Business & Commercial Aviation

Airflite was appointed as the exclusive sales representative for Piaggio Aerospace in Australia and New Zealand. Australia and New Zealand are priority markets for further development of Piaggio, the company said.

The Tecnam P2008 two-place ultralight has been added to the Eligible to be Registered Advanced Ultralight Listing by Transport Canada.

Lilium, a German startup company, has received $90 million in investment to continue development of its electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) urban air transport aircraft.

The Pilatus PC-24 business jet is on track for certification by year-end. If that happens, the Swiss planemaker's first jet would get its papers in time to celebrate at the NBAA's annual convention and exhibition this month in Las Vegas.

FAA has awarded Winglet Technology an STC for transitional winglets on the Citation Sovereign as the culmination of a development and certification project that began in July 2013.

Jet Aviation is shuttering its St. Louis Downtown Airport maintenance operations and Gulfstream Aerospace Services Corp., also a General Dynamics subsidiary, will take over the site.

Luxaviation Helicopters has acquired Starspeed, a British helicopter management, charter and training company,

Sierra Nevada Corp. in September filed a bid protest with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) over the U.S. Army's decision to cancel a competition to replace its Beech C-12 Huron and Fairchild C-26 Metroliner turboprops.

Flying Colours has completed maintenance, avionics upgrades and extensive interior reconfiguration for a pair of Bombardier Challenger 850 aircraft for an undisclosed Fortune 500 company.

Satcom Direct has become the first service provider to activate the Inmarsat Jet ConneX technology for a Brazilian registered executive aircraft, the company said.

MRO provider Constant Aviation says it has more than doubled its automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) sales compared to the same time one year ago.

A new forecast by JetNet IQ predicts demand for 8,436 new business jets valued at $223 billion at list prices for 2017-26. Company says percentage of used business jets on the market is at its lowest level in more than nine years.

C&L Aerospace and Securaplane Technologies have developed a Supplemental Type Certificate for the Securaplane sealed acid batteries for Saab 340 aircraft. The two companies have entered into an agreement that designates C&L as the worldwide distributor for the batteries. The batteries are maintenance free and directly replace existing nickel-cadmium batteries.

SevenJet Private Travel has expanded its aircraft maintenance facility in Clearwater, Florida, where it offers light aircraft maintenance, inspections and other services for Piaggio, Avanti, King Air, Citation, Beechcraft and other aircraft.

Seeker Aircraft America has formed a partnership with KAHA Aviation Solutions, based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as it expands into a new market.

CAE Oxford Aviation Academy in Mesa, Arizona, has placed an order for its second CJ1+ Level 5 Flight Training Device from Frasca International.

Texas Turbine Conversions has received European Aviation Safety Agency approval for Hartzell Propeller's four-blade composite swept propeller designed for single-engine Supervan 900 aircraft.

VistaJet has received a $150 million cash investment from Rhone Capital. The transaction values VistaJet's equity at more than $2.5 billion.

Business aviation flights swelled by 28% Aug. 21, as pilots and passengers headed for airports located in the path of totality during the solar eclipse, according to Argus International TraqPak data.

French manufacturer Daher has opened an aerostructures manufacturing and logistics site in Queretaro, Mexico. to produce doors for Airbus A320 emergency exits and cargo bays.

Clay Lacy Aviation in Seattle has earned the first North American IS-BAH Stage II registration after undergoing a rigorous third-party audit, resulting in the first stage of the registration. Only three other ground-handling operations have reached the milestone.

VistaJet has launched VistaJet Direct, a digital membership app that provides members access to empty-leg flights on VistaJet's fleet of more than 70 aircraft.

Prompted by a brutal 2016 wildfire season, Los Angeles County has purchased two Sikorsky S-70i helicopters for conversion to Firehawk firefighting and other missions.

Readers' Feedback (October 2017) Letters To The Editor

The increasingly ubiquitous weather information now available to pilots in flight is largely behind an FAA move to decommission 30% of the approximately 2,100 remote communications outlets (RCOs) used to provide mostly general aviation pilots with weather and advisory information.