Jetalliance plans to add three Airbus aircraft to its growing fleet, including an ACJ and two A318 Elites in a deal valued at $185 million. But Airbus' largest order announced during EBACE came from Middle Eastern customer MAZ Aviation for six A350XWB Prestiges, valued at $1.5 billion. The order launches the A350-800 into the VIP market - one of the Prestiges will be the A350-800 and the other five will be A350-900 variants. MAZ plans to take delivery of the aircraft beginning in 2015 and sell them to private customers.
With the approach of Business & Commercial Aviation's 50th anniversary, we paged through past issues with the goal of presenting the most important of what we discovered in a manageable, memorable package. An impossible task, we discovered. Thus stymied, we chose a more representative and, yes, argumentative course.
Winnipeg, Canada, named Scott Taylor as business aviation business development leader, based in Tempe, Ariz. Mike Turner has been appointed manager, communications.
The Equipment Leasing and Finance Association (ELFA) - which represents equipment finance companies, including those that offer leasing and other financing for commercial, corporate and general aviation aircraft - is concerned about "the risks, economic burdens and other adverse consequences" that the reregistration and triennial renewal requirements proposed by the FAA will have on aircraft financing providers.
Although well established as the largest -- by units delivered -- general aviation manufacturer, Cessna in the mid-1960s was noticeably absent a business jet. In studying the market, Chairman Dwane Wallace and his executives focused on the price and performance gap between twin turboprops and the small Learjets, thinking it posed opportunity for a simple, low-cost jet able to operate out of small fields. And thus was conceived the FanJet 500 powered by Pratt & Whitney Canada's new JT15Ds.
Among aviation's most profound technological breakthroughs of the last 50 years, the so-called "glass cockpit" totally transformed the "steam-gauge" and vacuum-tube instrumentation that had long been the familiar standard into an anachronism in short order. Microprocessors, Moore's Law (that is, computer chips will become twice as powerful while half as costly every 18 months) and breakthroughs in satellite navigation and communication and flat-panel display technology combined to fuel the transition.
Faced with an airspace crisis, President Dwight Eisenhower needed a battle-tested man he could trust to identify and implement solutions that would ensure the system was safe while meeting the needs of commercial, military and general aviation. The former Supreme Allied Commander of Europe turned to the U.S. Army aviator who had flown him over the beaches of Normandy during World War II, Elwood Richard "Pete" Quesada.
Van Nuys, Calif.-based Jet Aviva is one of several firms that now offer jet familiarization in the EA500 for pilots, especially aircraft owners, who intend to earn their type ratings at Eclipse's Albuquerque Double Eagle II learning center. In-aircraft flight training is available both in owner-flown and rented aircraft.
On Nov. 21, 1989, a British Airways crew operating a Boeing 747 Classic under the command of Capt. Glen Stewart, a senior pilot with over 30 years' experience, was approaching London Heathrow following a long flight from Bahrain when the autopilot indicated the aircraft had deviated from the approach. During this trip, several members of the crew had experienced illness that they attributed to tainted food, and as Stewart executed a go-around, he may as well have been flying single-pilot since his copilot was still severely ill with persistent diarrhea.
*In 2007, Virgin Atlantic flew a demonstration with one of its Boeing 747s on which one of the jumbo's four engines was powered by biofuel. The U.S. Air Force has operated one of its B-52s on JP refined from liquefied coal through the Fisher-Tropsch process.
How many times have you sat bogged and fuming in a taxi or charter bus en route to Le Bourget or Farnborough for the big shows? Here's a time-saving and possibly mood-enhancing local transportation option from Hertz. Scooters are now available to rent in London and Paris as well as multiple locations in the south of France. The Hertz scooter collection offers adults an "exhilarating way to travel around the capital cities of the two nations," as well as in the trendy haunts of the French Riviera.
Russ Meyer Jr., chairman emeritus of Cessna Aircraft, was named chairman of the AOPA Air Safety Foundation Board of Visitors. "Russ's selection will bring new opportunities to expand visibility of the Air Safety Foundation to the industry and general aviation pilots," said Bruce Landsberg, executive director of the foundation. The board serves in an advisory capacity for the AOPA Air Safety Foundation, which generates safety education and outreach materials for general aviation pilots.
