eJet Aviation Holdings, Inc., Bethesda, Md., appointed Steven Harfst director, president and CEO of both eJet Aviation Holdings and eJet Services, Inc.
In May, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker heartened hundreds of people gathered in a hangar in Appleton by saying he was proud “to celebrate and promote general aviation. The economic impact created by general aviation is strong, and it plays such an important role in providing the transportation needs of individuals and businesses across the globe.”
Bell Helicopter is re-entering what it calls the Short Light Single (SLS) turbine market with a new, as yet unnamed successor to the ubiquitous JetRanger. Since production of the latter ended in 2010, both the Robinson R66 and Eurocopter EC120 have rushed to fill the void. The new aircraft, which is to make its first flight in 2014, will be powered by a 450-550 shp Arrius 2R, similar to the EC120's power plant and the first Bell product to use a Turbomeca engine. The new aircraft will be a mix of metal and carbon fiber construction.
One of the challenges of aviation's so-called Golden Age was the installation of radios. After all, how would you connect to the circuit to ground? The answer turned out to be using the metal airframe as a substitute for good old terra firma. Still, early radios were plagued with interference and noise issues. One solution was to add braided wire shielding to prevent stray electric fields from interfering with the radio transmission.
Rockwell Colins launched HeliSure, a family of products that will provide helicopter pilots with enhanced situational awareness to help them fly in congested and hazard-filled airspace. HeliSure delivers sensor data in real time through an intuitive user interface that features 3-D visualization for information that pilots can easily, quickly and effectively process.
Yukon, Okla.-based Legacy Aviation Services was given DGAC (Direccion General de Aeronautica Civil) authority to repair and service Mexican-registered aircraft. With the lengthy paperwork process streamlined, Mexican aircraft can enter the U.S. for regular repair and maintenance, and for special modifications work at Legacy.
Cessna has resumed deliveries of the Corvalis single-piston aircraft, now called the TTx and equipped with a number of enhancements. Cessna announced in April 2012 that it would restart the TTx's production line, and began production later that year. The company flew the first of the new production TTx aircraft in early March. The first of the new TTx aircraft were handed over to customers during a ceremony at the company's facility in Independence, Kan., in late June. The TTx includes a number of updates, including Garmin G2000 avionics with dual 14.1-in.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in September will launch a second review of the interoperability of the Single European Sky ATM Research (Sesar) and FAA's NextGen air traffic management systems. The review comes at the request of the House aviation subcommittee. The first review, conducted in 2011, concluded that the FAA and European Union (EU) were “working collaboratively,” but that the U.S. agency must “better inform aviation stakeholders of efforts toward interoperability” and to improve the credibility of the effort.
Cessna Aircraft Co., Wichita, named Kriya Shortt senior vice president Sales and will lead the company's global sales force. Tom Perry will assume the role of vice president of Sales for EMEA based in the U.K.
The FAA and the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport) have completed two safety enhancements to Logan Airport's longest runway. The new runway safety area includes a 300-ft.-wide concrete pier that extends 470 ft. into Boston Harbor. The crushable concrete area is installed on top of the pier and covers a 170 ft. by 500 ft. area. The Engineered Material Arresting System (EMAS) bed is designed to quickly and safely stop an aircraft as large as a Boeing 747 in the event the plane moves past the end of the runway.
GE Aviation has begun certification testing of its Passport engine that will power the Bombardier Global 7000 and 8000. Developed under a joint venture between GE, IHI of Japan and TechSpace Aero of Belgium, Passport is to be certified to produce 16,500 lb. thrust and meet Stage 4 noise regulations. First run occurred at GE Aviation's Peebles Testing Operation in Ohio. The engine company is planning a 4,000-hr./8,000-cycle ground test program involving eight engines and one core. Flight testing is scheduled for 2014, with certification following in 2015.
TWC Aviation, San Jose, Calif., promoted Jack Mulder to director of Operations. He has been with the company for seven and has chief pilot, director of Training and was a line pilot.
In a bizarre and embarrassing gaffe while reporting follow-up details on the July 6 crash of Asiana Flight 214 during a landing at nearby San Francisco, a daytime anchor on KTVU in Oakland, Calif., told viewers on July 12: “KTV was just learned the names of the four pilots on who were on board the flight. . . . The NTSB has confirmed these are the names of the pilots on board Flight 214 when it crashed.
During the second quarter of 2013, Embraer delivered 22 jetliners 29 executive jets comprising 11 Phenom 100s, 12 Phenom 300s, five Legacy 650s and one Lineage. For the first half of the year, the Brazilian manufacturer delivered 31 Phenoms and ten Legacy and Lineage models and had a firm order backlog for commercial and executive jets worth $17.1 billion, an increase of $3.8 billion over the first quarter and its highest since the third quarter of 2009.
Safe Flight Instrument Corp. received an STC for its AutoPower (Automatic Throttle System on the Citation X. The system's advanced technology is tailored and manufactured specifically for Cessna and it is fully compatible with the existing Citation X avionics suite providing potential fuel savings for extended range.
International Standards for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO) has topped 700 registered operators. IS-BAO was launched by the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) 11 years ago to provide a series of standards and best practices that operators can voluntarily assimilate and document. The standard, which includes a safety management system program developed by the International Civil Aviation Safety Organization, has since become internationally accepted.
Musical chairs in Washington. In a rare 100-0 vote, the U.S. Senate in late June confirmed Anthony Foxx to become U.S. transportation secretary, succeeding Ray LaHood. The former mayor of Charlotte, N.C., assumes leadership of a Cabinet department that oversees the FAA, the Maritime Administration and numerous other related federal agencies. Two weeks later Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced she was resigning her Cabinet post and likely become president of the University of California system.
Bristow Group has taken over search-and-rescue helicopter operations in the North of Scotland. As of July 1, Bristow crews flying Sikorsky S-92s took over from CHC flying SAR missions on behalf of the U.K. Maritime and Coast Guard Agency (MCA) under its Gap SAR contract awarded in February 2012.
You know the drill. Same stuff, different day during the simulator session. If it's Tuesday, it must be time for V1 cuts. Wednesday, it will be electrical malfunctions and engine fires. Thursday, we'll see single engine circling approaches. Just put an X in every FAA or EASA required box and let's go home.
A modified Diamond DA42 will be used for flights over Alaska later this year to measure greenhouse gas emissions from thawing permafrost. Aurora Flight Sciences has performed flights of its Centaur aircraft over the Chesapeake Bay to calibrate the specially developed measurement system. The twin-diesel Centaur was developed as an optionally piloted aircraft (OPA), but will be flown manned for the measurement flights over Alaska's Northern Slope, says Aurora. The research mission is sponsored by the National Science Foundation.
Flight Displays, Alpharetta, Ga., announced that Reed Macdonald has joined the company as chief operating officer responsible for overseeing all aspects of company operations including oversight of research, product design, manufacturing, logistics, customer service, accounting and finance.
Constant Aviation, the Cleveland-based maintenance firm, has won a supplemental type certificate for installation of the SwiftBroadband Aviator 200 system in an Embraer Phenom 300. The Aviator 200 is a smaller and lighter Wi-Fi product used to provide global Internet access on small to midsize business aircraft. Separately, Constant Aviation recently completed the installation of Rockwell Collins' Ascend informational management server on three new Bombardier Challenger 605s.
