By William Garvey, Jessica A. Salerno, Molly McMillin
Business aviation professionals say they are optimistic about the Middle East private jet market, a new survey shows. In research from Global Jet Capital, a provider of financing for corporate aircraft, 59% of 200 business aviation professionals surveyed said the Middle East private jet market is currently attractive for finance companies, while 15% say it is unattractive. Over the next three years, 41% of those surveyed said they expect the market to become more attractive, while 13% said they believe it will become less appealing.
By William Garvey, Jessica A. Salerno, Molly McMillin
Marco Tulio Pellegrini, CEO of Embraer Executive Jets, believes that for business aviation to break free of its nearly decade-long slump it needs to change the way it operates. Accordingly, Embraer is proposing a business model in which leasing companies buy business aircraft to lease to charter companies that then operate scheduled point-to-point services between cities with high business-passenger traffic.
By William Garvey, Jessica A. Salerno, Molly McMillin
GI Aviation has earned an air operator's certificate from the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority to enable the start of commercial flights with its fleet of Pilatus PC-12NG aircraft in the Gulf region. GI Aviation has been working to begin new entry-level service for business aviation in the region, which has been dominated by larger business jets. GI Aviation worked with Hendell Aviation in Finland to help it obtain the air operator’s certificate.
According to business office chair-maker Herman-Miller, a chair should breathe, which is to say its surface materials should provide comfort and allow conduction of heat and dispersion of moisture away from the surface of the sitter's skin. Also, a seat should have a neutral effect on body-surface temperatures, so that thermal comfort is not posture dependent. It does this by allowing the flow of air to the body and water vapor away.
Most pilots have probably heard the story from Greek mythology about Icarus, the ancient aviator who flew too close to the sun and came crashing down into the sea. Since it was Daedalus, his father, who designed and constructed those wings of bird feathers tied with string and wax, it can be said that not only was he the original aeronautical engineer, but he included a maximum cruise altitude in his design specifications. Fly too high, he warned his son, and the wax used to fasten the feathers would melt.
The NTSB report on the Learjet 60 rejected takeoff (RTO) accident in Columbia, South Carolina, noted the following: “In 1990, the NTSB issued a special investigation report (SIR), “Runway Overruns Following High-Speed Rejected Takeoffs,” that examined high-speed RTOs involving commercial jet aircraft. The SIR reviewed three studies, which included data from the NTSB, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and Boeing, related to the causes and outcomes of RTOs. The SIR found that tire failures led to more high-speed RTOs than engine-related anomalies.”
Cessna Citation crash in Germany: Federal Bureau of Aircraft Accident Investigation determines that the cause was the pilot-in-command’s decision to conduct the VFR approach “even though he was aware of the prevailing instrument weather condition at the airport."
The Federalist Papers No. 62, published in 1788, James Madison warned, "It will be of little avail to the people, if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood." I suspect this founding father would be flummoxed by today's federals, especially if he decided to go flying.
BCA: We are too shortsighted to realize that the fewer accidents we have, the more people will fly and the more airplanes we will sell in the long run.
Once again, BCA editors and our business aviation colleagues from the Aviation Week Network have recommended BCA content from this year that readers might want to revisit.
The ability to quickly diagnose a problem and come up with a solution is a valuable skill, even when you earn your living working on multimillion-dollar aircraft.
Teterboro Airport ranked No. 1 again, and the rest of the top five business aviation airports measured by acukwik.com user traffic during October 2016 were mostly stable, according to site metrics.
By William Garvey, Jessica A. Salerno, Molly McMillin
Cessna Aircraft has increased performance targets for its new super-midsize $23.9 million Citation Longitude, the planemaker's latest business jet under development. The announcement was made at the National Business Aviation Association’s Business Aviation in Orlando. Cessna, a division of Textron Aviation, is increasing its initial targets for range from 3,400 nm to 3,500 nm and full-fuel payload by 100 lb., to 1,600 lb. FAA type certification and entry into service is expected in 2017.
By William Garvey, Jessica A. Salerno, Molly McMillin
Jet Support Services has announced its Tip-to-Tail Program is now available for the Dassault Falcon 8X, Embraer Lineage 1000 and Airbus Corporate Jets, including the ACJ318, ACJ319 and ACJ320. The program includes coverage for the airframe, engines and APU.
Soon, everything will be connected on the internet. It has become clear that business pilots, flight attendants, and maintenance and operations personnel will increasingly rely on their aircraft's avionics and communications capabilities—usually via satcom—for many other applications.