There are plenty of choices in today's pre-owned light jet market and plenty of trade-offs in cabin comfort, performance and direct operating cost. The Beechjet 400/400A has one of the roomiest cabins in its class, rivaling those of Phenom 300 or Learjet 40XR, although it's about two feet shorter in length. It will climb directly to FL 410, or higher, and cruise at 440 KIAS, assuming standard-day conditions. And most aircraft in the resale market are priced at $1.2-$1.8 million, an attractive value.
Fokker Aircraft Services recently handed over a converted Airbus A320 airliner to MasterJet, a Geneva, Switzerland-based operator. The makeover — which was done at the company facility in Woensdrecht, Netherlands — included a complete teardown of the airline interior and installation of five separate cabins, including a private suite with bedroom, bathroom and office; a conference and dining area; separate executive lounge; and special first-class seating area.
Development of new products always involves a decided end point at which the design will be frozen; once that point is reached, changes become more costly to make. Engineers therefore use a convenient tiered system to determine where the end point of a program will be. NASA and the Department of Defense, the government agencies aside from the FAA most closely involved in the aerospace sciences, provide a ready-made scale called the Technology Readiness Level to measure the maturity of a new technology.
Smyrna Air Center, near Nashville, Tenn., has completed its first engine upgrade of a Beech King Air E-90 with 750-shp GE Aviation M601E-11As. The switch from the original Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-28 turboprops was made for AeroMetric, which operates the King Air on geospatial survey work to develop digital elevation models and maps out of Anchorage, Alaska.
JetSupport announced it added the Dassault Falcon 7X to its EASA Part-145 maintenance approval certificate. JetSupport's certificate now covers business aviation aircraft types ranging from the Cessna Citation series to all Dassault Falcon aircraft. JetSupport is based next to the new business aviation terminal at Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, The Netherlands.
Jet Aviation Moscow Vnukovo recently signed an agreement with Vnukovo Invest, a co-owner of Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow, to expand its operations into a new hangar, storage and office facility later this year. Jet Aviation began operating at Vnukovo in November 2007 and has offered 24/7 line maintenance and AOG support throughout Russia since 2009.
FAA corrected a technical error in its regulations governing fractional aircraft ownership programs that were issued in 2003. Specifically, the amendment revises Part 91.1091 (f)(2) to replace the term “check pilot” with “flight instructor.” “Because the section title applies to flight instructors, it is obvious that the use of the term 'check pilot' in (f)(2) should have been 'flight instructor,'” the agency says. The change was effective June 2.
Piaggio Aero, one of the oldest names in aviation, expressed faith in its future by breaking ground for a new, ultra-modern and super-efficient manufacturing plant at Villanova d'Albenga, Italy. The new plant, set to open in 2013, will manufacture parts and subassemblies for the P180 Avanti II turboprop as well as aircraft engines. If Piaggio goes ahead with its long-studied business jet, that would also be manufactured there. Meanwhile, the Avanti pusher will continue to be assembled and finished at the company's historic facility in Genoa.
Quest Aircraft Co. said it is increasing the production rate for the its Kodiak turboprop. A recapitalization earlier this year plus new investor funding enabled the company to expand and invest in key areas, including production increases at its Sandpoint, Idaho facility. Quest began customer deliveries of the Kodiak in late 2007, and it has since been deployed in more than 10 countries around the world in a variety of applications. Kodiaks are in service with charter operators, small businesses, personal owners, skydiving operations, U.S.
The Salina Airport Authority's board of directors approved a $218,994 design contract with Wichita-based Howard and Helmer Architecture to handle renovations at the Kansas facility's Hangar 959. Hawker Beechcraft is vacating the hangar, known as Big Bertha. The building can handle narrowbody aircraft and maintenance, repair and overhaul operations.
May business aircraft activity was up 3.6% over April, according to “TraqPak” data from Cincinnati-based Argus. Looking at the results by operational category, all segments posted a positive month, with FAR Part 91 operations leading the way, up 5.5%, says the report. “Part 135 charter activity came in second, up 2%, and the fractional market showed a slight increase of 0.1%,” the company says. All aircraft categories posted an increase over April, with turboprops providing the highest increase, up 5.4%.
These graphs are designed to illustrate the performance of the Dassault Falcon 2000S under a variety of range, payload, speed and density altitude conditions. Bill Miller, Dassault Falcon Jet's chief sales engineer, provided the data for the Range/Payload Profile. Data for the Specific Range chart were extracted from the Dassault Falcon 2000LX Performance Manual, adjusted for the projected basic operating weight and fuel capacity of the Falcon 2000S.
Investigators with the French Bureau d'Equetes et d'Analyses (BEA), the agency charged with investigating the crash of Air France Flight 447, now are focusing on a breakdown in situational awareness on the part of the flight crew and possible pilot error as contributing factors in the June 2009 mishap that killed 228 people when the Airbus A330 crashed into the South Atlantic. The latest findings broaden the scope of the inquiry well beyond a fly-by-wire flight control malfunction, possibly caused by iced-up pitot probes.
