Bombardier received firm orders for four Global Express XRS jets from undisclosed customers based in Russia. The total value of the orders is approximately US$213 million, based on the 2010 list price for typically equipped aircraft. Bombardier also announced at Farnborough that VistaJet of Switzerland has placed a firm order for four Global Express XRS aircraft and two Challenger 605 jets. The total value of the order is approximately US$277 million, based on the 2010 list price for typically equipped aircraft.
Embraer CAE Training Services’ first Phenom 300 Full Flight Simulator (FFS) has been qualified by the Brazilian Civil Aviation Agency (ANAC), the FAA and Europe’s EASA. The simulator is now operational at CAE’s SimuFlite Training Center in Dallas.
Aircell received a contract in August to equip more than 250 NetJets midsize and large-cabin business aircraft with Aircell high-speed Internet service. Aircell has rebranded is business aviation services as Gogo Biz Inflight Internet. The NetJets contract is the largest order that Aircell has received for the service.
New York charter broker Emerald Jet Charter has added helicopter service to its travel portfolio, arranging trips from the three Manhattan heliports. Adding helicopter services made sense purely based on the demand from clients, says Emerald President Tracy Nuzzo. “We are based in Manhattan, which is one part of the country that benefits tremendously from helicopter service, and with summer upon us, our local clients are traveling much more on private helicopters than any type of aircraft available,” she explains.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has purchased 12 AS350 B2 helicopters from American Eurocopter. The helicopters will be placed into service with the department’s Aero Bureau as part of an upgrade plan for its current fleet. The order also has options that would add two additional helicopters in the future. The Aero Bureau’s current fleet of 12 AS350 B2s has been serving the county since 2003.
That was an absolutely beautiful little tour of Cyprus. I loved the way we came around the west end and sort of glided down just off the coast, edging in over the beach and then landing. It was just perfect. What a nice diversion on the way to the Middle East. You make it look so easy . . . Lovely.”
John Hopkinson, president and CEO of the largest aircraft brokerage in Canada, notes that while the Canadian business aircraft market remains soft, it is not suffering to the same extent that the rest of the world is. The veteran aircraft marketer, whose Calgary, Alberta-based company deals mostly with Canadian clients, says, “Anything older than 10 years has gone stale, but newer super-midsize and larger aircraft seem to be holding their own.”
Even those who follow international affairs in the most cursory way recognize that things can change at lightning speed, often for the worse. So, if you are a flight department manager with executive and other personnel based in a place where bad things are likely to happen or even possible, then you’d better have a contingency plan for organizing your people and dealing with the unexpected.
Bert B. Overfield, 77, who dedicated over 40 years to general aviation, died on July 18 after a long-term battle with emphysema and a short-term battle with pancreatic cancer. Overfield, of Keller, Texas, began his career in 1956 as a design engineer with Cessna. He went to Lear Jet in 1962 to help design the first Lear Jet (Model 23) with Bill Lear. His career then took him back to Cessna as project engineer, and project manager on the A-37 attack aircraft.
In most countries, imports of new and pre-owned business jets are on the decline. However, in Canada, whose economy added 93,200 jobs in June and gross domestic product rose to 6.1 percent, business jet imports are rising, according to Aircraftpost.com. For medium and long-range aircraft produced since the mid-1990s, imports into Canada for all of 2009 totaled 17, compared to 19 aircraft imported in the first six months of 2010 alone.
Sikorsky Aerospace Services signed an agreement appointing the Mumbai facility of Deccan Charters Ltd. of Bangalore, India, as an authorized Customer Service Center to support Sikorsky S-76 helicopters.
The new aircraft re-registration requirement that will go into effect later this year may cause problems for some aircraft owners if their address information in the FAA Registry is out of date. Aircraft owners are required to report a new address to the FAA within 30 days of the change. The FAA estimates that almost 45,000 aircraft are known to have bad addresses. Because the FAA will mail re-registration notifications to the addresses in the FAA Registry, the NBAA urges all aircraft owners to verify that their address in the Registry is correct.
