Sierra Industries delivered its 50th Citation Stallion upgrade with the Williams FJ-44-2A turbofan retrofit. The Uvalde, Texas firm also has delivered more than 20 Eagle 400 upgrades with FJ44-3A engines on Citation II and SII models. The No. 50 Stallion upgrade went to Howard Tobin, a director of the Citation Jet Pilots Association.
Lufthansa Technik AG says it will close its Swiss operations in Basel April 30, eliminating 31 positions, and it will reorganize its German administrative structures, likely trimming 650 positions there. The Hamburg-based international MRO provider has already trimmed its production processes, for example, engine overhaul costs have been reduced by about 20%. Lufthansa Technik employs a total of 13,070 people at its German sites and 26,000 worldwide.
EPIC announced the release of the iGo EPIC app at the recent NBAA S&D Conference in San Antonio. The app offers easy search functionality and fuel pricing for FBOs within the EPIC FBO Network. For EPIC cardholders there is an added convenience of getting account specific pricing by FBO location and quick access to Bravo Rewards information and account login.
Any public company operating a business aircraft must decide early on how the costs of running the corporate aviation department will be borne. These costs may be allocated internally, or the department may be treated as a service and its costs absorbed by the company as a whole.
February's Viewpoint (“Who's Up Front?” page 9) was very good, as usual. I am 62. I have been an A&P since 1975 and pretty much worked since then for a certain business jet OEM with headquarters in Teterboro. I was always puzzled by the 65 and out rule for the guys up front. Maybe it's me, but I'm not disappointed to retire early. To steal a phrase from an old baseball player, “Them fancy jets been good to me, man.” Our industry will be in need of wrenches as well as pilots. It's anyone's guess how it will work out.
Dubai, UAE-based Jetex Flight Support opened a new flight-planning lounge at London Oxford Airport that was scheduled to be operational in mid-February. Jetex is taking over one of the FBO's crew lounges and rebranding it as the “Jetex Lounge” with new furnishings, signage, aeronautical charts and pictures, and world time-zone clocks. Jetex-supplied computers will link directly to their flight-planning systems while also hosting generic flight-planning software packages for crews to do stand-alone assessments of route options.
The purpose of a business aircraft, by definition, is to move company personnel solely to further the interests of the company. On occasion, however, a dependent of one of the passengers will likely be invited to accompany that passenger. Whenever this happens, the company employee is deemed to have incurred personal use of the seat aboard the aircraft that is occupied by their family member.
Pres Henne, who led the design of the Collier Trophy-winning Gulfstream GV and G550 and oversaw development of the new G650, is set to retire from the business-jet manufacturer on March 31. Henne joined Gulfstream in 1994 from McDonnell Douglas (MDC), where he began his career in 1969. At MDC, Henne was responsible for the aerodynamic design of the C-17 wing, and was later vice president and general manager of the MD-90 program. At Gulfstream, he has overseen the introduction of six products and advances such as enhanced and synthetic vision displays.
For the first time, Embraer expects to deliver more executive jets than airline aircraft. Overall Embraer looks to deliver 195-215 aircraft this year, roughly matching the 205 deliveries for 2012 reported in January. But the company expects commercial aircraft deliveries to decline from the 106 delivered in 2012 to 90-95 aircraft, down 10-15%. However, the company says large executive jet deliveries could jump as much as 36% over the 22 recorded in 2012, falling in the range of 25-30 deliveries in 2013.
Used business aircraft transactions reached a record 2,240 in 2012, according to industry analyst Jetnet. The previous record was 2,181, set in 2007. Used market transactions had plunged after the 2007 record, reaching a low point of 1,539 in 2009. But at the same time, business jet prices continued to slide — falling another 0.3% in all of 2012.
L-3 Aviation Products is preparing to increase its presence in India. L-3 plans to add more capability and collaborate on the manufacture, delivery and support of products in India for domestic and international aviation markets, while developing a foundation for a long-term support and services center in the region. L-3 Aviation Products is a major provider of commercial and military avionics.
The new Thales TopDeck avionics suite developed Sikorsky's S-76D is designed to function much as a computer, with the pilot simply calling up a menu, moving a curser to the desired position and hitting “execute.” It is also designed to provide the pilot access to a massive array of capabilities in flight with no more effort than pushing a maximum of two buttons.
What is the accepted generic label for a private aircraft? There are many terms associated with aircraft that are not used for commercial purposes. Your magazine has, I think, used them all: “business jet,” “bizjet,” “executive jet,” “private jet,” “private plane,” etc. Wikipedia says the generic is “bizjet.” However, I have recently discovered that “bizjet” is a registered trademark even though there are many websites that use it in their titles.
The Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA) has found that repair station executives are bullish on 2013 business prospects, with more than half the respondents to a recent AEA survey expecting revenue improvement in 2013. The survey generated 180 responses, the association says. Big-picture takeaways include a more bullish outlook than last year's survey, and a range of services driving the growth. AEA's survey results show that 56% of respondents expect business to increase in 2013, compared to 49% responding to last year's survey on 2012 prospects.
The next year looms as a critical period for the effort to implement NextGen. While some of the core programs are on track to achieve major deployment milestones, the FAA will need to show that it has solved policy and technology headaches that still could stymie progress. The target date for full implementation is 2025, and two of the crucial foundation systems are scheduled to be largely completed by the end of this year. Succeeding with these will boost confidence that other NextGen goals can be achieved as planned. NextGen was launched in 2004.
Pilatus is offering a configuration tool featuring the PC-12 NG. Two apps — one for the interior and one for the exterior — may be downloaded and installed on the iPad platform. These new electronic tools allow customers in North and South American to design a personalized aircraft. The interior design app enables prospective owners and enthusiasts to select from one of four BMW DesignWorks USA interior themes specifically designed for those markets. Customers can also make individual adjustments to woods, carpet, leather, plating and other interior materials.
The FAA, bowing to broad industry opposition, will rescind its interpretation of a rule governing rest for airline mechanics, reverting to a more flexible view that both management and unions have long considered acceptable. The agency delivered the news in a Dec. 26 letter to the Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA), which spearheaded the challenge to an FAA interpretation made nearly three years ago.
Cessna Aircraft has signed a letter of intent to acquire Jet Aviation's maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) facilities in Zurich, Switzerland and Dusseldorf, Germany. The sale, expected to be completed by year-end, would not include the FBOs at those locations. Jet Aviation, which had spent the past couple of years reviving its struggling completions business, has more recently experienced a downturn in its services division as demand from Europe dipped.
Lou Churchville (Business Development Max-Viz Portland, Ore. )
“The Alabama Bet” (Viewpoint, December 2012, page 9) was a nice piece on Al Ueltschi and your multi-port connections to all the elements. Life really is a web that we often do not recognize in all its interconnectivity . . . let alone what's behind the curtain from where the web springs: the curtain Al just passed through . . . perhaps to spin yet another thread. Business Development Max-Viz Portland, Ore.
Baker Aviation recently expanded into their second hangar at Addition Airport (KADS) and was scheduled to move into a third hangar in January. This expansion brings the total turbine aircraft maintenance space to more than 25,400 sq. ft. Baker Aviation Maintenance received its FAA Repair Station certification in 2012 and specialized in airframe maintenance for Hawker, King Air, Beechjet, Citation, Learjet, Challenger and Gulfstream aircraft. The Baker facility in Ft.
Banyan Air Service and VisionSafe have entered into an agreement, naming Banyan an Emergency Vision Assurance System (EVAS) Sales and Service Center for the Southeast United States. EVAS is an FAA tested and certified system available for all turboprop and jet aircraft that displaces smoke enabling pilots to see the flight path and instruments during an emergency.
Eclipse Aerospace remains on track to bring new Eclipse 550 very light jets to market in July, Chairman and CEO Mason Holland says. The company in June restarted the production line that had been shuttered for nearly 4 yr. Eclipse executives, who bought the program out of bankruptcy in August 2009, have maintained that they have had the resources to resume production, but first wanted to realign the supplier team and wait for the market to improve before building new aircraft. The company has remained cautious, as orders and the market slowly improve.
You pick up USA Today from under your hotel door and the front-page headline shouts about another aviation accident. As you glean the details of the misfortune that befell the crew and passengers, know that your own passengers are possibly reading the same article. Many will want to talk to you, to be reassured by you.
Eclipse Aerospace hopes to contract to replace the fleet of T-1A Jayhawks (Beechjet 400s) flown for the U.S. Air Force Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training (SUPT) program. The company responded Jan. 7 to an Air Force request for information (RFI) for a potential large fleet of very light jets (VLJs) to support the SUPT Multi-place Training Track. The Air Force released the RFI on Nov.
Sterling Partners, a Chicago-based private equity company, acquired an established aviation-maintenance college and plans to build partnerships with airlines, aircraft manufacturers and MRO providers, enhance the school's Tulsa, Okla., campus and open new campuses. “We're particularly excited about the opportunity to develop deeper partnerships with the industry,” says Jason Rosenberg, a principal with Sterling Partners.
