Business & Commercial Aviation

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

Options range from leather crew seats for $3,000 to a GoGoBiz - Text and Talk system for $151,500.

Designers attempt to provide exceptional capabilities in all areas, including price, but the laws of physics, thermodynamics and aerodynamics do not allow one aircraft to perform all missions with equal efficiency. Trade-offs are a reality of aircraft design.

As of January 2016, the Swiss Air Force had 31 Boeing F/A-18 Hornets, 22 F-5E and 4 F-5F double-seater Tiger II fighters in its inventory. If you tour the country or look at overhead photographs of the mountain valley airfields where the aircraft are based, you won't spot any of their hangars.

Lithium ion main batteries are becoming more and more common but not without teething troubles. A number of high-profile safety incidents have given the technology a black eye. The danger of thermal runaway is a serious issue and if you have the technology installed in your aircraft you need to keep up to speed.

The HondaJet's Garmin G3000 avionics package, fully integrated with aircraft engines and systems, is one of the most advanced versions yet developed.

Michimasa Fujino, founding president and CEO of Honda Aircraft Co. Inc, is understandably proud of the new HondaJet. He has personally guided its progress from initial conception to a fully developed model and certified aircraft, fighting through at least five years of delays in the process.

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

VistaJet celebrated the delivery of its 100th aircraft since the company's founding in 2004. The company's fleet has grown to more than 60 Bombardier Global and Challenger aircraft with a market value of more than $1.8 billion.

Leonardo-Finmeccanica Helicopters has taken the first steps in restarting the flight-test campaign of its AgustaWestland AW609 commercial tiltrotor following the fatal crash of the second prototype last October.

The FAA has expanded its efforts to prevent UAVs from flying too close to airports by signing cooperative research agreements with an additional three suppliers of counter-UAV systems.

BNSF Railway will test low-level surveillance methods necessary for beyond-visual line-of-sight operations for small unmanned aircraft systems.

Jet Aviation expects this quarter to open a business jet maintenance center at Macau International Airport that it is being established partly in response to space limits in Hong Kong.

Jetex is adding a new fixed-base operator location in Marseille,France, continuing the company's expansion in the region. The location offers VIP travelers easy access to the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region.

Lufthansa Technik is extending its presence in the Asian market and is expanding its range of products, some of which are already being installed in aircraft.

William Koch, chairman of Hawthorne Global Aviation Services of Dallas.

According to market intelligence firm Tractica, global commercial UAS services revenue is expected to grow from $170 million in 2015 to $8.7 billion by 2025.

Robinson Helicopter's two-place R44 Cadet won its FAA certification last month. Robinson says the aircraft's modest price will appeal to the training market as well as operators who want the economy of a small helicopter with the comfort, power, and performance of a larger one.

ARG/US International has purchased the Unmanned Safety Institute. The privately held company conducts unmanned aircraft system safety training, certification and management.

European Business Aviation Association, the National Business Aviation Association, Geneva's Palexpo exhibit center and Geneva Airport officials have signed an agreement to continue to hold the annual European Business Aviation Convention at Palexpo through 2021.

The warnings are dire and getting considerable attention in both the trade and general media. The danger? A shortage of pilots.

Bombardier Business Aircraft President David Coleal says the company's top-of-the-line, and long-delayed Global 7000 will finally fly this year and "we're very focused on that right now."

RUAG Aviation is the first company in Europe to fully repaint a Bombardier Challenger 350.

ABS Jets, a Prague-based business jet operator, is working with Honeywell to further enhance its inflight weather awareness application, known as Weather Information Service.

Gulfstream Aerospace has received FAA approval for a synthetic vision upgrade to GIV-SP aircraft equipped with PlaneDeck.