The Beech King Air 90 now has distinguished itself as the longest-lived general aviation turboprop in continuous production ever. More than 2,300 Model 90 aircraft have been built in the last 46 years and that’s 37 percent of all King Airs yet built for the civilian market.
Cessna will to extend its Citation Mobile Service Unit (MSU) teams to Europe by year-end. Part of Cessna’s Service Direct program, mobile units are already operational in the United States. Cessna executives say the extension to Europe is a “natural progression” of the program since more than 1,000 Citations have been delivered to customers in the region. Cessna has not yet determined the specific base for the European MSU but expects the unit will be located in southern France and also cover Geneva, northern Italy and northern Spain.
False Replies Unsynchronized with Interrogator Transmission (FRUIT), a by-product of 1090 MHz frequency congestion, now is a small problem, but in the next decade ADS-B will increase potential FRUIT by several orders of magnitude because of its heavy reliance on 1090ES Mode S data links. One of the prime causes is the growing number of aircraft equipped with TCAS, a system that shares the same frequency as transponders and SSRs. Some TSO-C74c Mode A/C transponders also contribute to the problem because of detuned sensitivity.
In reviewing the FAA's final rule pertaining to Automatic Dependent Surveillance — Broadcast (ADS-B), one of the critical building blocks of its NextGen air traffic management system, two things are apparent: First, the agency lowered the bar to make compliance more affordable; and second, the thing is still way, way expensive and could cost the aviation industry $2.5 billion to $6.2 billion, depending upon discounted rate of return assumptions. General aviation will incur costs of $1.2 billion to $4.5 billion.
Rated at 550 shp up to ISA+30°C, the -135 enables the C90GTx to climb directly to FL 300 and reach FL 250 in 18 minutes. Maximum cruise speed is 272 KTAS at 9,500 pounds, assuming ISA conditions at FL 200.
Hawker Beechcraft is the newest broker/dealer member of the National Aircraft Resale Association (NARA). In addition, three new associate members — Avtrak, LLC, the Law Offices of Christopher B. Younger and Rolland Vincent Asso-ciates, LLC — recently joined the organization. NARA now has a total of 32 broker/dealer members and 48 associate members.
Hawker Beechcraft Services (HBS) has selected the Thrane & Thrane Aviator 200 system to provide broadband connectivity for in-service King Air 90, 200, 300 and 350 aircraft. Certification of the system on the twin turboprops is expected in the fourth quarter. In 2009, the high-speed Internet equipment was certificated on Hawker Beechcraft’s Hawker business jets.
According to NASA Ames Research Center, pilot distractions are an accident category that is difficult to measure. As such, assembling data about distraction events is the only way to understand the risk fully so as to create strategies to defeat the problem. If you have a cockpit distraction that leads to a miscue, do make use of the NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS). It captures confidential reports, analyzes the resulting aviation safety data and disseminates this critical information to the aviation community. Go to asrs.arc.nasa.gov for more information.
Belgian charter operator Philippe Bodson has become the first European operator to place Hawker Beechcraft’s King Air 350i twin turboprop into service. Hawker Beechcraft obtained EASA type approval for the 350i in December 2009. Bodson founded and manages Antwerp-based charter ASL, which operates 14 aircraft throughout Europe and North Africa.
As more business jet operators register for the International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO), many are (unhappily) discovering their aircraft must be equipped with a flight data recorder. The ICAO standard applies to all jets with certificates of airworthiness issued after Jan. 1, 2005, “and no one knew it was there,” Roger Baker told BCA editor-in-chief, William Garvey. The head of the Safety Focus Group, Baker conducts IS-BAO audits of flight departments. He and other auditors say the FDR rule is becoming better known as more U.S.
Reese Air Force Base, Lubbock Texas, March 1967. This was it. We had arrived. The T-37 program was finished and we were on to the T-38. Nobody had their picture taken standing next to a T-37, the Cessna "Tweet" primary trainer. The supersonic Northrop T-38 Talon advanced jet trainer, aka "The White Rocket," was the plane we had waited to fly for a long time.
The new FAA NIEC is off to a flying start with Boeing subsidiary Insitu providing unmanned aircraft for research to help develop recommendations for integrating unmanned aircraft into the national airspace. The system, including two ScanEagle small unmanned aircraft, has been delivered to the FAA’s William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, N.J. The FAA will fly the UAVs in restricted airspace over the New Jersey Air National Guard’s Warren Grove Gunnery Range as it works to develop air traffic management procedures for them.
