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.
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
Air taxi operator Linear Air announced a new online booking tool that allows schedulers and dispatchers who use air taxis to supplement their own fleets to make reservations and obtain quotes instantaneously. In claiming to be the first air taxi company to offer this service, Linear may be distinguishing between its own Quick Quote technology and that used by DayJet, which also provides its members with the means to reserve and get quotes online.
The FAA activated new East Coast Oceanic RNP 10 RNAV routes June 5, that can potentially save millions of dollars in fuel, reduce delays and even help the environment. Required Navigation Performance (RNP) 10 standards allow lateral separation between aircraft to be reduced from 90 nm to 50 nm over the Atlantic from New York to the Caribbean, increasing capacity and reducing delays along that busy corridor.
Bombardier will manufacture the all-composite airframe for the new Learjet 85 midsize business jet at its plant in Queretaro, Mexico, after an initial production run by Germany's Grob Aerospace, the company announced. Grob is designing the composite structure and will build the Learjet 85 prototypes as well as initial production aircraft while manufacture transitions to Mexico.
WHEN YOU LOOK AT the current FAA-DOT relationship you have to shake your head and hope things will get better after the election. Nominally in charge of the FAA these days is Bobby Sturgell, a man with superior aviation credentials, a law degree and five years of on-the-job training as deputy administrator while Marion Blakey was administrator.
Honeywell's corporate flight department applied for its own FAA authorization to perform Required Navigation Performance Special Aircraft and Aircraft Authorization Required (RNP SAAAR) operations on the company's Gulfstream G450 and G550 aircraft equipped with the PlaneView system. In 2007, the FAA designated Honeywell as an RNP SAAAR consultancy, allowing the company to provide services to other business jet operators that facilitate their authorization for RNP SAAAR procedures.
In-Flight Crew Connections, LLC, Charlotte, N.C., received national certification as a Women's Business Enterprise by the Michigan Women's Business Council.
Carl Janssens, editor of the Aircraft Bluebook's Marketline newsletter, sees the current market for previously owned turbine-powered business aircraft as stable, despite naysayers' emphasis on bad economic news. In the second-quarter edition of his publication, Janssens said that the U.S. economy "is currently working through some uncertain economic woes, but keep in mind these concerns will mend in time."
Since its introduction in July 1964, the Beechcraft (now Hawker Beechcraft) King Air has been an institution for business and personal transportation. As with many breakthrough aircraft, this one evolved from a new engine, namely the PT-6 developed by Pratt & Whitney's Canadian subsidiary outside Montreal. The combination of a Beech-made pressurized aircraft with a small, durable, prop-driving turbine proved ideal for the burgeoning business aviation market.
The NTSB recommended that the main rotor blades on thousands of Robinson helicopters be inspected at intervals of less than 600 hours because of four incidences of rotor blade skin debonding.
At about 10 p.m. on the night of Sept. 12, 2007, flames were spotted coming from an FBO hangar at the Danbury Municipal Airport (KDXR), in Danbury, Conn. The flames spread rapidly, and local fire departments responded from several nearby towns, but the hangar and all of the nine aircraft within, including two business jets, were completely destroyed. Some 15 aircraft parked on the ramp were damaged by the heat and flames as well. However, the edifice and the aircraft weren't the only things that got burned.
Aerion announced that the company went to EBACE with more than 40 letters of intent for its supersonic business jet worth $3 billion. June 10, the company announced that by the end of the show, they had added 10 more orders, bringing the total to 50, each backed by a refundable $250,000 deposit, and upping the backlog to $4 billion.
*July 14-20: Farnborough International Air Show, Farnborough, England. +44 20-7976-3349. www.farnborough.com *July 19: National Aviation Hall of Fame 47th Annual Enshrinement Ceremony, National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. www.nationalaviation.blade6.donet.com *July 23-25: 4th International Aviation Trade Show & Congress CIAM Cancun 2008, Hilton Cancun Golf & Spa Resort, Mexico. www.expo-ciam.com *Aug. 14-16: LABACE 2008, Congonhas Airport, São Paulo, Brazil. www.labace.aero
The FAA says Adaptive Compression and Airspace Flow Programs have saved $27 million for the airlines and 1.1 million delay minutes for the airlines and the flying public in the first year after its March 2007 launch. Adaptive Compression works by scanning for airport arrival slots that would go to waste when a flight is canceled, delayed or rerouted. Open slots are filled with the next available flight, minimizing passenger delays by maximizing operations at constrained airports.
This graph is designed to provide a broad sketch of the Howard 500's performance, based upon AFM numbers and flight logs compiled by David Cummings, chief pilot. Do not use these data for flight planning.
