Joe Clark is an aviation businessman to the core. He found his calling at 20 when he took his first ride in a Learjet; by the time he stepped out, he knew he wanted in, for keeps. And so in 1965 he launched Jet Air, the first Lear Jet distributorship in the Northwest, with a sales territory covering Washington, Oregon, Alaska and all of Canada. His next career move was to Raisbeck Engineering as vice president of sales. In 1981, he cofounded Horizon Air, a highly successful Seattle-based regional that was ultimately sold to Alaska Airlines.
The expression "cone of silence" took on new meaning when British manufacturer Ultra Electronics developed its electronic noise-canceling system for the noisy cabins of turboprop regional airliners. Now Elliott Aviation in Moline, Ill., has improved on the original product to create its Sound Management System (SMS) for the Beech King Air 200, 300 and 350 executive turboprops.
George Larson's "Satcom Services Race" (September, page 104) is an outstanding piece - very insightful and very pure, which is very difficult to do in a space that is so technical by nature. It certainly covers all the bits and bytes, as well as the hot topics, and it also teaches people how to think about things. Even just spending time talking about the individual network offerings is helpful, because people can think . . . Inmarsat gives me XYZ, Iridium gives me ABC, AirCell's Broadband will give me PDQ, etc.
THE WINTER OF 1944 was typical for New England: cold, snowy, icy . . . miserable. This, however, was to be our last week at our Navy training base at Groton, Conn., after which our unit was heading for the tropical heat of Saipan where we would rendezvous with the recently repaired U.S.S. Lexington, our new home.
PATS Aircraft and investment firm Tailwind Capital, LLC have joined forces to offer executive versions of previously owned Bombardier CRJ-200 regional airliners for about $20 million apiece, according to our sister publication, The Weekly of Business Aviation.
I just read "Emitting Credibility" in the November issue (Viewpoint, page 9). Great column, and your warning is both appropriate and important. The global "green" movement already brandishes alarmingly strong and threatening (and potentially punitive) powers. "Assigning the blame" (aviation being a prime target) seems to be a more popular theme than solving the problem. Interesting times.
China's Civil Aviation Administration (CAAC) has selected Sensis Corp. for a satellite navigation pilot project at two Chinese airports, a decision Sensis hopes is a precursor to nationwide deployment of its ADS-B system. The airports involved are Chengdu and Jiuzhai in Central China. The company believes this will be China's first formal trial of 1090 MHz ADS-B for commercial aircraft. The systems will be deployed in three to four months, Sensis executives told Aviation Daily. The trial is "open-ended," a Sensis executive said.
Southwest Jet Aviation has added an Astra to its charter fleet and will base it at Scottsdale Municipal Airport in Arizona. The addition brings Southwest Jet's charter fleet to 10 aircraft.
The first shot was an editorial entitled "Fairness for All Airport Users," which was signed by Richard Anderson, then head of Northwest Airlines, and published in the March 2004 issue of NWA WorldTraveler, his carrier's inflight magazine. The essence of the piece was that airline passengers, the magazine's captive audience, were unwittingly underwriting the use of airports and the ATC system by private aircraft through their payment of passenger facility charges.
Could reengining be the fountain of youth for aging business jets? Only a few seconds after we pushed the throttles up to the forward stops for takeoff aboard Clifford Development's reengined Citation II flying test bed, it was quite obvious that this 19-plus-year-old light jet workhorse was feeling its oats, almost as if it were a CJ3 colt.
*Dec. 3-14: Aviation Safety Management Systems (ASMS) course, University of Southern California (USC), 6033 W. Century Blvd., Ste. 920, Los Angeles, CA 90045. (310) 342-1345. *Dec. 10: American Association of Airport Executives, Seventh Annual Aviation Security Summit, DoubleTree Hotel Crystal City, Arlington, Va. www.aaae.org *Dec. 14: Wright Memorial Dinner, Aero Club of Washington, Washington, D.C. www.aeroclub.org --2008--
Cessna Aircraft Co., Wichita, announced the appointments of Steve Charles as director, Citation product support and Tom Grace as director, propeller product support. They will be based in Wichita and report to Mark Paolucci, senior vice president, customer service.
Bristow Group, which provides helicopter services to the offshore energy industry, recently signed a definitive agreement to sell its Grasso Production Management (GPM) business to Production Services Network Ltd. for $22.5 million. GPM is a contract operator of oil and gas production facilities in the Gulf of Mexico.
