Acting as prime contractor, EADS North America officially delivered the first American Eurocopter UH-72A Light Utility Helicopter to the U.S. Army, Dec. 13. The service has a program requirement for up to 322 units of the helicopter, which is based on the Eurocopter EC145, and a potential total life-cycle value of over $1 billion. To date, the Army has ordered a total of 42 UH-72As, along with the associated training services. The second is scheduled for delivery about the time you read this.
Here's another believer that a thriving local airport is an economic engine. Orange County (N.Y.) Executive Edward Diana is urging the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to buy the lease on Stewart Airport. "There is no other organization that can match the Port Authority's experience in successfully operating a major airport," he said. "The future success of Stewart Airport is too important to take a chance with an unproven entity.
Albuquerque International Amsterdam, Netherlands, International Anchorage, Alaska, International Aspen, Colo. Atlanta International Bensenville, Ill. Boston Logan International Burbank, Calif. Chicago O'Hare International Cincinnati International Cleveland International Columbia, S.C., Metropolitan Dallas/Fort Worth International Denver International Detroit Metropolitan Fort Lauderdale, Fla., International
Just when aircraft owners, buyers, sellers and brokers were beginning to adjust to the new transactional requirements of the Cape Town International Registry (CTIR) -- which went into effect on March 1, 2006 -- numerous aircraft owners and operators have been led to believe that they need to pay a fee to safeguard their financial interest in their aircraft -- even if they don't need to.
The NBAA has stepped into the debate on the role and methods of air charter brokers with an offering of best-practices guidance. In November2006 , the business aviation advocacy group hosted a best-practices discussion at a regional forum at Long Beach, Calif. Based on feedback from the event and realization that some guidance would be helpful in clarifying operational control issues, this was followed by development of a best-practices document for brokers scheduled for release at year-end.
The targets don't shoot back, but in a matter of seconds Peter Ballard is going to empty both his pistols, a shotgun and a rifle with a sense of urgency because he's shooting against the clock. This is cowboy action shooting, a fast-growing recreational sport that pits men and women dressed in period costumes from the Old West against bad guys of all stripes in scenarios in which clanging steel targets stand in for the villains. Ballard, on most days director of sales, corporate care, at Rolls-Royce North America, Inc.
Waco, Texas-based Blackhawk Modifications has received an FAA STC for its F90xp engine upgrade, which exchanges the twin turboprop's original Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-135 engines for factory-new 750-shp PT6A-135A engines, thus allowing the aircraft to achieve the same performance as the King Air F90-1. European (EASA) and Brazilian (DGAC) approval of the engine change was expected by the end of 2006.
University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, N.D., has named Jeremy Roesler chief flight instructor of fixed-wing aircraft at UND's John D. Odegard School of Aerospace Sciences.
Bombardier Flexjet is expanding its "secondary service area" to include all of Mexico. The fractional business jet ownership provider in 2005 established the secondary service area, waiving ferry fees for trips to and from the Caribbean region and Bermuda. The latest expansion is in response to a jump in travel to and from Mexico by Flexjet customers, Bombardier said, noting that the number of Flexjet's Mexico trips has increased by double digits each year since 2003. Nearly 20 percent of Flexjet owners travel to or from Mexico.
Aviation lost a prolific and masterful contributor when Dr. Leonard M. Greene, founder of the Safe Flight Instrument Corp, died November 30, 2006, at the age of 88. Although stricken with cancer during the last decade of his life, this prolific inventor with an insatiable curiosity and seemingly boundless energy continued to participate in his company's activities as its Chairman.
Embraer is forecasting a market for 11,115 business jets and 3,050 30- to 120-seat commercial aircraft over the next 10 years. The Brazilian manufacturer, releasing its long-term market outlook during "Embraer Day" on Nov. 16-17, 2006, predicted business jets sales could reach $169 billion in the next 10 years. The company also forecast that the air taxi market could add demand for 2,500 to 3,000 more VLJs.
