T his past Feb. 1, some aerospace heavy hitters came to Wichita, and they were on the prowl. Boeing, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, even upstart Nextant Aerospace — all were shopping for experienced workers at an informal job fair held at the local Marriott. They know that many of the assembly lines in this town are quiet and that the people who work on them may be sitting at home, waiting for an upturn, which is way overdue.
American Eurocopter announced that Air Medical Resource Group signed an agreement to buy three AS350 B3e helicopters with options for four more, making it the U.S. launch customer for the updated version of the AStar family. The AS350 B3e has a more-powerful Turbomeca Arriel 2D turboshaft engine with FADEC. Certification is planned this summer, with deliveries before year-end, the company said.
The first approaches using Europe’s EGNOS satellite navigation system were flown into Pau Pyrénées Airport in France by a Dassault Falcon 900LX equipped with EASy II, the second generation of Dassault’s flight deck system. EGNOS augments the accuracy and integrity of the U.S. GPS satellite system to within one meter horizontally and two meters vertically, allowing LPV (Localizer Performance with Vertical Guidance) approaches down to 250-ft. minimums.
Led by Europe, demand for civil helicopters is showing signs of recovery, and deliveries in the 2011-15 period will be 5% higher than over the last five years, at 4,200 to 4,400 rotorcraft, projects Honeywell. A survey of more than 1,000 chief pilots and flight department managers operating 2,150 helicopters worldwide showed a 2% increase in their five-year fleet replacement and expansion plans. Although modest, this ends two years of declining demand, Honeywell says. Planned fleet utilization also increased in almost all regions.
Eurocopter booked 68 new orders and agreements comprising eight of its helicopter models from operators in the United States, Canada, Europe and Russia during Heli-Expo 2011. New business concluded during the March industry event in Orlando, Fla., included the EC145 T2 unveiled at the show, which won a total of 17 launch commitments. The upgraded version of Eurocopter’s EC145 incorporates a Fenestron tail rotor, more-powerful Arriel 2E turboshaft engines, a new avionics suite and a four-axis autopilot.
Dassault says its sales and business aircraft deliveries will fall this year, with uncertainty over when the market will properly recover. Although there has been a slowdown in order cancellations and a slight uptick in order activity in the business aviation market, company president Charles Edelstenne said that the uncertain macroeconomic environment makes it difficult to predict how quickly the market will rebound.
Rockwell Collins announced the first installation of a Pro Line 21 avionics system on a rotary-wing aircraft. A Pro Line 21 Integrated Display System (IDS) was integrated into a Sikorsky S-61 long-range helicopter. The retrofit was a collaborative effort with Toronto -based Vector Aerospace.
ExecuJet Aircraft Trading (Zurich, Switzerland) — Guillaume Chamoin has joined the aircraft sales arm of the ExecuJet Aviation Group, becoming the company’s second aircraft sales director in Europe. Based in Paris, he will primarily focus on Central and Eastern Europe. Before coming to ExecuJet, Chamoin spent the last seven and a half years with Bombardier and FlexJet.
The used aircraft market, while improving, remains a major concern, declared GAMA chairman John Rosanvallon during the association’s annual “State of the Industry” presentation.
The chief pilot of an FAR Part 91 corporate flight department that often fields Gulfstreams through Alaska to Asian destinations provided this succinct advice to flight crews who may be headed above 60°N latitude for the first time:
Bombardier delivered the 300th Challenger 300 to an unnamed North American customer in February at Bombardier Aerospace’s headquarters in Dorval, Quebec. Customer representatives, company leaders and employees from an almost 1,000-strong Challenger workforce were on hand for the occasion.
Today, the light jet market is awash with more than 1,200 used aircraft, most of which are fully mature products, whose qualities, support and appeal are well known. Also for sale are more than two dozen diminutive Eclipse 500 VLJs, which are far riskier investments. These have yet to mature into productive business travel assets in spite of the $1 billion spent to develop aircraft, whose fleet total now stands at 259 units.
