Hawker Beechcraft is transferring its laboratories for electromagnetic compatibility, mechanical and environmental testing to the National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) at Wichita State University (WSU), the Institute said April 5. The labs will be housed in two Hawker Beechcraft buildings in Wichita, and occupy about 49,000 square feet. An undetermined number of company employees currently working in the facility will be offered employment with WSU.
Embraer delivered the 1,100th Ipanema agricultural aircraft, April 7, in a ceremony at its Botucatu plant, 230 km from São Paulo, Brazil. The airplane was accepted by Foliar Aviação Agrícola Ltda., which already operates four Ipanemas in Brazil’s Tocantins state. The Ipanema is the world’s first production aircraft that leaves the factory certified to fly with hydrated ethanol automotive fuel.
Executive AirShare became the first operator of an Embraer Phenom 300 under FAR Part 135. The Kansas City, Mo.-based fractional aircraft ownership and management company received the charter certification March 31. The Phenom 300 is is managed by Executive AirShare’s wholly owned subsidiary, Executive Flight Services. The aircraft is based in Fort Worth.
Fokker Services delivered the first Auxiliary Fuel Tank System (AFTS), installed in a VIP-configured Fokker 100, to an undisclosed customer. AFTS consists of four additional fuel tanks installed in the forward belly cargo compartment, increasing the range of the Fokker 100 to approximately 2,700 nm. Fokker Services developed the AFTS, while Fokker Aircraft Services did the installation at its Woensdrecht facility. Both companies are part of the Fokker Aerospace Group.
Deer Jet plans to grow its business aircraft fleet from 23 to 35 by year-end, driven by China’s fast-growing business aviation market, and will become the first Chinese operator to dedicate an Airbus Corporate Jetliner (ACJ) to VVIP charter flights later this year. “Despite the global financial crisis’s impact over the past two years, the domestic business aviation market is experiencing fast growth owing to China’s rapid GDP growth,” Deer Jet Assistant President Zhao Hui said.
The FAA’s Air Traffic Organization is now operating under a Safety Management System (SMS), the agency announced recently. The move allows the FAA to manage risks involved with changing the National Airspace System, including installing, modifying and removing equipment, as well as modifying and implementing procedures and airspace changes. “An effective safety management system lets us manage both the risks and the challenges of introducing new technology into the National Airspace System (NAS),” said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt.
I agree with your UAV comments. I recently attended a UAS conference in San Diego. There were mostly military speakers, but even the FAA speaker acknowledged that there will be an increasing number of UAVs in the national airspace. Another speaker said that the first large aircraft UAVs will probably be transpacific freighters with a standby pilot for takeoffs and landings in populated areas. This is probably the right direction. We all need to spend our available time tending to our iPhones, our Facebook pages and our blogs.
Jet Aviation is establishing a line maintenance and AOG service operation at the Le Bourget Business Aviation Airport near Paris in conjunction with Universal Aviation France SARL. Jet Aviation will provide line maintenance and AOG support for various aircraft types, including Airbus, Boeing Business Jets, Bombardier and Gulfstream at Universal’s Facility.
“Avionics Simulation” (April 2010, page 37) was apparently intended to bring your readers current on the status of avionics training. While you did a good job of covering what the traditional old-line establishment companies like Boeing-owned Jeppesen and Berkshire Hathaway-owned FlightSafety are doing, you completely missed out on where the true innovation is taking place. For instance, you failed to cover both King Schools and Redbird Simulators.
Spring is well sprung in the northern latitudes and the out of doors is alive with renewed growth everywhere. Almost. There is one area untouched by the natural vibrancy all around. Rather than green, its tableau is a lifeless, baked brown. It’s ugly and off-putting and, unfortunately, serves as my front yard — my welcome mat to the world.
Air Partner reported April 15 that it arranged nearly 3,000 flights of all types during the first half of its current fiscal year. If that trend continues, this could equal fiscal year 2008, the company’s best ever. In fiscal 2008, the company, a London-based charter broker with offices worldwide, logged 6,071 combined flights; in fiscal 2009, the total flights declined to 4,701, a drop of more than 20 percent.
