buyers and middlemen have discovered that the reference frequently does not mean what it says.
New from British Aerospace Systems and Equipment is the SCR 500 range of solid-state cockpit voice and flight data recorders. The recorders comply with new fire protection standards and are designed for operators seeking to update or replace their FDR or CVR equipment. The CVR recording duration ranges from 30 minutes to two hours, while the audio digital combined CVR/FDR provides 10 hours to 25 hours of data and 30 minutes to two hours of voice duration. The SCR 500 series features standard ARINC 557 interchangeability.
Lloyd's of London recently revised its war-risk insurance coverage to allow underwriters to cancel it upon seven days notice if the insured fails to accept higher premium rates, geographical limitations or other new terms underwriters propose due to changing world conditions. Under the former provisions, underwriters did not have this option. To determine the impact of this policy change, contact your war-risk insurance broker, or contact Keith Harris or Greg Shepherd in Lloyd's of London's solvency department at +71-623-7100.
Bombardier Aerospace selected France's Sextant Avionique to supply its head-up display system as an option for the new Global Express business jet. Sextant says its system is being designed to have the widest field of view of any business jet HUD as well as to serve as a full-time flight director. Provisions also will be made for wind-shear and TCAS advisories, Sextant claims. Bombardier previously selected Sextant to supply the hydromechanical flight control system for the Global Express (B/CA, June 1994, page 18).
The recently announced reorganization of the FAA will prepare the way for spinning off its ATC functions if Congress votes to do so. Legislation to establish an ATC corporation stalled in the last Congress, but the Clinton administration is expected to push for it again in the new Congress. Also, the new organization restructures the main functions of the FAA, creates a special Safety Office to report directly to the FAA administrator and appoints long-time FAA official Anthony Broderick to head the FAA's safety responsibilities.
Air Ontario has named Steve Smith president and chief operating officer for the Air Canada Connector. Smith most recently was director of leisure sales for Air Canada and Air Canada Vacations. Prior to that position, he was general manager of passenger sales for Air Ontario, which is a subsidiary of Air Canada. The carrier serves London, Ottawa, Tameness, North Bay, Sarnia, Sault Ste. Marie, Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Windsor and Toronto Pearson, all in Ontario.
Delta Connection Comair has taken delivery of its 20th Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ) while also exercising 10 of 20 CRJ options. Comair serves 30 markets from its Cincinnati hub with the 50-passenger aircraft, operating 252 daily flights and posting a utilization rate of 2,800 hours per year. Average stage length for the aircraft is 463 miles with an average flight time of one hour and 22 minutes.
Eurocopter Southern Africa was recently established as a subsidiary of Eurocopter, the joint company of France's Aerospatiale and Germany's Deutsche Aerospace. The new subsidiary, based at Lansaria Airport, will handle sales and customer support for the entire Eurocopter product line in southern Africa and neighboring countries.
Dallas-based Superior Air Parts expanded its general aviation international distribution division to Johannesburg, South Africa. Pieter Visser is the sales manager of the new parts distribution center known as Superior Air Parts PTY. The Johannesburg office phone number is +011-827-9664; fax: +011-827-9781.
The second prototype of the Chichester Miles Leopard four-place light jet, powered by two 700-pounds-thrust Williams FJX-1 turbofans, is now scheduled to fly in the spring. The aircraft was originally set to fly in March 1994 (B/CA, December 1993, page 20). Flight testing of the first prototype ended a few years ago, following the demise of the engine manufacturer Noel Penny Turbines.
From the air it looks like a four-legged spider, or perhaps a space vehicle out of Star Wars. On the ground, it is a picture of efficiency that will make any regional airline--and perhaps a few majors as well--envious.
AlliedSignal will dismiss 1,000 employees (2.6 percent of its total work force) by June at its recently acquired Lycoming Turbine Engine division. Prior to the layoffs, the Stratford, Connecticut-based Lycoming unit employed some 2,900 workers. AlliedSignal said the layoffs reflect the ``elimination of staffing duplications from the integration of the two businesses'' and the end of the manufacturing run of the AGT1500 engine for the U.S. Army's M1 tank program.
On December 15, 1994, the Miami judge overseeing Piper Aircraft's bankruptcy proceedings was due to decide whether to continue the company's reorganization efforts, to allow the company's creditors to take over the manufacturer as proposed in 1994 (B/CA, September 1994, page 18) or to allow the creditors to vote on a new bid to buy Piper. The new offer was submitted jointly by Piper International Corporation--an entity comprising Kaiser Aerospace&Electronics--and Teledyne Continental Motors, one of Piper's largest creditors.
The process of dealing with the denial or revocation of a medical certificate can seem like a maze of red tape--and frankly, it is. If you have been caught in what appears to be a succession of unending procedural nightmares, you need the help of two experts: an AME and a lawyer, both of whom are experienced in medical certification problems.
Environmentally concerned managers of painting facilities will be interested in a new service that recycles the plastic blast media used in aircraft paint stripping. The service includes leasing the plastic media in addition to the recycling. For more information, contact Poly-Pacific Technology in Vacaville, California at (800) 961-6688.
Why was the Experimental Aircraft Association exhibiting for the first time at the annual NBAA convention in October 1994? Primarily to promote its own annual show as a place where business aircraft operators should attend and their suppliers should exhibit.
National Air Transportation Association, the Air Line Pilots Association and other organizations representing commercial pilots and operations expressed disappointment with the FAA's lowering of the minimum random drug-testing rate from 50 percent to 25 percent, effective January 1. NATA, ALPA and other groups said that aviation's extremely low positive test findings justify a reduction of the rate to 10 percent (B/CA, December 1994, page 17).
Several airlines, airport authorities and government agencies are jointly participating in an evaluation of Robotic Vision Systems' new ground-based, electro-optical system designed to detect ice on aircraft and to monitor contamination of deicing fluid. The Hauppauge, New York-based company's new detection system is called ID-1. Those involved in evaluating it are United Airlines operations at Denver Stapleton Airport, Delta Air Lines flights at Boston Logan Airport and various airline operations at Montreal Dorval Airport.