Corporate Angel Network (CAN), was presented with a $50,000 check during a ceremony held at the Wings Club's 65th annual Dinner-Dance at the Waldorf-Astoria in New York City. The award is in recognition of CAN's 25 years of public service to cancer patients by arranging more than 27,000 free flights to treatment in the empty seats of business jets. "While I'm the one accepting this recognition on behalf of CAN, I'd like to recognize CAN's staff and board members," said CAN Chairman Randall Greene, who is also chairman and CEO of Safe Flight Instrument Corp.
Give the average American kid something like a used Honda Civic for graduation, and he will immediately begin to pour all of his pay from his part-time job into converting what had been a normal, comfortable, conservatively styled car into a full-blown road rocket with a towel-bar spoiler, an exhaust spigot the size of a coffee can and a flame paint job. It's what kids do, and it's become a $27 billion industry, complete with an annual convention.
The Helicopter Foundation International (HFI), a Helicopter Association International affiliated organization, is now offering more information at the click of a mouse. The newly remodeled Web site - www.helicopterfoundation.org - brings all the resources needed to keep helicopter enthusiasts up-to-date on the foundation's latest endeavors. Founded in 1983, the HFI is dedicated to preserving and promoting the history of the helicopter industry, as well as educating both present and future generations.
The first new Embraer's Lineage 1000 ultra-large executive jet arrived at PATS Aircraft Completions in Georgetown, Del. Nov. 16. The aircraft is being outfitted with a customer-selected interior designed by Priestman Goode. The Lineage 1000, derived from the Embraer 190 airliner, made its first flight Oct. 26 at Embraer's Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil, facility. PATS will integrate the total interior using materials and systems from its parent deCrane Aerospace, including seating, furniture, wood veneer, IFE systems, cabin management systems and more.
The Global Positioning System still was in its infancy in the mid-1980s, when Gary Burrell and Min Kao recognized its commercial potential for aviation, land mobile, marine, automotive and recreational uses, among other new markets. AlliedSignal, Burrell's and Kao's employer at the time, didn't share that vision, so the two left the firm to start their own company focused on developing a broad range of GPS navigation products.
Readers have frequently asked us if we had one, overall favorite airplane. That's a tough call, but the Pilatus PC-12 ranks near the top of the list. This versatile single-engine turboprop has a slightly larger cabin than a Beech King Air B200, cruise speeds of a King Air C90GT, cabin sound levels that rival those of some turbofan aircraft and impressive short-field performance.
Jet Aviation Basel recently received letters of intent to complete interiors for two Airbus A340s, four Boeing BBJs and three B787 aircraft. The completions work will continue through 2014. The latest contracts come as Jet Aviation began construction on a new 9,600-square-meter hangar to accommodate widebody aircraft with long wingspans and very tall tails. The new hangar will be completed in the first half of next year. Jet noted that the large aircraft contracts come in addition to the more than 20 Falcon jets that Jet Aviation Basel completes annually for Dassault.
SAS has decided to permanently ground its 27 Bombardier Q400s following a third landing accident in a matter of weeks. "Confidence in the Q400 has diminished considerably, and our customers are becoming increasingly doubtful about flying in this type of aircraft," SAS CEO Mats Jansson said in a statement.
Anchorage-based Aero Twin's owner, Tony Cestnik, needed better performance for his Cessna 208 Caravan, especially when it was fitted with amphib floats, so he decided to swap out its 600-shp Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-114 for a new 850-hp Honeywell TPE331-12JR, a well-proven powerplant used on the CASA 212 Series 400. Aero Twin received the STC for the kit last summer for the basic aircraft, but not the 208B stretched . The conversion also is applicable to serial number 277 and later aircraft originally powered by the 675-shp -114A engines.
A mixture of new and proven technology is being exploited in business jet refurbs and completions. Starting from a bare cabin and proceeding with a generic interior installation, here's a sampling of what's de rigueur today and, in some cases, what to look out for in terms of potential problems. Shells and Soundproofing Packages
Raytheon plans to sell Flight Options LLC, its wholly owned fractional aircraft ownership provider, to a Miami-based private equity firm, H.I.G. Capital. The decision to sell Flight Options comes as the Cleveland-based unit posted an operating loss of $96 million in the third quarter of this year, compared with a $10 million loss in third quarter 2006. Raytheon said it "initiated a process to dispose of" the fractional aircraft operation in the third quarter and reached a definitive agreement with H.I.G. on Oct. 15. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