A new rule — that applies to electrical and electronic systems installed on aircraft certificated under FAR Parts 23, 25, 27 and 29 — establishes two levels of lightning protection for aircraft systems based on the consequences of system function failure: catastrophic and hazaderous/major consequences. This regulation, which goes into effect Aug. 8, also addresses lightning protection for systems according to the aircraft's potential for lightning exposure.
Air Methods Corp. will acquire OF Air Holdings Corp., parent of Omniflight Helicopters Inc. Omniflight provides air medical transport services throughout the U.S. under community-based and hospital-based service delivery models, utilizing a fleet of approximately 100 helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. Omniflight is headquartered in Addison, Texas, with operations in 18 states involving over 75 base locations. Air Methods will acquire Omniflight for an aggregate purchase price of $200 million in cash on a cash-free, debt-free basis.
A U.S. Air Force tactical airlift pilot during the Vietnam conflict, I crisscrossed the length and breadth of the war zone on a regular basis. My C-123K Provider was a 60,000-lb. workhorse whose curious pairing of two Pratt & Whitney R2800 radials and two General Electric J-85 wing-mounted turbojets made it surprisingly well-suited for its mission.
Safe Flight Instrument Corp.'s Power Line Detection System (PDS) has been certified for installation on the Enstrom 480B helicopter, and the system will soon be available for retrofit on the approximately 90 in-service models of that rotorcraft. The PDS also will be offered as an option on new production models of the light turbine helicopter built by the Menominee, Mich., rotary-wing manufacturer. Enstrom has already delivered PDS-equipped 480B helicopters to the Royal Thai Army as part of a 16-aircraft contract.
Rockwell Collins has introduced a digital high-definition (HD) upgrade to aircraft equipped with its ACMS and CMS-1 cabin management systems. The upgrade includes HD monitors, dual Blu-ray disc players and an HD audio/video distributor that also can upscale analog content to HD quality. The avionics manufacturer says the upgrade enables passengers to enjoy a high-end home-theater experience without the expense and downtime required by changing control switches and modifying the woodwork.
St. Louis-based JetCorp Technical Services has received an STC for the installation of Aircell's Cabin Telecommunications Router (CTR) in a Bombardier Challenger 300 business jet. The CTR provides in-cabin Wi-Fi capability for the Gogo Biz Inflight Internet service, which enables passengers to use their BlackBerry, iPhone and other Wi-Fi enabled devices inflight at connectivity speeds equivalent to ground-based hotspots.
BAE Systems and U.K. design consultant Design Q recently unveiled the latest interior concept for the Avro Business Jet (ABJ) — the ABJ Eleganté. This new concept is the fourth of five new interiors developed by Design Q for ABJs. The Eleganté interior features a large forward galley, which can be shut off from the main cabin for privacy. The forward lounge has two large sofas, a dining table in the aft section and a 46-in. display. The dining area can be used as a work area.
ACSS (an L-3 Communication and Thales company) Phoenix, named Kimberly Murdoch vice president of operations, responsible for manufacturing repair and overhaul and integrated supply chain management. She will report to Terry Flaishans, ACSS vice president and general manager. American Helicopter Society International (AHS), Alexandria, Va., has selected Michael J. Hirschberg to be its executive director. He replaces M.E. Rhett Flater, who served the Society for 20 years.
More than 15 years ago, the FAA chartered a human factors team to look into the causes of a spate of accidents that involved crews trying to function within highly automated cockpits that had been introduced by a new generation of aircraft. The Flight Safety Foundation published the results of that initiative in 1996 and noted in the report that one key issue centered on the disconnect between pilots and the airplane, often expressed by crew members as “Why did it do that?” or “What is it doing now?”
New research from Hawker Beechcraft Corp. (HBC) and Corporate Jet Investor indicates that the majority of business aviation financing experts expect demand for financing to increase in Europe, the Middle East and Africa over the next five years. None of those interviewed anticipate demand for financing in those regions to fall. The findings are based on a poll of 48 aviation finance experts that was conducted at the International Corporate Jet & Helicopter Finance 2011 conference earlier this year.
Honeywell is not the only company developing cockpit systems with active ingredients drawn from human factors sciences. Derek Jensen, senior engineering manager of flight deck user interfaces at Rockwell Collins, says his team engages customers early on and joins engineers, pilots, advisory groups and OEMs in evaluating functionality.
The Department of Labor has a useful website to help explain the various labor laws. Although they are very complex, and almost every situation has a unique way to interpret the rules, the website has helpful explanatory brochures and regulatory and interpretative materials. It is available on the Wage and Hour Division's website: www.dol.gov/whd/