Europe’s FBO chain expanded again with a fourth facility, this one in Valencia. Assistair sold its existing assets to ExecuJet, and all services and staff of the 22-year business are to be retained. Passengers can feel comfortable in a VIP lounge with Internet access and refreshments. Crew briefing areas provide Internet access and 24-hr. service, and Nicole Gut will manage the facility.
The front page story in the January/February issue of “Flightlines,” an electronic magazine for Hawker Beechcraft employees, carries the headline, “Committed to Wichita” and describes the company’s acceptance of an incentive package that ties it to the city and a minimum 4,000-person workforce for at least 10 more years.
The NBAA reiterated its strong opposition to the FAA’s plan to limit participation in the Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program, saying the actions represent unwarranted invasion of privacy and a potential security risk for passengers aboard aircraft. Under the BARR program, the FAA accommodates requests of aircraft owners and operators to exclude their aircraft from ASDI and NASSI data feeds. In the notice, the FAA says, “We have tentatively determined that it is in the best interests of the U.S.
The first international Cessna Skycatcher delivery was to Aeromil Pacific at Sunshine Coast Airport in Queensland, Australia. It will be used for sales demonstrations throughout 2011. The Skycatcher is Cessna’s entry in the light sport aircraft category. It features a Garmin G300 avionics suite and is powered by a Teledyne Continental O200D engine. Priced at $113,500, the two-seat, single-engine aircraft has a maximum speed of 118 kt. with a maximum range of 470 nm.
Bombardier Aerospace has a dedicated support aircraft based in Dubai for rapid parts delivery to resolve Aircraft on Ground (AOG) situations for customers in the Middle East and Asia. The Challenger 601 PartsExpress business jet is now on alert around the clock to transport parts, technicians and test equipment from Dubai International Airport to Learjet, Challenger and Global aircraft operators.
CitationAir’s fleet of 81 aircraft just got faster as the company added six of the fastest production business jet to its lineup. The Mach 0.92 Citation X can take customers from Los Angeles to New York in just over 4 hr., lopping a half hour off the typical time.
The used aircraft market, while improving, remains a major concern, declared GAMA chairman John Rosanvallon during the association’s annual “State of the Industry” presentation.
The Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE) released a report that warns that society may be dangerously over-reliant on satellite navigation systems like GPS. According to the RAE, the range of applications using the technology is now so broad that, without adequate independent backup, signal failure or interference could potentially affect not just land, sea and air navigation, but broad swaths of the global economy. LORAN advocates would likely concur.
This short adventure began with an e-mail from a friend who flew with me at Piedmont Airlines. Vince was a 727 flight engineer but was now in Iraq with a company that has thousands of employees in Iraq. It uses Iraqi airliners with two Boeing 737-200s to shuttle its employees in country. The job was for a check airman to work on safety and compliance and to occasionally ride jump seat. A walk in the park, so to speak.
FBO Million Air Houston announced in January a new general manager in the person of Robert Lee, most recently GM at Atlantic Aviation in Wheeling, Ill. He has more than 20 years of experience in aviation operations.
At GAMA’s “State of the Industry” press conference in late February, GAMA Chairman John Rosanvallon, president and CEO of Dassault Falcon, reported that the global economic downturn continued to negatively impact general aviation manufacturers in 2010, but that signs of a recovery have started to emerge. “Our industry experienced another challenging year that required many manufacturers to continue to make careful decisions about production schedules, employment and product development,” said Rosanvallon.
On the first of the year, this FBO became an Avfuel dealer and will offer that vendor’s Avtrip program, with double points for all purchases through June 30.
Air Partner’s advice for a successful evacuation: Analyze risk — how likely is it that you may need to evacuate staff; is there political unrest or volcanic activity in the area? Have a planned exit strategy. Ensure your staff know the drill and have practiced it. Engage a professional organization to carry out the evacuation.