FlightSafety International will offer training to customers on the full range of Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) engine products, under an agreement signed with the engine manufacturer this month. FSI will manage daily operations, develop and produce courseware material and provide Learning Management System capabilities. Flight Safety’s Learning Center in Montreal will lead the training support of Pratt customers and employees.
Cessna CEO Jack Pelton also issued a call to action to the general aviation community to take a leadership role in defining solutions to environmental issues so that responsible stewardship works in conjunction with economic considerations required for industry growth, a call similar to that issued by aviation associations at AERO Friedrichshafen (see above).
A 50 percent-plus decline in Learjet’s backlog during the past year is unsettling but not dire, Bombardier Aerospace President and Chief Operating Officer Guy Hachey said. Bombardier reported that a wave of cancellations in 2009 shrank Learjet’s order book to six months’ worth of production on Jan. 31, the end of the company’s fiscal year, down from 17 months a year earlier. Hachey says that Learjet’s backlog had been inflated to unsustainable levels during the business jet order frenzy of 2007-08.
Very seldom do writers get South Africa right. “Business Aviation in South Africa” (March 2010, page 38) certainly nailed it. I hope you were well treated back home as you did your research.
Rockwell Collins’ RTA-4100 weather radar is a breakthrough technology that provides pilots with hands-free weather threat detection. This 17-pound wonder automatically scans hundreds of cubic miles of airspace ahead of the aircraft to detect storms as far away as 320 nm. With Fusion systems equipped with an 18-inch radar, such as Global Vision, the weather avoidance range is greater than 320 miles. The RTA-4100 also has a Doppler turbulence detection mode that has a 40-mile maximum range.
Some operators wait until they’re ready to sell an aircraft before they give it a good paint job. Then once they see it looking all shiny and new, they change their minds about selling it. There’s something about a slick, glossy electro-pearlescent skin on even a senior company shuttle that makes it look young again. And it’s written somewhere that a professionally designed and applied livery featuring lots of speed stripes can add five knots — or maybe it just feels that way.
In mid-February, the Shreveport, La., Airport Authority reopened its 8,350-foot Runway 14/32 following an extensive resurfacing project that closed the ILS-equipped runway in the late summer of 2009. Shreveport’s shorter 6,200-foot Runway 5/23, served by an LOC/DME approach, remained open throughout. The airport averages about 155 operations daily and is served by one FBO, TAC Air.
The European Union’s effort to strengthen its air accident investigation process faced its first major hurdle March 11, when proposed legislation was put before the transport ministers of member states. European Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas will present the plan in Brussels before the Transport Council. If well received, the European Commission says the proposal could be put to parliament for a first reading in July with the potential for the directive becoming law by year-end.
Customers of FlightSafety International can request that the company transmit electronically the flight crew training information used by CharterX/Wyvern and ARGUS in their Pilot & Aircraft Safety Survey (PASS) and Charter Evaluation and Qualification (CHEQ) systems, which automatically audit a flight to ensure the crew’s standing is current and legal. By automating the transfer of information directly to PASS and CHEQ, customers are relieved of the cost and risk of data errors and save the time it used to take to enter the information manually.
North American Jet Charter Group, of Charleston, S.C., and Chicago, is the first charter operator to receive FAA approval for single-pilot FAR Part 135 charters in appropriately configured Eclipse 500 VLJs. In June 2007, NAJet became the first charter operator to operate the Eclipse 500. Single-pilot approval applies for Eclipse Aerospace-upgraded 500s with FIKI and AvioNG avionics.
We asked principals in the aviation advocacy associations featured in this report for advice on how to launch and maintain participation in a new group venture. Here’s what a selection of them said:
“During the last recovery, it became clear that aviation was going global. Emerging nations were largely responsible for taking aviation to record highs,” declared Publisher Fletcher Aldredge in the first quarter edition of his Vref Market Leader newsletter. “The current recovery, if you agree there is one, is being driven mostly by exports.” Buyers from the BRIC countries — Brazil, Russia, India and China — are concentrating on buying new or like-new airplanes, he explained, and this activity has helped prices stabilize.
