Korean Air has ordered two Citation CJ1+ aircraft to join its fleet of Citation Ultras, which have been used for advanced pilot training platforms since 1995. The new Citations will have a special center-mounted instructor/observer seat just behind the two pilot seats. The aircraft will be based at Korean Air’s pilot training center at Jeju, South Korea.
Fill up the tanks and a Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350ER can fly six passengers more than 2,200 nm, according to our 2009 Purchase Planning Handbook. That’s enough range to fly from San Diego to Westchester County, N.Y., Pittsburgh to Van Nuys or Seattle to Orlando. The least expensive jet offering that same range costs $14 million — nearly double the price of the long-legged King Air.
W.W. (Bill) Boisture took the reins of Hawker Beechcraft Corp. as chairman and CEO Mar. 23, replacing Jim Schuster, who had announced his plan to retire once a successor was in place. His second day on the job, Boisture told the Wichita Eagle that, “There’s going to be a lot of change required to adapt to the levels of demand required in the marketplace and the way our products can be deployed in the marketplace in the future. How many airplanes should we build? How large should the company be?
Cessna appointed Chimes Aviation Academy at Sagar’s Dhana Airport as its third Cessna Pilot Center (CPC) in India. “Demand for aviation in India continues to grow, even during these tough global economic times,” said Julie Filucci, Cessna’s CPC manager. Uday Punj, director of Chimes Aviation, said, “We are driving a culture of excellence in all facets of flight training, beginning with our fleet of brand-new single-engine Cessna 172 aircraft with Garmin G1000 integrated glass cockpits.
Donald Moffet (New York, N.Y.), Via e-mail (New York, N.Y.)
As I write this, the stock of a large bank in our area is trading below $5 a share and is heading lower. The nervous analysts on Wall Street are saying bank stocks are headed for the cellar and the rest of the economy stinks.
Bob Howie (Houston, TX), Assistant Chief Pilot (Houston, TX), Wing Aviation Charter Services (Houston, TX)
Well, the Super Bowl has come and gone for another year and while folks still laud the game, aviation would be remiss if it did not praise the efforts of the FAA and, in my case, Signature Flight Support in Tampa for their efforts in successfully orchestrating the post-game departures of what was likely more than 100 corporate jets. Ramp and ground control choreographed a ballet that would have made George Balanchine envious!
John Didier, president of Sacramento Aviation, which specializes in handling Citations and King Airs, believes the market may be turning. “The last quarter of 2008 was very slow. So was January. We went four months with just a few sales. Since the first part of February we have seen more activity — not big time — but the phones are ringing and we are getting an offer here and there. I think there is some light at the end of the tunnel.”
Honeywell’s HTF7000 turbofan engine fleet has amassed more than 500,000 operating hours. The engine powers the Bombardier Challenger 300 and has been selected for the Gulfstream 250. Some 499 HTF7000 engines were in service in April, and Honeywell said the fleet has experienced a 99.7 percent dispatch reliability.
Name withheld by author’s request (Williamsburg, VA)
With respect to the January Intelligence item by James E. Swickard about the “systemic shortcomings in Brazilian air traffic control concepts” (page 11), I offer a personal anecdote.
Sierra Industries, the Uvalde, Texas-based Citation modification specialist, recently completed the first delivery of its Super II to a European customer. Airlec Air Espace of France plans to use the Williams FJ44-3A-powered Citation II as an air ambulance, flying throughout Europe, Africa and Asia.
A leaner, consolidated industry, more accountability, perhaps new forms of ownership and longer aircraft retention, a resurgent charter component . . . and a “pony.”
— At 1905 PDT, a Beech 200 (N257A) collided with a tree while taxiing after landing at Henderson Executive Airport (HND), Las Vegas. Southern Nevada Jet Charter was operating the airplane as an on-demand air taxi flight. The airline transport pilot and copilot, and two passengers were not injured; however, the airplane sustained substantial damage to the right wing spar. The flight departed Napa County Airport (APC), Napa, Calif., about 1700. It was VFR and no flight plan was filed.
