*May 19: Bombardier Safety Standdown Europe 2008, Geneva, Switzerland. Register at www.safetystanddown.com *May 20-22: European Business Aviation Association Convention and Exposition EBACE2008, Geneva, Switzerland. (202) 783-9000. www.nbaa.org or www.ebace.org *May 20-22: Regional Air Cargo Carriers Association (RACCA) Spring Conference, Marriott Westfields Hotel, Cahntilly, Va. www.raccaonline.org
Gerald E."Jerry" Schlesinger died on March 22 at Columbus, Ohio. He was 63 years old. Jerry was a behind-the-scenes kind of guy -- an imaginative financial wizard filled with great humor, boundless ideas and an innate persuasiveness that allowed him to find financial backing for some of the better ones.
Dassault Falcon, Teterboro, N.J., named Jacques Chauvet senior vice president, worldwide customer service, a newly created position. Gerry Goguen will assume the role of senior vice president, customer relations and business strategy. Frank Youngkin has been named vice president, Western Hemisphere customer service based in Teterboro. He will maintain his responsibility as vice president, worldwide Falcon spares. Youngkin's counterpart in St-Cloud will be Pierre Thielin, vice president, Eastern Hemisphere customer service.
Rockwell Collins, working with Bristow Eastern Hemisphere and Shell Aircraft, secured the first operational approval for use of a Traffic Alert Collision Avoidance System (TCAS II) aboard a helicopter. The European Aviation Safety Agency granted a supplemental type certificate for installation of the Rockwell Collins TCAS II aboard a Bristow Super Puma helicopter. Shell Aircraft worked with Rockwell Collins to install, test and certify the unit.
Keith St. Clair, founder and former chairman of TraveLeaders, announced the formation of StrategicAir, an integrated aviation services company that owns and manages 12 aircraft, basing maintenance and charter services functions at the company's headquarters at the Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport. St. Clair is the president and CEO of the new company.
The U.K. government has approved an increase in flights at London-Farnborough Airport. The Secretaries of State for Communities and Local Government and Transport upheld an appeal by operator TAG Aviation, which had applied for planning permission in October 2005 to double the number of permitted movements at the business aviation field at weekends and on public holidays. TAG has now been given consent for 5,000 movements at those times, but total number of permitted annual movements will remain at 28,000. The U.K.
Gulfstream Aerospace recently received FAA approval to fly its large-cabin line of jets on Required Navigation Performance instrument approach procedures to an RNP value of 0.30 nm. Other mid- to high-end business jet manufacturers are likely to follow suit for competitive reasons alone. This is good news for the business aviation community. And since such approvals and procedures are going to become more common, a closer look at the authorization process and operating environment is in order.
Jet Aviation and Beijing-based Deer Air, a subsidiary of HNA Group, have signed a joint venture agreement under which the two companies will operate a FBO and line maintenance facility at Beijing's Capital International Airport. Handling and limited line maintenance services will be ready in time for the Olympic Games which to be held in Beijing Aug. 8 to 24. Construction of a new 3,300 square-meter (35,475 sq. ft.) FBO building has already started and is expected to be operational for the Olympic Games. The hangar facilities will be completed by early 2009.
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to release an advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANPRM) this spring to solicit comments on a petition from environmentalists seeking regulations curbing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from aircraft engines, a key EPA official told a congressional panel in April.
Standard Aero, Winnipeg, Canada, appointed Kevin Perris as STC program director for the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A business unit. Michael Moore was named senior vice president of Associated Air Center (AAC), the VIP transport completion facility in Dallas, Texas.
U.S. aviation insurance underwriters paid significantly higher business jet hull losses for accidents in the United States and Canada in 2007, according to information compiled by Robert E. Breiling Associates of Boca Raton, Fla. While accident rates have remained stable or improved, Breiling said the introduction of significantly more expensive aircraft into the fleet is driving up loss totals.
When they're not teaching nearly half the known student pilot population the required body of knowledge to obtain various FAA ratings, John and Martha King, of the eponymous King Schools, are actively involved in numerous aviation communities and their programs, among them the Lindbergh Foundation -- more formally, The Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation. Recently, John King agreed to chair the organization's board (he says "I got drafted" by Foundation President Knox Bridges), and he's become an outspoken champion of the group's cause ever since.
