Business & Commercial Aviation

Hawthorne Global Aviation Services has acquired JetSun Aviation Centre, an FBO located at Sioux Gateway Airport in Sioux City, Iowa. The facility has more than 100,000 sq. ft. of hangar space, a reception area, conference room, pilot lounge and flight planning.

AirspaceX, a new company set up by design house Detroit Aircraft, is developing a tail-sitting electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing aircraft that can carry modular payloads, including a four-seat passenger cabin for air taxi operations.

A highly experienced Mexican crew with newly minted Bombardier Challenger type ratings attempted an approach into one of business aviation's toughest airports with adverse winds on Jan. 5, 2014. The result was tragic.

Business aviation flight activity increased globally during the first quarter of 2017 compared to the last three months of 2016. In fact, it was the highest utilization of aircraft for any first quarter since 2008, according to Jet Support Services Inc., a provider of maintenance support and financial services.

The FAA has adopted a new Airworthiness Directive for certain Learjet Model 60 airplanes. This AD was prompted by an evaluation by the design approval holder indicating the upper fuselage skin under the aft oxygen line fairing is subject to multi-site damage.

Textron Aviation ended production of its Model 510 Cessna Citation Mustang light jet on May 11. No jobs will be lost as a result, as Textron Aviation is moving production of its Caravan turboprop to the plant where the Mustang was assembled.

Bombardier's third Global 7000 flight test aircraft flew for the first time May 10 and has entered the flight-test program. It will soon join Bombardier's flight-test center in Wichita.

Tradewind Aviation, which operates shuttle and on-demand flights in the U.S. and Caribbean, has added three Pilatus PC-12 eight-seat aircraft to its fleet as well as a hub at Hanscom Field in Bedford, Massachusetts. Tradewind, which operates scheduled service from Westchester County Airport in New York, now operates 21 aircraft, including 18 PC-12s and three Cessna Citations.

Will supersonic business jets be streaking across oceans in the near future? No less an entity than Rolls-Royce is cautiously optimistic about the prospects and is actively studying a new generation of potential engine designs to power it.

Gulfstream Aerospace has added its third G600 aircraft to its flight-test program. The aircraft completed its first flight May 5 and will undergo numerous system tests required for FAA certification, expected in 2018.

ForeFlight, one of the aviation industry's leading providers of mobile electronic flight bag applications, and Jeppesen, a global powerhouse in aeronautical data, are teaming up to offer a broad range of products to business and general aviation, military and airline customers.

Some of the most violent weather to be concerned about on the planet — and the most predictable because it’s always there — can be found in the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone.

Step aboard Boeing's BBJ MAX 8, one of the world's most exclusive private jets, and you'll find it does virtually everything better than the original BBJ that made its debut almost two decades ago.

In early May, Pratt & Whitney Canada completed production of its 100,000th engine, and of that total 60,000 remain in service operated by 12,300 customers in more than 200 countries and territories.

Boeing Business Jets and GKN Aerospace are offering a new window on the world at 41,000 ft., one that Boeing claims is the largest available on any passenger jet today.

Tata Steel Group, based in Mumbai, India, is adding a second Bell 429 helicopter to its fleet to support steel production operations, Bell said. The aircraft will operate from the company's Jamshedpur facility in eastern India. There are more than 90 Bell helicopters operating throughout India in commercial, civil/government and military operations.

The medium and light business jet resale markets began 2017 with two of the best first quarters in the past 10 years, according to a report by market research company Amstat.

Jet Aviation has signed an FBO management agreement with Pazos FBO at Luis Munoz Marin International Airport in Puerto Rico. It is the only FBO in Puerto Rico with a full-service on-site U.S. Customs and Border Protection terminal for customs, immigration and agriculture processing of international flights.

Frankly, the proposed fee schedule [user charges] doesn’t bother us as much as the fear that once the principle is set it then becomes a mater of how much more. – BCA Staff Rockwell-Standard declined to act on its option to pick up line of new aircraft models being produced by Ted Smith and his company. The option was for $6.5 million to be exercised by R-S upon certification of Aerostar model.

Gulf stream Aerospace's G280 set two speed records in April on flights to and from the 2017 Avalon Airshow. The aircraft flew 3,332 nm from Singapore to Melbourne, Australia, in 7 hr. and 21 min., at an average cruise speed of Mach 0.81. It then flew from Singapore to Dubai's Al Maktoum Airport, 3,177 nm, in 7 hr. and 18 min. at Mach 0.82.

The engineering of Universal Avionics' InSight display system is now fulfilled, and the company is working toward completion of the STC and TSO package in preparation for TIA.

BCA shares news of the latest products and services for the business aviation industry.

CVR Recording for Challenger N115WF: Shortly past noon on Jan. 5, 2014, a Bombardier CL-600-2B16 Challenger crashed during a landing attempt on Runway 15 at Colorado's Aspen-Pitkin County Airport/Sardy Field (ASE). The information below, from the NTSB report, is a record of what went on in the cockpit as the approach became unstabilized and the flight came to grief.

London Oxford Airport is seeing an increase in large business jets using its facilities this year. Its FBO has seen a 37% increase in large jet movements and a 46% increase over the past two years, the airport reports.

On June 24, 2006, a private pilot was receiving flight instruction in a Pilatus PC-12/47 at Big Timber, Montana's uncontrolled airport. Conditions for the departure from Runway 6 included winds at 17 kt. gusting to 23 kt. Witnesses said that the pilot had transmitted on CTAF with the intention of practicing a loss of engine power after takeoff, and turning 180 deg. to return to the airport. He and his instructor never made it back.