“As we move into the summer of 2010, there has never been a market so fractured, with so many ups and downs,” commented Fletcher Aldredge, publisher of the Vref Aircraft Value Reference and the Vref Market Leader newsletter. Aldredge noted in the second quarter edition of Market Leader that international buyers have buoyed the used aircraft market in recent months. “The robust export market has helped breath life back into everything from Cessna 182s to Gulfstream 550s.”
Mike Ellis, Hawker Beechcraft’s vice president of pre-owned aircraft, characterizes today’s market for previously owned business aircraft as “tentative.”
DOT officials intend to issue an NPRM aimed at air charter brokers. Dayton Lehman, DOT’s deputy assistant general counsel in the Office of Aviation speaking at the NATA Air Charter Summit in June said the NPRM will be “quite expansive,” seeking a substantial amount of input on a proper direction for regulating charter brokers. “There are areas where we have truly not made up our minds as to what to do,” Lehman told the audience at the summit held in Chantilly, Va. The NRPM is expected later this year.
Now in its sixth year of production, Gulfstream's G450 is one of the few large-cabin aircraft capable of flying eight passengers 4,300 nm at Mach 0.80 and land with 200-nm NBAA IFR reserves. It has nearly 200 nm more range than the first- or second-generation GIV or GIV-SP aircraft, an increase made possible by subtle drag reduction improvements and upgraded Rolls Royce Tay Mk 611-8C turbofans. The G450 also has a larger capacity APU and revised intake and exhaust ducting that greatly reduces external noise.
A French enthusiast group borescoped the engines of a Concorde supersonic airliner on display at the Le Bourget Air and Space Museum outside Paris and found them to be in perfect condition internally. “The objective is not to get [the Concorde] to fly again but to get the engines working again, hoping one day to see it taxi on the tarmac for the pleasure of visitors to the museum,” said Frederic Pinlet, head of Olympus 593, named after the Rolls-Royce/Snecma engines that power the aircraft.
Citing FAA data, Morgan Stanley says business jet takeoff and landing activity increased 17.9 percent in April compared with the same month in 2009 — the fifth consecutive month of year-over-year gains. The increases trended across aircraft models, says analyst Heidi Wood. “Cessna and Gulfstream posted mid-teens growth compared to April 2009,” when both manufacturers started to show “signs of stabilization,” she says. “The U.S.
Citing April data on the used business jet market, the financial analysts at JPMorgan say the numbers are “consistent with the trends of a gradual march downward for inventories.” However, they add there is “continued pressure on prices.” During April, the used business jet inventory fell 20 basis points, while prices dropped 1.2 percent, year over year. “While this recovery has been under way for several months, it has unfolded slowly, and we expect it to continue,” concludes JPMorgan.
On Aug. 1, 1999, a 1968 Cherokee Six crashed shortly after takeoff from an airport in Ohio, killing the pilot and three passengers and seriously injuring a fourth passenger. The NTSB version of the crash is straightforward. The airplane had landed to refuel and once its main tanks were filled, the five people got back on board. After takeoff, the Piper appeared to have a hard time climbing out and was “hanging on the prop.”
Early in my aviation career I was eager for adventure. So, after six weeks of battling bugs and weeds with an AGtruck out of Hardistry, Alberta, I headed north — way, way north to Yellowknife, in Canada's Northwest Territories. For those unfamiliar with the geography, Yellowknife is a town of 20,000 hearty souls planted beside icy Great Slave Lake in the wide-open plains 1,000 nm east and 1,000 nm north of Anchorage, Alaska, and Grand Forks, N.D., respectively. It's pretty much the last paved place south of the Arctic Circle.
Hawker Beechcraft Corp. has launched the Select Pre-Owned Program, which is designed to limit the cost of operation for buyers of qualifying used turbine-powered aircraft during the first year or initial 150 hours of service. The Select Pre-Owned Program covers all scheduled and unscheduled airframe, engine and avionics maintenance, including parts and labor. The plan also includes initial flight-crew training at FlightSafety International, as well as the first-year subscription to the computerized maintenance-tracking program.
The Presidential Flight of Abu Dhabi has recently introduced into its fleet a second BAE Systems Avro Business Jet, a late model Avro RJ100, which joins the operator’s existing VIP RJ70. The RJ100 was converted into a VIP aircraft by Inflite Engineering Ltd. at London Stansted Airport. Over the past 12 months, three Avro Business Jets have been placed with operators, and approximately 25 of the four-engine VIP aircraft are now either in service or in the process of being converted.
While the most recent of the studies cited in “Double Standards” is several years old, the problems delineated continue to this very moment. We have received credible reports about federal public aircraft being routinely operated past mandatory inspection and overhaul limits; outside weight, altitude and temperature limitations; into known icing condition without anti-ice or de-icing equipment; and being fitted with non-approved transparencies and automotive-grade ball bearings in prop governors.
