AgustaWestland delivered two AW139 medium twin engine helicopters to the Cyprus Ministry of Justice in December to perform law enforcement, border patrol and search and rescue missions. Three more AW139s are to be delivered to the Cyprus Ministry of Defence for search and rescue and utility-EMS duties in the Cyprus Flight Information Region (FIR).
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.
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.
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.
Airbus Corporate Jet Centre (ACJC), the Airbus unit specializing in Airbus Corporate Jet VIP cabin completion, has signed an “EngineLife” agreement with Snecma to propose full engine service support for CFM International CFM56-5B engines to its VIP, corporate and government customers.
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.
Dec. 31, 2010 — At about 1426 EST, a Eurocopter EC-135-P2 (N312PH), operated by Petroleum Helicopters Inc. as AirCare 5, and a Cessna 172H (N2876L) collided in midair approximately one-half mile northwest of the Shenandoah Valley Regional Airport (SHD), Weyers Cave, Va. The Cessna airplane departed controlled flight after the right wing separated, and the airplane was destroyed by impact forces at ground contact. The helicopter sustained minor damage and landed safely at SHD. The commercial pilot and passenger onboard the Cessna were killed.
Bombardier launched development of the clean-sheet Learjet 45 almost immediately after buying the company in June 1990. Unlike previous Learjets, the fuselage has a non-circular cross section that increases head and shoulder room for the passengers. It has a flat floor, plus a full-width, externally serviced aft lav. Interiors may be configured either with a fore-aft double club section or a center club with two front and two aft chairs. A belted potty seat is optional. There is a 50-cu.-ft. aft external baggage compartment.
Stratos lives. The team developing the Stratos 714 single-engine personal jet reported Jan. 10 that the project had third-party funding enabling wind tunnel tests of a one-eighth scale model. Those tests are expected to take place in April, probably at the University of Washington. Carsten Sundin, Stratos Aircraft’s chief technical officer and vice president of engineering, said the design of the four-place, all-composite aircraft was the product of extensive use of computation fluid dynamics (CFD).
The first production FAA-conforming HondaJet flew for the first time Dec. 20 from the Honda Aircraft Co. facility at Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, N.C. During the 51-min. flight, the aircraft’s flight characteristics and performance were analyzed and systems checks were conducted. Two other aircraft will join in the flight test program by this summer and another two will be employed in structural testing. All five aircraft are being built with production tooling in the company’s R&D center.
Solena is working with British Airways on a project to convert waste biomass destined for landfills into jet fuel. Solena plans to build a plant in East London to convert 500,000 tons of waste per year into 16 million gallons of jet fuel. BA has signed a letter-of-intent to purchase the entire output and use it to power part of its fleet from 2014. Solena, based in the state Washington, uses a patented high-temperature gasifier to produce synthetic fuel gas, which is converted into biojet fuel using the Fischer-Tropsch process.
Piper Aircraft is exiting the light sport aircraft (LSA) market with the termination of its business relationship with Czech Republic-based Czech Sport Aircraft. The company had announced plans in January 2010 to enhance and market Czech Sport Aircraft’s LSA as the PiperSport, but Piper cited “differences in business philosophies” in its decision to end the partnership. Piper had established a new company, PiperSport Distribution, to provide a stand-alone distributor network to market the Czech-built aircraft.
ARGUS International says that, historically, total U.S. business aviation traffic drops off during the holidays, and the company’s TRAQPak data showed that December followed the trend, with business aircraft activity down -3.2% from November. FAR Part 135 charter activity saw a modest increase of 3.0% from November. Comparing year over year December 2010 vs. December 2009, U.S. aircraft activity was up 4.4%. Looking at operational categories, the Part 91 market maintained another large increase, up 10.0%.
Transport Canada approved Canadian-registered Gulfstream G450 and G350 aircraft to operate at their maximum cruise altitude of 45,000 ft. Transport Canada restricts flight to 41,000 ft. or below unless special conditions have been met to deal with rapid cabin depressurization. Both aircraft have an automatic emergency descent mode.
I applaud your comment in the Jan. 5, 2011, BCA eBulletin that “the trend by EPA, FAA and other executive branch entities to preempt legislation with bureaucratic regulation warrants industry vigilance.” This is a serious problem not only for industry but for everyone in this country, and it is accelerating. And government regulations tend to vary from incomprehensible gibberish to patent nonsense.
“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.
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 third in a series of Aéro-Montréal’s biennial forums is scheduled for Dec. 5-6, 2011. Its focus will be on small/medium enterprise (SME) firms working in partnership with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to “develop a stronger culture of innovation.” The last International Forum on Innovation in Aerospace was held in 2009 and addressed numerous themes pertinent to aerospace clusters, how they are positioned in a global context and how to share best practices.
The relatively large size of long-range, widebody airliners affords operators the flexibility of providing various types of crew rest areas. The FAA’s crew duty and rest NPRM recognizes that different types of onboard crew rest areas afford different sleep opportunities on long-range aircraft. Even so, the FAA proposes to limit credit for sleep opportunity based upon the quality of the rest facility, recognizing that a private room at a ground layover point provides the best quality crew rest.
Hawker Beechcraft Services (HBS) in Chester, U.K., continues to meet key milestones on its first Hawker 800XPR upgrade program, and the company expects to achieve FAA certification early this year, with European Aviation Safety Agency approval to follow shortly afterward.
A new generation of purpose-built, ultra-long-range business aircraft from Gulfstream and Bombardier will start to arrive in less than two years, ones that will be able to fly eight passengers at least 7,000 nm. Fifteen-hour missions from New York to Mumbai, Atlanta to Taipei, or Dubai to San Francisco could become routine.
Eurocopter South East Asia (ESEA) has opened a new 8,200-sq.-meter (88,264 sq. ft.) facility at Seletar Aerospace Park in Singapore that provides double the hangar space and 25% more office space than ESEA’s previous operation at Loyang Way near Changi Airport. The Seletar hangar accommodates 24 helicopters and is certified to perform modifications and repairs for interiors, avionics, structures and electrical systems. Scientists and engineers at EADS Innovation Works will also work there on rotorcraft research and development.
China Eastern Airlines Executive Air, a unit of the Chinese air carrier, is expected to soon launch business jet operations. The business aviation operator currently owns a Hawker 800, but hopes to expand the fleet to three business jets this year and then eventually to seven. The operation was established in 1995 as a ground handler in Shanghai, and has since provided services for more than 5,000 VIP, cargo, charter, air ambulance and other business jet flights.