Carol Chamberlin says she started riding when she was just a kid on an Oregon ranch because that's what you do when you herd cattle. "It was a necessity, not a hobby," she says. The senior electronics technician at Rockwell Collins' Richardson, Texas, plant got her technical know-how in the U.S. Air Force and did a tour in England at RAF Mildenhall, which placed her within trotting distance of England's horse center at Newmarket.
The scion to a family whose fortune traced to colonial days, Paul Butler could have lived a life of quiet, untroubled luxury on the predictable profits from the J.W. Butler Paper Co. he inherited. He chose otherwise. Disciplined, energetic, broadly inquisitive, he invested 12- to 18-hour workdays to expanding the family's business into what became the Butler Co., a vast domain of manufacturing, ranching, land development and sports enterprises.
The Eclipse 500 is one of the most sophisticated business jets ever produced and arguably the technology leader in its class. It is an epitome of the quiet, dark cockpit, especially when there's no power to the displays. It's unnecessarily difficult to learn about this aircraft because Eclipse has no interactive cockpit procedures trainer.
A corporate aircraft symposium and exhibition to be held in New York City this month will feature a presentation on the pre-owned aircraft market. National Aircraft Resale Association President Susan Sheets is slated to speak at the event, which will be held July 17 and 18 at the Westin hotel in Manhattan's Times Square.
Most food poisoning outbreaks are traced to fresh food, but on rare occasions when the process of preserving or packaging was not followed properly, botulism has resulted in canned foods as well.
The history of aviation has been punctuated by a serious of stunning technical breakthroughs, from the Wrights' first flight and Sir Frank Whittle's discovery of the power of the turbojet, to Igor Sikorsky's mastery of the vertical ascent and Chuck Yeager's smashing of the sound barrier. However, these rapid advances often have been followed by terrible setbacks, with the initial triumph and catastrophic demise of the de Havilland Comet, the first jetliner, being one of the more memorable examples.
The S-76 helicopter fleet has topped the five million flight hour milestone, Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. announced in late May. The milestone follows two others for the S-76 helicopter this year: the 30th anniversary of the first delivery and the 700th aircraft delivery. The program is on track to mark another major event later this year: first flight of the next production model, the S76-D.
Eclipse Aviation announced it will start taking orders for the Eclipse 400 single-engine jet -- a production version of the Eclipse Concept Jet first displayed at the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture 2007 last July. Eclipse 500 customers will receive an additional $125,000 discount off the introductory price of $1.35 million in June 2008 dollars if they place their deposits before this July 25. The company also announced a price boost for the twin-jet Eclipse 500 to $2.15 million, a jump of $555,000, effective immediately.
At the Schedulers & Dispatchers Convention in Savannah, Ga., earlier this year, former aviators Chuck McKinnon and Otto Pobanz were invited to describe the business aviation world as they knew it beginning 50 years ago. Because of time considerations, neither one was able to complete his presentation. In our last "S&D Report," McKinnon's memoir was reprised; now it's Pobanz's turn.
The Beech 18, or Twin Beech, was the flying workhorse of American industry in the 1950s and early 1960s, providing cabin-class passenger comfort, a fully-enclosed aft lav and 1,000-plus nm cruising range at 160 KTAS cruise speeds. "It really was the only game in town," commented Tom Warner, former Beech 18/ Super 18 top salesman and Walter and Olive Ann Beech's son-in-law. "All the big companies owned them including GM, J. P. Stevens and dozens of others. It had terrific reliability and it was very nice to fly."
West Star Aviation expanded its facility at Dallas Love Field (DAL) to accommodate growing demand for maintenance on a number of business jet lines. West Star added a new facility adjacent to its existing 42,000 square feet of hangars, shops and offices located by Runway 31R. The new facility provides an additional 33,000 square feet of shop and office space and includes sheet metal, avionics and interior refurbishment shop capabilities, along with maintenance and avionics services capabilities.
