Intelligence | 15 ?228-137? Epic's New Victory Jet Flies ?228-137? How Green Is My Trip ?228-137? FAA Re-Estimates ATC Retirements ?228-137? DayJet Ramping Up Initial Eclipse 500 Operations ?228-137?U.S. Business Turbine Accident Count Lower ?228-137? Cessna Launches Light Sport Aircraft Program Edited by James E. Swickard Commentary 9 | Viewpoint By William Garvey Charter Members 66 | Cause & Circumstance By Richard N. Aarons
As an avid reader of B&CA for more than 30 years (out of the 52-plus I have worked in aviation) I was a little worried by the inclusion of the letter from Marienne Trovalink in your June 2007 issue. Not, I hasten to add for her opinions, but for her statement of "fact" that the Wright Flyer was "catapulted."
Charles Bergman, a former U.S. Air Force pilot and ALPA employee, was named executive director of the Next Generation Air Transportation System Institute, the third person to hold the job in the past two years. The first man in the job was hired in July 2005, but stayed just two months before resigning.
Columbia Aircraft recently announced that it has restored its production level to three aircraft per week and that most employees furloughed in late March are now back at work. "We made a lot of dramatic moves earlier this year with the objective of increasing our efficiency and strengthening Columbia Aircraft Manufacturing Corporation," said Columbia President Wan Majid. "We've made significant improvements to our production processes and tooling and laid a foundation for our future success.
The Spaceship Company -- jointly owned by Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites -- has selected Pratt & Whitney Canada's PW308 turbofan to power the White Knight II (WK2) launch aircraft. Virgin Galactic has ordered five SS2s, billed as the world's first commercial passenger suborbital spaceship, with options for another seven, plus the launch aircraft. Equipped with two PW308 engines rated at 6,900 pounds of takeoff thrust, the WK2 will take off horizontally with the manned SS2 attached underneath. It will launch the SS2 into suborbital space from about 50,000 feet.
Dangle the Dunlops!" Heard that before? How about, "Rollers!" These are two of the colorful, but definitely non-standard expressions used to call for extending the landing gear. While some might regard such callouts as those of a pilot merely trying to introduce some originality and humor in the cockpit, and dismiss any suggestion that they pose some kind of a problem, statistics suggest otherwise.
Western Aircraft, Inc. - the FBO, aircraft sales and maintenance provider in Boise, Idaho -- has been sold to Berkley Aviation Investors, Inc. Closing of the deal, details of which were not released, is expected this month. The acquisition will be the second this year for Berkley, which purchased Atlantic Aero Holdings and the Atlantic Aero FBO in Greensboro, N.C. in February. Western has the largest presence on the Boise airport, with five large hangars and office space.
The flight crew of a Cessna Citation II 550 that crashed into Lake Michigan in June began having control problems shortly after takeoff, according to the NTSB. The aircraft, with two pilots, had taken off from Milwaukee's Mitchell Field (MKE) carrying a four-member medical team and harvested human organs that were to be implanted in a patient in Michigan. All six people aboard were killed when the airplane, which was attempting to return to MKE, crashed into 60 feet of water at about 1610 CDT on June 4.
FlightSafety International will install Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 avionics in a Dassault Falcon 50 full-motion simulator scheduled to be operational by December. Some 25 Falcon 50s have been retrofitted with Pro Line 21.
Air Partner has signed an 80-year lease with Biggin Hill Airport for a new 115,000-square-foot site where it will develop a new high-security private jet enclave, at a cost of $10 million, the nearest such facility to the city of London. The company is a leading provider of private aviation services worldwide. Work has started on two state-of-the-art aircraft management and maintenance hangars.
Corporate Angel Network added the top executives of two more business jet manufacturers to its board of directors: Jack J. Pelton, chairman, president and CEO of Cessna Aircraft Co., and John G. Rosanvallon, president and CEO of Dassault Falcon Jet Corp. Jim Schuster, chairman and CEO of Hawker Beechcraft Corp., joined the CAN board earlier.
Saraya Private Aviation has ordered six Piaggio P180 Avanti IIs to be delivered in 2008 and 2009 for private charter and air taxi operations across the Middle East and Northern Africa. Saraya, founded in 2005, is part of a real estate development company specializing in the travel and tourism industries.
