Business & Commercial Aviation

The fully paperless cockpit is becoming a reality with the advent of FAA-certifiable tablet computers that may be used as Class 1 electronic flight bags in accordance with Advisory Circular 120-76C. Garmin, among other avionics manufacturers, is developing wireless interfaces between tablet computers and avionics systems. Garmin’s link between the G5000 and tablet computers running Garmin Pilot software is the $1,500 Flight Stream 510 SD card that has both internal Bluetooth and Wi-Fi transceiver chips.

The space-based Global Positioning System could be said to be the keystone of the FAA's NextGen ATM modernization but just how reliable is GPS? To find out, we asked John Hansman, Ph.D., an aeronautics professor and researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Being free and in control of my destiny is what put me on the road to the NBAA convention this time and helps put people in private aircraft.

VistaJet has taken delivery of three new Bombardier aircraft worth $115 million, bringing its global fleet to 70 aircraft, the company said. The company has added one new Bombardier Global 6000 and two new Challenger 350 business jets to its fleet. With the additions, VistaJet has the largest owned, super-midsize to large-cabin business-jet fleet in the industry, it said. In the past two years, the company has doubled its fleet from 35 aircraft in 2014 to the current 70, with an average age of less than two years.

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.

Heli-One will upgrade a fleet of Sikorsky S-61A-4 Nuri helicopters for an Asian operator with Universal's EFI-890H Advanced Flight Displays and Multi-Missions Management System. Heli-One will design and install the initial aircraft with an Asian maintenance, repair and overhaul business performing the upgrades on the remainder of the fleet. The upgrade includes four EFI-890H Advanced Flight Displays and one UNS-1L2 MMMS, Universal’s flight management system for mission support.

Since its introduction nearly a half-century ago, the Boeing 737 has proven to be the most popular civilian jet ever, with more than 9,000 delivered to date. And the manufacturer is moving to increase its production rate to more than 50 per month, easily the highest in its history. New models and variants — notably including the Boeing Business Jet (BBJ) and P-8 Poseidon maritime reconnaissance aircraft — are in production and with thousands on back order, the 737 will be a significant presence for a long time to come.

The Citation 560XL family is one of the best examples of Cessna Aircraft's time-proven incremental engineering and development philosophy that has produced so many derivative models on time, on weight and on budget. Created in the mid-1990s as a rush response to the clean-sheet, leading edge Learjet 45, Citation 560XL combines a shortened Citation 650 fuselage, a scaled up and modified Citation V wing and newly introduced PW545 turbofan engines.

Although Boeing does not market used BBJs, it has decided it is in the best interests of operators, potential buyers and the company to help facilitate the process and, further, to help establish fixed maintenance costs for those considering a pre-owned BBJ.

Bombardier's Global 7000 test aircraft completed its first flight Nov. 4, marking the start of a rigorous flight-testing program. Entry-into-service of the large jet is scheduled in the second half of 2018. The Global 7000 took off from Bombardier’s facility in Toronto under the command of Ed Grabman, the flight’s captain, aided by copilot Jeff Karnes and flight test engineer Jason Nickel at 10:25 a.m. EDT. During the 2-hr., 27-min.

The preceding elements are “greater than” the subsequent. But theory is often overwhelmed by reality.

Rolls-Royce reports that it now has 2,000 business jets enrolled in its CorporateCare engine maintenance program—double the number covered in 2010, or better than two-thirds of the eligible fleet. The program brings guaranteed maintenance costs to new and in-service Rolls-Royce BR725, BR710, Tay and AE 3007 engines. Operators pay a fixed cost-per-flying-hour fee for a comprehensive range of scheduled and unscheduled engine maintenance events and benefits. The reason for the program’s popularity, according to Stephen M.

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.

The business-jet resale market turned in slightly slower transaction activity during the first nine months of 2016, according to a report by Amstat.

The annual gala dinner, or soiree, and auction sponsored by NBAA at its convention to benefit the Corporate Angel Network (CAN) raised $450,000 to help fund that organization’s decades-long mission to transport cancer patients to treatment centers, mainly aboard business jets, free of charge. CAN Executive Director Gina Russo said, “We very much appreciate the industry’s involvement in CAN’s work, as illustrated by the hundreds of companies flying CAN missions for cancer patients year-round, as well as through participation in this event.

The business jet market continues to be stubbornly soft, Textron Chairman and CEO Scott Donnelly said on an Oct. 20 conference call about the company's third-quarter earnings. Still, the market is “more or less in line with what we expected this year,” Donnelly said. “Most of the growth is driven by new products coming into the market.” That is why the company is concentrating on bringing to market the Citation Latitude, Citation Longitude, Cessna Denali and eventually, the Citation Hemisphere.

JetBlue Airways has taken a minority stake in fast-growing, California-based jet-charter company JetSuite. Robin Hayes, CEO of the New York-based low cost carrier, said JetSuite was “changing the game in short-haul travel in the West Coast.” Launched in 2009, JetSuite operates up to four daily flights between the California cities of Burbank, Carlsbad, Concord and San Jose, as well as Las Vegas. For this JetSuiteX service, the carrier sells tickets on its Embraer 135 jets via its website as a public-charter operation.

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

Jeppesen has launched Operator, a cloud-based business aviation platform that integrates flight planning, runway performance and weight and balance calculations, crew scheduling, accounting, pricing, regulatory compliance and trip checklists, among other things. BoldIQ, the fleet optimization and management program that evolved from the failed DayJet operation is intrinsic to the new Jepp service.

FlightSafety International filed a lawsuit Oct. 25 related to the 2014 crash of a King Air B200 into a FlightSafety training facility shortly after takeoff from Wichita Dwight D. Eisenhower National Airport. The crash killed four, including the pilot, and injured six others. The lawsuit, filed in Sedgwick County District Court in Wichita, names more than a dozen defendants alleged to have contributed to the crash through negligence, breach of warranty or other factors.

Satcom Direct, the airborne connectivity services provider headquartered in Melbourne, Florida, plans to acquire TrueNorth, a 10-year-old avionics manufacturer based in Ottawa. Jim Jensen, the founder and CEO of Satcom Direct, says the transaction should close before year-end. Just two months earlier, the company bought AircraftLogs, which makes flight scheduling and tax reporting software. (See “Special Report: 2016 IFEC: the Internet of Aviation Things” on page 26 of this issue.)

BCA readers share their opinions on articles we published.

Blackhawk Modifications has launched another engine upgrade program, this time targeting the King Air 350. The switch involves replacing that aircraft’s 1,050 shp PT6A-60A engines with a pair of -67As, each rated at 1,200 shp. The Waco, Texas company expects to receive approval for the upgrade in the second quarter of 2017. The change-out will benefit those operators — including military units — needing improved hot-and-high performance.

Performance-based navigation promises to make air traffic management more efficient than ever before . . . but what does this mean for business aviation?

World Fuel Services has added three fixed base operators to its network of FBOs. Flightways Columbus at the Columbus Airport (KCSG) in Columbus, Georgia, Emery Air at the Chicago Rockford International Airport (KRFD) in Rockford, Illinois, and Guardian Air Center at Ontario International Airport (KONT) in Canada, have joined the network, it said. World Fuel Services, based in Miami, provides training, credit card processing, marketing support, global fuel logistics and distributes fuel and related products and services.