Jet Works Air Center of Denton, Texas, has been awarded a multi-million-dollar contract to convert a Boeing MD-87 airliner into a 24-seat luxury VIP aircraft for a Middle Eastern client. The revamped twinjet will feature a luxurious cabin with a leading-edge entertainment system and Wi-Fi Internet access, said Jet Works President Trey Bryson. The MD-87, the first of this type converted by Jet Works, arrived at the completion center in mid-January.
A King Air C90A (N57WR) crashed into terrain while attempting a missed approach from Mount Airy/Surry County, N.C., Airport (MWK). The pilot-in-command and a pilot-rated passenger who was “helping” the PIC were killed, as were their four passengers. The accident occurred on Feb. 1, 2008, at about 1128 EST.
Your article on the crash of the Quest Diagnostics Baron 58 (“A Failed Culture of Safety,” February 2011, page 53) appears to have made the same errors as the NTSB “factual” report, as well as the mainstream press. I have worked in aviation as a non-licensed “dispatcher” or flight coordinator for an FAR Part 135/flight school operator, as well as a Part 91 corporate flight department. A phrase that’s missing from your article, the NTSB report and the press coverage is “. . .
Air traffic controllers from airports around the Los Angeles Basin will step up use of an advanced tower simulator at the FAA’s regional office in Hawthorne, Calif., in the coming months as the agency closes on the final stages of a nationwide simulator deployment program. The final four MaxSim training systems, developed by simulation specialists Adacel, will be installed at sites around the United States to expedite new controller training. The FAA has 14 systems at its Oklahoma City training academy and 22 others at or near major U.S.
The Finnish Aviation Academy has received FTD 2 FNPT II MCC dual qualification for its Embraer Phenom 100 devices manufactured by Frasca International Inc. The two devices to be installed feature TruVision Global 220-deg. visual systems. A Frasca-built avionics trainer for the Phenom 100s Prodigy Flight Deck is also in use there.
Lindbergh Foundation 34th Annual Awards: Dean Kamen, noted inventor, educator and pilot, has been selected to receive the Lindbergh Award for 2011. GE Aviation is the recipient of the Foundation’s Corporate Award for Balance, and Milbry Polk, founder and director emeritus of WINGs WorldQuest will receive the Anne Morrow Lindbergh Award.
Dubai-based Empire Aviation Group and RMSI a Dubai-based medevac, emergency medical services and clinical services specialist, have partnered to launch a new intensive-care air ambulance service. Empire will manage and operate a Hawker 800XP business jet configured as an air ambulance for RMSI.
FlightSafety International will offer Bombardier Challenger 605 training to customers in Europe at the company’s London Farnborough facility in the U.K. Training is slated to begin early next year using a new FlightSafety-built full-flight simulator. The Farnborough center can accommodate 15 simulators and train 3,800 professionals annually. The site houses training programs for Bombardier, Cessna, Gulfstream, Hawker Beechcraft and Sikorsky models.
Carter Aviation Technologies completed initial flight tests of its proof-of-concept Personal Air Vehicle (PAV), an aircraft that combines a rotor for vertical takeoff and landing with a propeller and wing for efficient high-speed flight. The four-place PAV uses Carter’s slowed rotor/compound (SR/C) technology. The rotor is unpowered, as in an autogyro, but when spun up by the engine it allows a “jump” takeoff. On landing, the energy stored in the high-inertia rotor allows the aircraft to autorotate to a “zero-roll” landing.
Dassault has delivered more than 100 Falcon 7X trijets to operators and the fleet has logged more than 60,000 flight hours since beginning service in mid-2007, according to the firm’s records. Based on accumulated fleet experience, operators say the aircraft provides an impressive step up in range, speed and cabin comfort compared to Falcon 900 series aircraft, the models most respondents in our survey said they previously operated.
I chose my career field on a sunny summer day outside of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, near Gatlinburg, Tenn. I was seven. We had been tooling along on a family vacation when up ahead we spotted an old, bubble front Bell 47. Beside it was a sign that read, "Helicopter Rides, $5." "Dad! Only $5! A helicopter ride! Can we? That would be sooo cool! Please."
Bell Helicopter will equip its new Magellan 412 EP commercial helicopter with Rogerson Kratos cockpit display systems. The system, following on the highly successful Rogerson Kratos cockpit displays for the Bell Model 429, utilizes similar hardware and advanced features tailored to the 412EP Magellan mission. The 412 EP system will have four high-resolution 8–by-10-in. displays with advanced graphics and multiple video inputs and it will be compatible with night-vision goggles.