On Aug. 15, 1985, a Japan Airlines B747 departed Tokyo with 509 passengers and 15 crew on a domestic flight to Osaka. About twelve minutes after departure, upon reaching cruising altitude, the aft pressure bulkhead failed with an explosive decompression that severed the vertical stabilizer and all hydraulic lines to the tail. The pilots immediately declared an emergency and fought to maintain control of the aircraft.
A Hawker 700A registered to Juventude Ltd. and operated by Blue Star Airlines landed gear-up at Fort Lauderdale/ Hollywood International Airport, Fla. The pilot-in-command who was flying the airplane reported the flight proceeded to the destination airport for a visual approach to Runway 9L. The checklist was read aloud by the copilot with no challenge response.
(San Francisco) - Brendon Docherty and Gordon Wishart have joined the diversified aviation services company as regional vice presidents of aircraft acquisition and sales.
MONTHS AGO when the NTSB released factual information on the November 2004 crash of a Gulfstream III at Houston we synopsized that material here in Cause & Circumstance (B&CA, May 2005, page 96). The facts suggested that the crew somehow lost the picture of their aircraft's actual point in the airspace since they seemed confused by what the avionics system was telling them and even if it was set up properly as they descended into the terrain three miles southwest of Hobby Airport.
ICAO's new Multi-Crew Pilot License program, designed to prepare pilots to operate as first officers in as little as 13 months, is prompting the industry to reevaluate aviation maintenance training programs. "Current basic training does not prepare mechanics to work on modern airplanes," says Steve Pennington, director for maintenance training and standards at Boeing subsidiary Alteon Training, which is exploring MPL-type training for mechanics.
Boeing and PrivatAir announced the latter is getting a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner to be configured as a business aircraft. PrivatAir, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, becomes the first business aviation operator to purchase the 787. The order is valued at $153 million in 2006 dollars, and Boeing's Orders and Deliveries Web site lists it as a 787 BBJ. The 787 complements PrivatAir's existing Boeing fleet, which includes a newly acquired 767, a 757, three Boeing Business Jets (BBJs) and one BBJ2.
In December, the NTSB called directly on airlines to follow the runway landing distance calculations the FAA recommended in a Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO) in August 2006. The FAA originally released a policy statement that would have required commercial and fractional aircraft operators to incorporate a 15-percent safety margin in landing distance calculations based on runway conditions at time of arrival.
Millennia released an alerting feature that works through your dispatch software's e-mailer, Outlook or Lotus Notes calendar anytime a triggering event occurs, which is basically whenever a new trip is scheduled or a change is made to an existing trip. Dispatchers and schedulers have control over how the triggering events are managed and who receives the alerts. And if ops professionals want their print output to look good, Millennia's new Report Design Studio will turn you into a graphic designer who can crank out the boss's itinerary with flair.
Upon receiving an FAA production certificate for its Citation Mustang assembly line in Independence, Kan., Cessna technically delivered its first Mustang to a customer, Mustang Management Group (MMG) of Fresno, Calif., then immediately leased the aircraft back for 10 months for use as a demonstrator. MMG plans to use the Mustang in its Scott Aviation subsidiary for flight training when it actually takes delivery. The certificate authorizes Cessna to build, flight test and grant airworthiness certificates for its newest and smallest Citation.
The second Bell/Agusta BA609 tiltrotor prototype recently made its first flight as the first prototype passed the 100-flight-test-hour milestone at Bell's flight test center in Arlington, Texas. The second, s.n. 60002, flew at Agusta/Westland's facility at the Italian Air Force airfield at Cameri, Italy. Pietro Venanzi was the pilot and Herb Moran copilot for the 52-minute flight. The third prototype is already at the Cameri facility and s.n. 60004 is on the assembly line in Fort Worth.
A new Eurocontrol survey shows that air traffic safety has continued to improve in Europe since the tragic accidents at Italy's Linate-Milan Airport when an SAS airliner and Citation collided, killing 118 people, in 2001 and over Uberlingen, Germany, where a TU-154 and DHL 757 collided in 2002; ATC lapses were factors in both accidents.