Researchers probing possible changes in the Earth's atmosphere as a result of global warming have a new source of data. NASA's Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere (AIM) spacecraft has returned its first images of noctilucent clouds, wispy accumulations of what are believed to be ice crystals that form in summer at altitudes of about 50 miles over the polar regions. As seen in this image from the 440-pound spacecraft, the clouds (white and light blue) range across the pole.
Aviation industry lobbyists have been hearing that FAA Administrator Marion Blakey would leave the agency Sept. 13 when her five-year term expires and that she was looking forward to stepping away from the high-pressure post. But at a July Senate Finance Committee hearing, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) praised Blakey and asked if she would consider staying on at the FAA after Sept. 13 to help ensure that new FAA reauthorization gets enacted into law.
Cessna announced at the Paris Air Show that NetJets -- Cessna's largest Citation customer -- had ordered another 96 Citations. The order includes 50 Encore+, 37 XLS+ and nine Citation X aircraft and totals more than $1 billion. Cessna Chairman, President and CEO Jack Pelton said his company had delivered 340 Citations to the fractional operator over the past 21 years.
(Hillsboro, Ore.) -- Phil Bridge has joined the helicopter sales and service company's sales team, which markets new Bell helicopters in the Western United States and used rotorcraft worldwide. Bridge has sales experience in the aviation, automotive and commercial real estate industries.
The Worldwide Campus of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has teamed with New Zealand-based Aviation English Services (AES) to provide the industry with aviation English training solutions to address ICAO's new requirements, which identify English as the official, recognized language of aviation.
Waterbury-Oxford (Conn.) Airport FBO Key Air hosted an invitation-only Jet Day event co-sponsored by Porsche and Airport Journals on June 21. Airframe manufacturers brought their aircraft to OXC, and Porsche brought a lineup of cars for the 1,000 attendees to drive. Among the exhibitors were FlightSafety International, AvFuel and Virgin Galactic (which actually sold a few seats on future suborbital rocket rides).
GKN Aerospace has been selected to manufacture the HondaJet fuselage barrel in Alabama, says GKN's CEO Marcus Bryson. The wings are to be built by Avcorp Industries, Garmin will supply the avionics and final assembly will be at Honda's plant, now under construction at Greensboro, N.C. First HondaJet deliveries are scheduled for 2010.
U.S. business and corporate turbine-powered aircraft were involved in 25 accidents during the first six months of this year -- as compared to 29 accidents in the same period in 2006 -- according to information compiled by Robert E. Breiling Associates. Eight accidents through June resulted in the deaths of 21 passengers and crew. That compares with nine fatal accidents that claimed 22 lives during the first half of 2006. FAR Part 135 operators were involved in 15 accidents during the first half of this year, including five that resulted in 14 fatalities.
Encore FBO LLC, formed a year ago to "build an integrated, worldwide FBO network," has added the former Frederick Aviation facility at the Frederick, Md. Airport (FDK) to its holdings. Encore launched its business in July 2006 with the purchase of a Dublin, Ireland FBO and acquisition of the former Trajen Systems and Trajen DOD businesses. Frederick Aviation, which has been at the airport for nearly 30 years, provides aircraft charter and management, sales, maintenance, fueling and related services.
Using input and testing from its students and instructors, Sporty's has designed a flight bag specifically for VFR flight. If you're a student pilot or a weekend flier, the VFR Flight Bag is right for you, according to the company. This compact bag features specially designed pockets for storing important items necessary for a VFR flight. The exterior features padded pockets to protect a headset while additional pockets allow quick access to charts and a logbook. An organizing section has an ID holder, pen and pencil holders, a key clip and a pocket for a cellphone.
With showbiz flare that included a choreographed performance by a suspended acrobat suspended from the simulator bay ceiling and ghostly vignettes of employees at work, CAE officially opened its new business aviation training center June 7 near Morristown Airport in New Jersey. The CAE SimuFlight Northeast Training Center will be the base of entitlement training for the Dassault Falcon 7X, as well as training on the Falcon 900EX EASy, Falcon 2000EX EASy, Gulfstream IV and Sikorsky S-76.