Adam Aircraft's assets have been sold to AAI Acquisition, a Delaware corporation formed specifically to purchase the assets of the bankrupt company by a team of former senior Adam executives and a Russian private equity asset management company, Industrial Investors. AAI Acquisition emerged as the winning -- and only -- bidder for the assets of Adam Aircraft on April 4 with a $10 million minimum bid. The U.S. Bankruptcy Court approved the sale and the money changed hands April 15. AAI Acquisition executives said they expect to restart the company immediately.
AWAS, Dublin, Ireland, announced the appointment of Prof. Dr. Werner G. Seifert as chairman of the AWAS board of directors. JT Foo has been appointed to the post of vice president, sales for the company's Asia Pacific operations.
Construction of Panama City, Fla.'s new greenfield airport is under way and back on schedule for a May 2010 opening date, after the airport authority fended off moves by environmental groups earlier this year to stop the construction. The existing airport, hemmed in by the sea and residential and commercial development, does not and cannot meet FAA runway overrun requirements. The replacement airport, sited on a 4,000-acre parcel of land, is part of a 41,000-acre "green zone" being developed by the St.
Embraer, Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, announced the Pedro Ferraz Pereira, director of corporate communications for North American, is assuming a new position as the director of Internal Communications at the company's headquarters in Brazil.
Capping and market-based trading carbon emissions will not necessarily help the poor, according to Professor Mohan Munasinghe, vice chairman of the 2007 Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). "Carbon markets need appropriate rules -- a framework in which the potentially trillion-dollar industry can operate," he told Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) board and committee members April 6 in Colombo, Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka is hosting the PATA Annual Meeting, which included a "Climate Change - Obstacle and Opportunities" session.
Bombardier announced significant changes to its Aerospace Group organization and its leadership team. Guy C. Hachey is appointed Bombardier Aerospace's new President and Chief Operating Officer, effective May 12, 2008. A transition period will follow until June 4, 2008, when Pierre Beaudoin, the current President and Chief Operating Officer, will take over the position of President and Chief Executive Officer, Bombardier Inc., as previously announced. Gary R.
Your comments in the March Viewpoint ("Deserving It") were appropriate and truthful. It is a subject often heatedly discussed and rarely resolved in my experience -- and one that will be timely long after you and I are silenced. Unfortunately. In the March 17 Newsweek, Anna Quindlen quoted a 1963 comment by Charlotte Whitton, the mayor of Ottawa: "Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought of as half as good. Luckily this is not difficult."
This was an exciting era for aviation, a time when the old limitations of what was technically possible seemed to constrict almost daily. A sampling of news bits and announcements in the May issue of what was then called Business/Commercial Aviation gave a sense of pace and push.
Nancy M. Graham (C. 196004) (Charlottesville, Va.)
Your March 2008 Viewpoint ("Deserving It") brought back pre-Gaffney airport attitudes loud and clear. Every female CFI in War Training Service uniform shown in the accompanying photo from Embry-Riddle's Chapman Field (along with as many others in their civilian attire instructing civilians) knew she had to work harder, show more interest and have fewer wash-outs than any male to gain respect.
Blackhawk, Waco, Texas, has appointed Jeff Raines as special projects director to lead the team at the company's new product development facility in Elizabethtown, N.C.
Thank you for sharing your Viewpoint on women in aviation ("Deserving It," March 2008, page 7). I applaud you for again reinforcing that women indeed can be pilots and succeed in other aviation careers. I am a member of Women in Aviation International and we need people like you helping to break down the barriers women have in aviation.
James S. Waugh, executive vice president of FlightSafety International, and for decades a member of the company's close-knit executive leadership, is retiring from the training concern, effective June 1. A relatively young man, his decision came as a surprise to many. A well-known and respected member of the business aviation community, Waugh has been a key figure in many industry programs, committees and initiatives over the decades. In 2006, the NBAA awarded him the John P.
