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).
Piper Aircraft selected Western Aircraft as the airplane manufacturer’s dealer for new aircraft sales in Alaska, northern California, Oregon and Washington. The company will sell the full Piper product line, including the new Piper Altaire single-engine jet. Western Aircraft, part of Greenwich AeroGroup, is based at Gowen Field in Boise, Idaho.
The FAA says the busy holiday travel period saw at least nine laser illuminations of cockpits of airplanes takeing off or landing at Honolulu International Airport, ending a year in which reports of such incidents more than doubled, reports Aviation eBrief, citing the Honolulu Star-Advertisor. Nationwide, 2,800 laser incidents were reported in 2010, compared with 1,500 in 2009.
Wendi Gavigan, vice president and manager of flight operations for Citigroup Corporate Aviation will be awarded the 2011 Schedulers & Dispatchers Outstanding Achievement & Leadership Award at the upcoming NBAA conference. The award recognizes individuals who have shared their outstanding business aviation industry expertise, provided extraordinary service, exhibited leadership and made significant contributions to the scheduling and dispatching function.
Hawker Beechcraft announced Dec. 21 that the state of Kansas has anted up $60 million to keep the OEM and 4,000 jobs in Wichita, a figure that convinced Chairman and CEO Bill Boisture to unpack his bags and stay put. Earlier Boisture said he was contemplating moving the entire company to Louisiana, to take advantage of incentives it had proposed as an enticement. The state’s package requires Hawker Beechcraft to maintain its current product lines in Wichita over the next 10 years.
Honda Aircraft is nearing completion of its 266,000-sq.-ft. aircraft production facility on its Greensboro, N.C., campus. Once finished, Honda will begin moving in equipment and personnel and begin pre-production preparations and training necessary to support the HondaJet production ramp-up beginning in 2012. Michimasa Fujino, Honda Aircraft president and CEO, said he expects the facility will turn out 30-40 aircraft in the first six months of production.
The Winter 2010 edition of Marketline, the Aircraft Bluebook newsletter, indicates that prices for business jets continued to slump during the third quarter of last year, while values of most turboprops remained stable during the period. A total of 502 jets declined in price, while 370 stayed stable and a mere 14 increased in value. On the positive side, the Bombardier Global Express experienced a $1 million uptick for select model years. Similarly, some late-model Gulfstream G550s recorded a $1 million move upward compared to the previous quarter.
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.
Piper Aircraft has received a contract for six Piper Seminoles valued at $3.9 million from Airline Transport Professionals (ATP), a nationwide firm that specializes in airline pilot training and pilot career development. The airplanes will be delivered to ATP this year. ATP will use the aircraft for flight training it provides under Mountain State University’s ATP pilot operations degree program. The aircraft will increase ATP’s training fleet to 87 Piper Seminoles. ATP also operates 50 Cessna 172s, five Diamond DA40s and a CitationJet.
Colorado-based Jettech has developed a Garmin G600 installation for the Cessna Citation 501 and 551 and is awaiting supplemental type certification of the modification. Following FAA approval, Jettech plans to begin offering initial installations of the electronic flight instrument system at its Denver facilities. Subsequently, installation kits will be available through Jettech-approved, Garmin-authorized dealers.
Sikorsky Innovations, the United Technologies helicopter manufacturer’s technology development arm, has made an equity investment in small, Marietta, Ga.-based Adaptive Flight, which develops small unmanned rotorcraft and flight control systems. Sikorsky says the investment, which it did not detail, advances its development of optionally piloted aircraft technology, manned-unmanned teaming, and its plans to demonstrate an unmanned cargo resupply mission with a UH-60 Black Hawk.
Piaggio Aero received both type and production certificates in November for its P.180 Avanti II business turboprop from Brazil’s National Civil Aviation, ANAC. The Avanti II can now be legally sold, registered and operated in Brazil.
Thanks to an amended STC, StandardAero is now offering to upgrade Dassault Falcon 20s that have undergone the Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 major retrofit. New features offered through the upgrade include dual multifunction displays, an integrated engine indication system and the ability to view video on the system’s multifunction display. Also, the integrated flight information system now includes XM Satellite weather Version 6.0, which offers winds aloft, satellite imagery, lightning data and temporary flight restrictions (TFR) information.
Lee Juan Lanford, 87, founder of Associated Air Center (AAC), died from complications due to Alzheimer’s disease, Nov. 13. Lanford helped establish the Associated Radio Co., in 1948 at Love Field in Dallas, initially as a three-man operation that specialized in the repair and installation of surplus radio equipment in ex-military aircraft that were being converted into private/corporate aircraft. The firm added maintenance, repair and overhaul in 1968, including exterior modifications and refurbishments and the name changed to Associated Air Center.