AgustaWestland’s new AW169 twin, powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW210 turboshaft engines is scheduled for first delivery in 2015. The company hopes to sell 1,000 units of the helicopter into the government and emergency medical services markets over 20 years. The AW169 is designed to fill a gap in the Italian manufacturer’s product line between the AW139 and the Grand. The new model has a design weight of just over 9,900 lb, measuring about 39 ft. long and 5.6 ft. wide.
L-3 Avionics Systems’ Trilogy ESI-2000 3 ATI electronic standby instrument with battery backup won FAA TSO authorization, the company announced Aug. 13. The all-solid-state ESI-2000 provides primary flight display information for a minimum of one hour and up to four hours of backup power, depending on temperature if primary power is lost. A 3.7-in. backlit screen makes the ESI-2000 clearly visible in daylight or dark cockpit conditions.
The General Aviation Manufacturers Association board of directors has approved Duncan Aviation and Greenwich AeroGroup as its newest members, bringing the international trade association’s membership to 69.
Jack DeCrane, who had managed merger and acquisition activities for the Aerospace and Defense Group of BF Goodrich, set up his own venture to acquire aircraft suppliers in 1989. That company, DeCrane Aerospace, evolved in to a major supplier of business aircraft cabin products with projected 2010 sales of $170 million. Along the way he acquired auxiliary fuel system maker and completion company, PATS Aircraft Systems. Jack DeCrane died in 1979. Now, coming full circle, DeCrane Holdings has agreed to sell off its interior fittings business to Goodrich.
Hawker Beechcraft announced that its piston-twin Beechcraft Baron has become the only aircraft in its class to be approved for operations at London City Airport. Due to the airport’s city location and extremely steep (5.5 deg.) approach requirements, aircraft must demonstrate the necessary performance capabilities, including a 7.5-deg. approach, and receive approval from EASA and London City Airport to utilize the airport.
Linear Air acquired a fifth Eclipse 500 jet, making the VLJ jet-taxi charter service the largest exclusive operator of Eclipse aircraft in the United States. Linear Air, headquartered in Concord, Mass., also announced it is expanding its metropolitan New York presence with two Eclipse 500s based at the Million Air terminal at Westchester County Airport, allowing Linear Air to reduce or eliminate positioning costs and offer lower-priced on-demand service for customers in metropolitan New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.
The AOPA and NBAA will help their members make the most of their light general aviation aircraft as business tools this fall at each group’s annual convention. Speaking on “AOPA Live” at EAA AirVenture, AOPA President and CEO Craig L. Fuller and NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen unveiled the six forums that will be presented as the Light Business Airplane Conference at both the NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention, Oct. 19 to 21 in Atlanta, and the AOPA Aviation Summit, Nov. 11 to 13 in Long Beach, Calif.
A new program is using the 66-spacecraft Iridium constellation to provide continuous, global monitoring of space weather. The Active Magnetosphere and Planetary Electrodynamics Response Experiment (Ampere),is a collaboration between the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Iridium and Boeing.
In a move reflecting the challenging market confronting its membership of aircraft brokers and dealers, the National Aircraft Resale Association is shuttering its headquarters office at Reagan Washington National Airport, and parting with long time president Susan Sheets. “A lot of it is driven by cost,” NARA Chairman Steve Gade told BCA Aug. 17. He said NARA headquarters was officially transferring to Grapevine, Texas, which “is logical” since it is home to the organization’s meeting planner, Devri Surpless.
Montreal-based aviation services firm Zenith Jet is predicting that Cessna will reinitiate the Columbus program with an entry-into-service date of 2016. In its recently released 10-year forecast, Zenith believes Cessna will account for 35% of all business jet deliveries, giving it the largest share of business jet unit volume. Embraer will move into the “Number 2 spot” in terms of unit deliveries, capturing 18 percent of the market share, Zenith forecasts.
Everett, Wash.-based AeroMech Inc. is helping Mid-Continent Instruments of Wichita obtain an STC for the installation of Mid-Continent’s MD835 lithium ion battery in a variety of general aviation aircraft, including the Beech King Air 200 and 300 and several Citation models. AeroMech, which provides engineering consulting services, is overseeing the initial battery installation in a King Air 200.
