Business & Commercial Aviation

Flying Colours Corp. has completed its first two installations of the Satcom Direct Router. The first was part of a Global 5000 cabin refurbishment package. The second was part of a new Global 5000 completion project for a private Middle Eastern owner. The aircraft is expected to return to Flying Colours in early 2017 for installation of a supplemental SD Wi-Fi hub to augment the performance of the existing SDR. It is the first time Flying Colours will have fitted the complete suite of SD router options into an aircraft.

Even before taking office, President-elect Donald Trump is shaking up the business world, taking credit for keeping UTC jobs in Indiana that might have gone to Mexico. “Companies are not going to leave the United States anymore without consequences,” Trump says. The parent company of Pratt & Whitney may have been motivated to stay to remain in a Trump administration’s good graces.

Signature Flight Support's new state-of-the art FBO at London Luton Airport is open for business. The facility comprises a 4,500 sq. meters (48,000 sq. ft.) hangar, which became operational in 2014 and is capable of housing two BBJ or ACJ-sized aircraft, and a 7,000 sq. meters (75,000 sq. ft.) parking ramp with a dedicated ground service facility in addition to the legacy apron and a covered arrivals area. The new 1,572 sq. meters (17,000 sq.

Constant Aviation has developed a ADS-B equipment solution for the Cessna Citation X. Constant Aviation, based in Cleveland, completed its first ADS-B upgrade on a Citation X, the company said. Its “solution” to meet the Jan. 1, 2020, mandate to equip differs from the manufacturer’s in that it does not require LPV capability as a prerequisite, which lowers the cost, the company said. If the work to upgrade is done concurrently with scheduled maintenance, the cost and downtime can be lower in many cases, it said.

Satcom Direct last month completed the acquisition of TrueNorth Avionics, a manufacturer of cabin communications systems, thereby expanding its service offering to VIP aircraft operators. Ottawa-based TrueNorth, which designs, develops and manufactures satcom systems, TrueNorth becomes a business unit within the Satcom Direct family of companies focused on avionics development.

To help mark and celebrate its half-century in business, Jet Aviation has adopted a new logo, a stand-alone, circular monogram with the word JET to replace the deer head with which it has long been identified. “We wanted the new logo and branding initiative to visually reflect the strength and stability of our trusted brand name as we turn to face and welcome future opportunities,” explained Heinz Aebi, Jet’s senior vice president of Group Marketing and Communications.

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.

Beechcraft is promoting improved performance on its King Air 350HW and 350ER models by offering a more powerful version of the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A engines and an increased gross weight option. The improvements are FAA and EASA certified and available as factory options on new aircraft.

Increased business jet deliveries in North America and Western Europe during the third quarter helped offset declining shipments to emerging market regions, along with China and Latin America, according to a recent UBS market research report. Global business jet deliveries fell 5% during the third quarter compared to a year ago. Deliveries to North American customers rose 9%, while deliveries increased 13% in Western Europe during the quarter.

AeroBrigham, based in Decatur, Texas, has taken delivery of a Bell 407 configured for medical mission flights. It is the fourth aircraft on which the company has completed paint, interior, avionics and airframe improvements and performed maintenance and component overhauls. The work was done for Survival Flight, a Part 135 air medical transport provider. AeroBrigham will begin work on another 407 for Survival Flight before year-end.

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.

Questions for David Sneed, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Delta Private Jets.

As a maintenance manager, you need to ensure your troops receive the training and education to address the demands of high technology aircraft.

Selected accidents and incidents in November and December 2016. The following NTSB information is preliminary.

The FAA is seeking bids to build a remote air traffic control tower at Northern Colorado Regional Airport (FNL), a business and general aviation facility about 50 sm north of Denver. The airport was formerly known as the Fort Collins-Loveland Municipal Airport. In a request for information issued Nov.

Rolls-Royce delivered the 7,000th engine made at its plant outside Berlin. The engine, a BR710, was being shipped to Gulfstream Aerospace in Savannah, Georgia. The site, which began production in 1995, employs more than 2,300 worker who produce the Tay 611-8C and V2500 engines in addition to the BR700 series, which power the G550 and 650 as well as the Bombardier Global 5000 and 6000. The engine maker reports more than 4,000 BR700s have been delivered to date. Later this year the German facility will begin assembly of the Trent XWB turbofan, which powers the Airbus A350.

News of promotions, appointments and honors involving professionals within the business aviation community.

Quest Aircraft has signed a major fleet order with a sister subsidiary in Japan for up to 20 Kodiak aircraft. The 10-seat aircraft single-engine turboprop will be used for a new membership-based private travel service that was launched in November. The order is Quest’s largest commercial fleet order to date. “We are very excited to have completed such a large order for the Kodiak,” said Nick Newby, Quest senior vice president of sales, marketing and customer service.

Elliott Aviation has completed its seventh retrofit of a Garmin G5000 in a Beechjet 400A/Hawker 400XP. It was completed in a 1999 Beechjet 400A. Five of the upgrades were done at its Moline, Illinois facility and two at its Des Moines shop. The company says the retrofit can increase the useful load of the aircraft by 200+ lb. The program involves replacing all existing avionics including the autopilot with three 12 in landscape LCD displays that provide synthetic vision, electronic charts, WAAS/LPV, XM weather, engine indication and MFD range rings.

The Air Charter Safety Foundation's annual safety symposium for charter and business aircraft operators is set for March 7-8 at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Training Center in Ashburn, Virginia. Speakers will include BCA Contributor James Albright, NTSB Member Robert Sumwalt, and Tom Huff, Gulfstream’s Aviation Safety Officer, among others. Subjects to be covered include intentional non-compliance, runway incursions and excursions and a review of the GIV rejected takeoff accident in Bedford, Massachusetts, in May 2014.

In the little more than two months since releasing its Part 107 Small Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) rule on Aug. 29, the FAA had received more than 30,000 new aircraft registrations from commercial operators and more than 22,500 remote pilot applications. Jay Merkle, the FAA’s Director of Systems Integration and Requirements Analysis, said more than 10,000 of the applicants for the remote pilot license had passed the test. The Part 107 rule takes the place of what was previously an onerous Certificate of Authorization process for each operation.

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.

BCA readers share their opinions on articles we published.

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association says new aircraft deliveries for the first three quarters of 2016 were down 3.5% from the same period in the previous year, with 1,504 units shipped compared to 1,558 units in 2015. Helicopter shipments were even worse—down 16% to 615 units compared to 732 units in the same period in 2015. Combined airplane and rotorcraft billings were $15.9 billion year-to-date in 2016 compared to last year's $19.1 billion, a contraction of 16.5%.