Honda Aircraft's production facilities in Greensboro, N.C., are now complete, and CEO Michimasa Fujino says one of the reasons he selected the site for the $100 million plant (not including the equipment) and headquarters facility is “space for expansion,” clearly implying there is more to come. Honda refers to the current HondaJet as the “Model 420,” based on the design maximum true airspeed. The first three conformal aircraft for flight test exist, with a fourth to start in assembly soon. F1 is flying and will soon begin a series of stall tests.
GE Honda Engines said the HF120 engine for the HondaJet has amassed about 2,000 ground and flight test hours and 1,860 starts. Certification testing is on schedule for completion by the end of this year. Eighteen engines have been built for “certification testing and customer flight tests,” including several that were “rebuilt multiple times with instrumentation to support unique certification tests.” GE Honda Engines has embarked on product support and services infrastructure development “to assure a flawless entry into service,” according to a company spokesperson.
NBAA and AOPA are concerned that in the tumult of federal debt reduction and searches for new revenue sources, the issue of general aviation user fees may reappear. Most reports suggest that no decision on that contentious issue has been made, but on the heels of recent hot rhetoric about the use of private aircraft, general aviation has much to worry about, writes Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association President Craig Fuller.
Eclipse is now turning a profit. “We make more money than we spend,” Eclipse Aerospace CEO and Board chairman Mason Holland told BCA Editor-in-Chief William Garvey. “We're a profitable company year in and year out.” “We are investing additional dollars toward the production effort every month,” Holland says. He speaks about the return to production now as a certainty, with the recent partnership with Sikorsky a major factor in moving forward. He anticipates 60% of sales being outside the U.S.
Hubbard Aviation Technologies has thrown a lifeline to operators of European-registered Gulfstream II, II-SP, II-B and III aircraft, winning EASA certification of its QS3 Hush Kit System that brings the jets to compliance with Stage 3 noise standards. The company says a QS3-equipped Gulfstream not only meets Stage 3 noise requirements but maintains the aircraft's performance, allowing max gross weight takeoffs, using Gulfstream-approved flap settings with no reduction of EPR, the company says, and is the only such system with EASA certification.
Walter C. Pague passed away July 1 at the age of 95 in Middletown, Ohio. Returning from service as a Naval aviator in 1945, he was the first pilot at American Rolling Mill Company, now Armco, and founded its flight department, retiring in 1980. In 1946 he was one of the 13 founders of the Corporation Aircraft Owners Association, which evolved into today's National Business Aviation Association. Pague served on the association's board of directors from 1947 to 1964.
New noses for the Twin Beech: A Royal Canadian Air Force Beech 18 is a flying test bed for the 500-hp Canadian P&W turbine (top, left). Volpar tricycle gear conversion by Capital Aviation, Springfield, Ill., of the Beech C-45H, delivered to Midland Investment of San Antonio (bottom, left).
One afternoon in the late 1990s, I was at United Air Lines' central maintenance facility. During a break in one of the presentations on marketing MRO services to other carriers, my minder whispered in my ear, “Wanna' see something really cool?” — a question for which any journalist has but one response.
Here are some examples of actual incidents in which Boeing's Aircraft Health Management (AHM) service played a role in keeping 'em flying: A flight en route lost its weather radar, an MEL item that would have grounded the aircraft after arrival at its destination. The fault had been reported to the operator's central maintenance facility via ACARS, analyzed and the necessary part identified, ordered, and transported to the arrival airport. The aircraft landed, the part was installed, and the flight continued after a brief delay.
The ability to maneuver is severely restricted around many business jet airports in mountainous terrain, such as Aspen-Pitkin County/Sardy Field, Colo. (ASE) and Truckee-Tahoe, Calif., Airport (TRK). Often such airports are served by rather infamous instrument approach procedures with missed approach points (MAP) that terminate at significant heights and/or a long way from the runway.
From the simplest knives of the caveman days to the most advanced computers of today, tools have helped make our lives easier and enabled us to do amazing things. Aircraft maintenance technicians have a special relationship with tools. From wrenches to laptops, we just cannot work on aircraft without them. However, a lost or misplaced tool can cause missed flights, damage or even destruction of an aircraft. Keeping tools where they belong through good tool control is the cornerstone of good maintenance practices.