Canada is the only country that requires noncommercial operators of turbine-powered aircraft to be certified and regularly audited for safety compliance. Even more notably, Canada’s DOT has delegated the administration of the Private Operator Certificate program to the Canadian Business Aviation Association to save government money and resources. (See Business & Commercial Aviation, April, page 42.)
Business and personal aircraft — even those vilified by the nattering blogeratti — continue to deliver their passengers and crews efficiently and safely to more places on the globe than any other mode of air transportation. Much of that efficiency and safety — as well as the health of our global economy — results from the continuing advances in avionics.
On the night of July 17, 1996, a TWA 747, Flight 800, departed New York’s JFK International Airport heading for Paris and Rome with 230 passengers and crew aboard. Shortly after takeoff and during initial climb out, the jumbo jet exploded, killing all aboard and initiating one of the most extensive aircraft investigations in history. The initial fear was that a terrorist bomb or missile had destroyed the aircraft and an enormous recovery effort was launched along with parallel investigations by the FBI and the NTSB, and supported by the FAA, U.S.
The comments by Michael Boyd in February’s Viewpoint are totally out of line! The CEOs of the car companies should have sold those airplanes rather than use them to beg for money. Come on, that is just wrong. They should have let them go bankrupt.
Airline Transport Professionals (ATP) issued portable TIS systems to its entire staff of flight instructors, the company announced April 7. The Zaon Flight Systems MRX Portable Collision Avoidance System is roughly the size of a deck of cards and is completely self-contained, running off either aircraft power or for eight hours on a pair of AA batteries. It uses TIS broadcasts to display approximate range and relative altitude of nearby traffic.
I’m getting good response from the letter you published requesting vintage material for the Hill Aerospace Museum’s presidential C-140B (February, page 10), so, lots of thanks. No one has sent a May 1968 copy of Business & Commercial Aviation yet, just JetStar nostalgia e-mails, but I am going through the SAM 89th historian to see if I can collect some actual Air Force One pilot items. Nevertheless, I have to throw this your way: Your researcher placed the Hill Aerospace Museum in Idaho rather than Utah! I’ll keep you posted if I actually get to ride. . . .
The TSA has re-launched Operation Playbook, this time as a voluntary program. NATA alerted its members on March 12. The Playbook document contains secret security guidelines for the Federal Security Directors at commercial airports. Operation Playbook, originally launched in late 2008, was an initiative under which local TSA officials would implement random unannounced security measures in addition to their normal procedures, including physical screening and searches of airline passengers and baggage.
ICAO has ruled that signatory nations should require safety management systems for all commercial operators, that is, airlines and charter operators. We asked Russ Lawton, director of safety and security for the National Air Transportation Association’s Air Charter Safety Foundation, to comment on the importance of a safety culture in FAR Part 135 operations.
Embraer has signed its first Phenom 100 individual owner Embraer Executive Care (EEC) contract in the United States with Elizabeth and Jim Frost -- the first customers to take delivery of a Phenom 100 in December 2008. EEC is a fixed-cost-per-hour maintenance program that features access to Web-based maintenance tracking software.
At this month’s UAS symposium in Kansas, the organizers have planned some UAV demonstrations, which are billed in advance to take place near Salina at the National Guard’s Smoky Hill bombing range. The U.S. Army acquired land southwest of Salina that became Smoky Hill Army Airfield at the end of World War II and in 1957 was re-named Schilling Air Force Base. Part of the base has been transferred to Salina’s airport authority as Salina Municipal Airport.
Delta AirElite Business Jets added a Citation X to its managed charter fleet in March. The eight-passenger aircraft cruises at speeds up to 600 mph and offers a 3,300-mile range. The Citation X is based at Illinois’ DuPage County Airport (DPA).
Bombardier BD-700-1A10 and BD-700-1A11 airplanes — Inspect for damage and signs of seizure of the power control unit attachment joints and components, and take appropriate corrective actions, which include lubricating the system.
India, a place of breathtaking beauty, opulent in resources and a center of spirituality, is also scarred by wrenching squalor and periodic eruptions of bloody violence. It was the crown jewel of the British Empire and since gaining its independence in 1947, has emerged as a formidable entity on the world stage. The latter occurred by design as leaders within this, the world’s largest democracy, invested heavily in education and technology.
