The Bush administration's fiscal 2009 transportation budget drew criticism as "just more of the same" from the Bush administration. On Feb. 4, Transportation Secretary Mary Peters unveiled the DOT fiscal 2009 budget request that calls for $14.6 billion for the FAA. The budget, which would be $320 million below the fiscal 2008 appropriation, assumes the continuation of the current aviation excise taxes. But DOT budget documents assume a shift to user fees and higher fuel taxes beginning in 2010.
Travel Business Daily reports booming airport development in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia, with projects and expansions across the region now valued at over U.S.$68 billion. The Gulf countries account for U.S.$43 billion of this growth, with U.S.$21 billion worth of development now under way in the UAE, where Dubai's annual airport industry exhibition is working to become the largest in the world. The Airport Show takes place at Airport Expo Dubai, June 2 to 4. Important Airport Developments in South Asia:
DynCorp International, Falls Church, Va., announced that William M. Jacobs has been named vice president and general manager of Specialty Aviation and Counter Drug operations.
Jan. 24, 2008 perhaps was one of the most pivotal days in Cessna's recent history. On that day, the board of directors at Textron, Cessna's corporate parent, gave the firm the go-ahead to develop the Columbus, the largest and longest range Citation ever. Notably, Cessna estimates that the Columbus will cost $775 million to bring to market, more than twice the original investment in the Citation X, which has been Cessna's most expensive development program.
A quarter century ago, Beech Aircraft introduced the King Air 300, an aircraft that's even faster than the new B200GT below FL 270. Even more impressively, you can fill the tanks and fill the seats instead of choosing either range or payload. The 300 has better runway performance, better all-engine and one-engine-inoperative climb performance than the 200 and matches it in high-altitude cruise.
Oxford Airport in the U.K. is building a new business aviation terminal scheduled for completion in June. The new facility has triple the space of the existing general aviation terminal and is the first phase of a major investment by Oxford Airport's new owners, the Reuben Brothers, who purchased it in 2007 from BBA Aviation. The expansion is due in part to increased business aviation traffic at the airport, which has doubled over the past three years. Currently, Oxford averages about 10 business jet movements per day.
Rockwell Collins announced that an STC for its Pro Line 21 Integrated Display System (IDS) on King Air 200 aircraft with a SPZ 200 autopilot is now available to dealers. The installation was completed by Superior Aircraft Maintenance in Medford, Ore. "This announcement marks our ongoing effort to make more Pro Line 21 IDS STCs available to our dealers around the world, which ultimately reduces downtime and lowers operators' installation costs," said Denny Helgeson, vice president and general manager, Business and Regional Systems for Rockwell Collins.
Never sent such a message before, but wanted to comment on the Viewpoint in December 2007 issue (page 9). An excellent expression of the views held by many over the AMI/TAG debacle. Based in the United Kingdom, we are not that exposed to U.S. regulatory decision-making, at least not that we realize, but the process and lack of any published facts supporting the FAA action are astonishing.
Quest Aircraft began customer deliveries of the Kodiak single-turboprop utility aircraft in January, with the first going to Salmon, Idaho-based Spirit Air, followed by a second delivery to Spokane Turbine Center in Washington. Quest, headquartered in Sandpoint, Idaho, earned FAA type certification for the Kodiak in May 2007, and continues to work toward getting an FAA production certification. The company first began taking deposits for the aircraft in 2005 and claims a three-year backlog of orders.
Midcoast Aviation is now an authorized repair center in North and South America for structures on the Falcon 7X manufactured by Stork Fokker. Stork Fokker awarded the exclusive agreement, covering warranty and non-warranty repairs for the aircraft's wing movables, which include the ailerons, flaps, spoilers and related fairings. Midcoast, a Jet Aviation company, is based at St. Louis Downtown Airport, earlier designated as an authorized service center for Dassault Falcon.
*General Electric CF34 engines - Conduct a one-time inspection of certain fan disks for electrical arc-out indications. Replace fan disks with electrical arc-out indications, and reduce the life limit of certain fan disks.
MY SON AND I WERE transfixed by the television's images. The scene was chaotic, a city awash in floodwaters. New Orleans was drowning, and its residents had scrambled to their roofs in desperate retreat from the rising brown menace Katrina had sent to their front doors.
The foundation of everything that a consultancy like ARG/US does is a comprehensive database assembled from diverse sources of aviation information. Among these sources are DOT, FAA, NTSB and Aviation Safety Reporting System statistical databases and information provided by cooperating operators as well as safety audits conducted by ARG/US.
*Embraer EMB-135BJ airplanes - Inspect cabin furnishings to determine the presence of cotton adhesive tape that does not meet applicable flammability requirements. Replace any such tape found with new tape that meets flammability requirements.
Delta AirElite Business Jets, Cincinnati, announced that Clark Earick has assumed the position of senior director of business development and Brandon Green is sales director, aircraft management.
While most of the professional airmen (and they were all men) who flew for the airlines and for businesses earned their wings and much of their experience similarly - which is to say, through the Civilian Pilot Training Program, flying for the Army or Navy, or through the GI Bill once discharged - the proficiency disciplines within their respective career paths as civilians were rather dissimilar.
Harvey Conover, the millionaire president of Conover-Mast Publications, was lost at sea when his yawl, Revonoc, disappeared during unexpected, violent weather while sailing from Key West to Miami in early January, within days of the company's launch of Business & Commercial Aviation. The others aboard - Conover's wife, Dorothy, his son and daughter-in-law, Lawrence and Lori Conover, and their friend, William Fluegelman -- also perished. Despite searches by the U.S.