Canada’s National Research Council Institute for Aerospace Research is looking for licensees for a fly by wire control system it developed that automatically switches between two control response rates. In instrument or low-visibility conditions where visual cues are poor to nonexistent, pilots tend to make slower and more deliberate control inputs. In visual conditions, pilots tend to make more rapid control inputs.
Gulfstream sees “robust” demand for large-cabin and long-range business jets as the world economy continues to recover. Demand for large-cabin aircraft has already returned to pre-recession levels, while the outlook for mid-cabin jets continues to improve. Orders from outside the United States are proportionally greater than in the past, the company says.
Industry groups praised the creation of a new Unleaded Aviation Transition Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) that will provide recommendations regarding the development and use of an unleaded avgas. The General Aviation Avgas Coalition had requested the creation of the ARC.
On April 11, the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame will enshrine the following people at its annual banquet at the Century of Flight Hangar at the Georgia Museum of Aviation. (Contact Nicole Bissette at (478) 328-0704 for reservations and information.)
Cessna Aircraft Co. delivered two Grand Caravans to Russian operator AirGEO. The aircraft will be based at Krasnoyarsk Yemelyanovo Airport in Siberia and support the community with passenger and cargo transportation as well as special missions. Alexander Mamaev, general director and owner of AirGEO, said: “Until now, our fleet has consisted entirely of helicopters, so these aircraft represent a breakthrough move into fixed-wing operations for us. We fully expect the two Caravans to be the first of many fixed-wing aircraft in our fleet.”
Peter Diamandis, a publishing executive (and not the head of the X Prize Foundation), was explaining to me how the company had come into being. He had been working for CBS in Manhattan and Larry Tisch, the billionaire who then ran the place, was selling all kinds of things to reduce debt and improve the bottom line. Tisch had been considering offloading the company’s magazine division to an outside group, so Diamandis began devising a more attractive plan for taking over the division himself.
“In Close and Gusty” (October 2010, page 44) by Ross Detwiler is an excellent article on the subject of wind-shear landing and should be mandatory reading for all pilots with regard to VREF bug setting.
Bell Helicopter will upgrade its 412EP medium turbine twin with uprated engines and a glass cockpit for retrofit and as an option on new production aircraft beginning in 2012. Pratt & Whitney Canada is to increase the output of its PT6T Twin Pac powerplant, now 1,800 shp, by 15% to increase single-engine and hot-and-high performance and provide for growth in payload and range. The upgrade also will introduce digital engine controls.
“Like a lot of people in this industry, I’ve got to believe the worst is behind us, “said Dave Labrozzi, president of GE Capital Corporate Aircraft Finance, at the end of 2010. “We are now in recovery mode. Time will tell how fast and how far the recovery will be.” Like most companies in business aviation, GE Capital Corporate Aircraft Finance faced challenges during the past couple of years.
Hawker Beechcraft Services has acquired the first test aircraft for the Hawker 400XPR program and has initiated design engineering on the $2.24 million upgrade of the Hawker 400XP/Beechjet 400A.
Cessna Aircraft Co. delivered three Citation Sovereign business jets to the Flight Inspection Center of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, responsible for inspecting navigation, radar, communication and navaid systems as well as proving flight procedures in all civil airports and airways on the Chinese mainland and in Hong Kong and Macau. The Citations will be used to calibrate navaid systems serving China’s rapidly growing network of airports. The aircraft have been certified to operate from airports of up to 15,000 ft.
American Eurocopter has delivered a VIP-configured EC145 to Lewis Energy. It is the third Eurocopter aircraft for the company. “We started with an AS350 and then moved to the EC135 for its larger cabin size and twin-engine performance,” said Rod Lewis, Lewis Energy founder, president and CEO.”The EC145 gives us an even bigger cabin.” American Eurocopter said it worked closely with the customer on the interior completion and the exterior paint of its new aircraft.
The NATA has released a revised guidebook Refueling and Quality Control Procedures for Airport Service and Support Operations. The 2011 revision includes an in-depth review of topics relating to aviation fuel handling, with photographs and a new, easy-to-read format. The new guidebook includes chapters addressing safety; aviation fuels, fuel handling, quality control and testing; equipment; operational procedures; training; and resources. The guidebook is referenced in FAA Advisory Circular (AC) 150/5230-4A, Aircraft Fuel Storage, Handling and Dispensing on Airports.