StandardAero has added four mobile service teams (MSTs) to its existing business aviation support network, for a total of nine. The new MSTs will be located in Little Rock, Ark.; Van Nuys, Calif.; San Jose, Calif.; and Dallas, Texas. The company also opened a Mobile Operation Center (MOC), operating 24 hr. a day, seven days per week, 365 days per year.
Sikorsky has begun final assembly of the first production S-76D, with delivery scheduled for 2012. Czech manufacturer Aero Vodochody delivered the first production fuselage to Sikorsky Global Helicopters in Coatesville, Pa., in mid-November. The upgraded S-76D — with composite rotor blades, dual-speed rotor, active vibration control, Thales integrated flight deck and Pratt & Whitney Canada PW210S engines — is Sikorsky’s response to increased competition in the intermediate helicopter market.
Sikorsky Aerospace Services delivered the first upgraded S-61 helicopter to the U.S. State Department, the company announced Dec. 3. Last year, the U.S. State Department entered into an IDIQ (indefinite delivery-indefinite quantity) agreement to purchase up to 110 upgraded S-61s for passenger and cargo transport missions in support of worldwide operations. To date, purchase orders for 17 aircraft have been placed by the State Department. The S-61 upgrade includes composite main rotor blades for better high/hot performance.
Thanks to the recent issuance of a series of FAA STCs, a number of in-service Dassault and Gulfstream aircraft equipped with Rockwell Collins Pro Line 4 and Pro Line 21 avionics can be upgraded to provide Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS) Localizer Performance with Vertical guidance (LPV).
Good communication within a flight department is essential for safe operations. Ensuring that all team members have a clear picture of what is happening to the aircraft and what needs to be done to make the aircraft flight ready is critical to safety. Many maintenance errors are caused by poor communication between technicians or between pilots and technicians. Over the years, there has been increased emphasis placed on improving communication skills for maintenance technicians — often cited as one of the “dirty dozen” human factors in aviation maintenance.
Dassault Falcon’s 2000LX received approval to operate into London City Airport. An autobrake for the Falcon 2000 family was developed to reduce landing distance following the steep (5.5 deg.) LCY approach. “Meeting these requirements is not an easy task but the convenience of flying into the heart of downtown London is highly valuable for business jet operators,” said Dassault Falcon President and CEO John Rosanvallon.
Embraer delivered the first Phenom 100 business jet in India, the first of 18 Phenom 100s ordered by India’s Invision Air Services Pvt. Ltd., a Mumbai-based on-demand charter company. Invision Air ordered the aircraft three years ago, along with two Phenom 300s.
Sometimes no news is just that: no news. Snecma’s Silvercrest engine was originally launched as a 9,500- to 12,000-lb-thrust motivator for large and long-range jets — read: Gulfstream, Bombardier, Dassault. The company announced an 80-hr. test run on a developmental prototype that reportedly exceeded expectations, and the engine was poised to appear in service in 2012, Snecma said. Of course, that was back in 2008, when the business aviation world slid into an economic abyss, and now the premiere date has slid to 2014 but with no application airframe named yet.
Falcon 2000 owners can opt for a new cabin interior next time their aircraft visits Basel for major maintenance or a new paint job. Jet Aviation Basel, a designated Dassault Falcon completions center, launched its “Jet Falcon” cabin interior refurbishment program at MEBA 2010. The program offers three cabin interior designs — Classic, Style and Fashion, with standardized sets of designs and modular processes to keep downtime and costs to a minimum.
Lufthansa Technik and Panasonic Avionics Corp. are establishing a joint venture for the development, manufacture and sale of inflight entertainment (IFE) and cabin management systems (CMS) for VIP aircraft. Officials from the two companies say their new systems will be based on a combination of the technologies used in Panasonic’s X Series airline IFE system, Panasonic’s Global Communications Suite (eXConnect and eXPhone) and the “nice” CMS/IFE system developed by Lufthansa Technik’s Innovation Business Unit.
Raisbeck Engineering will provide its Ram Air Recovery System (RARS) for the new Beechcraft King Air 250. The system boosts performance throughout the flight envelope by reducing engine inlet turbine temperature by about 20°C, Raisbeck says. The effects include increased flat-rating for operation at hot, high-altitude airports; increased climb capability; increased cruise speeds; and a more efficient engine. The system is installed as a retrofit on Super King Air 200s and B200s, and more than 1,000 systems have been installed on King Airs since 1982.