While keeping tools from being left behind is an important part of any foreign object damage (FOD) control program, do not forget about the importance of keeping debris, trash and flotsam out of your aircraft. The National Aerospace FOD Prevention Inc. website (www.nafpi.com) can help maintenance managers develop and manage FOD control programs. The group provides access to experts on the subject and provides links to helpful hints and training materials for FOD prevention.
Push up the throttles in the Hawker 200 on takeoff and you might think you're strapped in a Learjet 25, considering this aircraft's rapid runway acceleration, excellent climb performance and near Mach 0.80 cruise speeds in the mid-forties. That's to be expected. The Hawker 200 has the best thrust-to-weight ratio of any business aircraft in current production, even edging out the athletic Cessna Citation CJ4.
These graphs are designed to illustrate the performance of the Hawker 200 in a variety of range, payload, speed and density altitude conditions. Hawker Beechcraft's chief sales engineer, Martin Tuck, provided the chart data. Please note: These data are preliminary and are subject to change as a result of flight tests leading up to aircraft certification, now slated for the first half of 2012.
The Hawker 200's Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 cockpit looks a lot like that of the Premier IA, with its three 10-in. by 8-in. AFD-3010E LCD screens, stand-alone annunciator light panel and dual multifunction CDUs in the center console. The most obvious difference is the Meggitt EPD-40002 integrated electronic standby instrument system that replaces the cluster of three standby instruments aboard the Premier IA.
The FADEC-equipped -3AP is one of Williams most advanced versions of the FJ44 turbofan family, producing 3,050-lb. thrust for takeoff and weighing only 528 lb. Compared to earlier -3 engines, the -3AP incorporates many aerodynamic, weight reduction and durability improvements. The two-spool engine features a wide-chord fan, three axial-flow compressor stages, a single centrifugal high-pressure compressor powered by a single stage high-pressure turbine and a two-stage low pressure turbine that powers the axial compressor and fan.
Leave the boundaries of the United States and you lose the locally available feed from FAA radar (known as ASDI, for Aircraft Situation Display to Industry) because, as everyone knows, radar stops at the horizon's edge. Once you head out over the water, you can continue to rely on air traffic management to provide position information via the traditional transoceanic longitudinal reporting points. But if you want more frequent near-real-time position and tracking info, you'll need to sign up for satellite tracking services.
Air Ledger is a new “cloud”-based package from Aero Management Solutions of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., designed to improve communication and relations between aircraft owners and managers. Version 1.0, launched in early June, enables owners to review financial data transparently without requiring a dedicated application but via simple Internet access allowing online review as well as submittal of invoices. The company says that with this scalable solution, owners can configure reports to their liking and that use of the system reduces risk of loss of records.
Jeppesen received Department of Homeland Security approval to issue Form I-20s to non-U.S. students in the company's dispatcher training program who are seeking a visa. The procedure streamlines the visa process for students and offers a marked improvement over applying for a business visa, which, according to Jeppesen, often results in denial of application and causes delays. The company says it can help out with B-1 (business) and M-1 (student) applications for those seeking a dispatcher certificate from the FAA.
Gama Aviation received Wyvern approval for all its operating bases in Europe, the Mideast and the Americas. The business aviation services company is based at Farnborough, England. In receiving the seal of safety excellence, The Wyvern Standard, Gama agrees to meet strict standards audited annually and monitored continually.
Some aircraft accident and incident investigations require years of meticulous laboratory analysis, human factors studies, meteorological research, flight deck simulations and inflight experimentation before a probable cause can be determined. Alternatively, some incidents provide investigators with few mysteries, but rather a collection of facts that leave them simply amazed that such things can happen in modern sophisticated aircraft operations.
So what was Barack Obama doing 24 hr. before his now infamous June 29 press conference in which he repeatedly bashed “the tax break for corporate jets?”
Air Traffic Organization (ATO), Washington, has appointed David Grizzle chief operating officer.` Avantair Inc., Clearwater, Fla., has hired Robert DeGrie as vice president of maintenance responsible for the Maintenance and Materials departments including the Camarillo, Calif.; Clearwater/St. Petersburg; and Dallas locations. Christopher Gleason has joined the company as area sales manager for Texas, Oklahoma, Colorado and Utah.
