Runway 1/19 at Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC), reopened Aug. 15, a week ahead of schedule. The project involved completely removing and replacing the pavement and electrical systems for the main, 7,000-foot-long runway. The 5,050-foot-long Runway 3/21 reopened earlier this summer after the intersection of the two runways was rehabilitated.
AirCell has received EASA certification for its ST 3100 satcom system installed on a Cessna Citation Bravo. The AirCell ST 3100 system is the industry's best-selling satcom system, and is standard or optional equipment on nearly two dozen OEM aircraft programs worldwide. It operates on the Iridium Satellite System, providing pilots and passengers all-altitude, all-latitude coverage throughout the world. AirCell has EASA Part 145 approval (certificate reference number EASA.145.5595).
PrivatAir of Geneva has ordered a luxury 56-seat Boeing 767-300ER to enter service in March 2007. The aircraft will have the range to fly Europe to Los Angeles or Europe to Singapore nonstop. PrivatAir says that the 767 will have enough under-floor baggage space to satisfy the needs of its most discriminating clients. The market for the aircraft is expected to be governmental and the luxury travel industry. PrivatAir's owned charter fleet will then consist of a Boeing 757-23A and the Boeing 767-300ER.
Twinjet of London-Luton Airport has taken delivery of a new Airbus ACJ, which replaces what was originally the first A319 'ACJ' in service. Within two days of its arrival it was revenue earning on a one-stop trip to Los Angeles. It is currently fitted with four belly tanks but Twinjet plans to take the forward tank out to carry extra baggage. The interior, completed by LHT in Hamburg, includes a private bedroom with en suite facilities including a shower.
THE NBAA RECENTLY won a quiet struggle to help "foreign" U.S. companies use their corporate aircraft as efficiently as, well, non-foreign U.S. companies. Confused? Although this sounds like a new security classification, it is a decades-old concept within the FARs.
CAE, Montreal, has announced the completion of its restructuring. Senior management members whose responsibilities have been realigned are: Don Campbell has become executive vice president; Group President, Civil Training, Services and Innovation Jeff Roberts will continue in that role but with a focus on emerging markets such as India and China. Nick Leontidis is now executive vice president, innovation. Marc Parent will have the added responsibility for the military segments as group president, simulation products and military training and services.
Thanks for the interview with Matt Weisman ("Fast Five," May, page 38). Matt and Bill Watt were responsible for taking a chance on a young kid (me), fresh out of the Air Force in 1973. I spent four years learning the ropes in flight ops, before moving over to AT&T at MMU for the next 27 years.
Before leaving for summer recess, the Senate Appropriations Committee called for a boost in the FAA's certification safety inspector funding. The committee recommended giving the FAA $16 million more than the administration requested to allow it to hire new inspectors.
As you suggest, it is just a factual statement. The TSB seemed to think that this omission was just another indication that the pilot was tired and distracted. Apparently, under normal circumstances (and his SOPs) he should have made that known.
Raytheon Aircraft Services (RAS) now holds an STC for the installation of an Auxiliary Ground Heating System for the Beechcraft Premier I/IA. This electrically powered system provides pre-heat to the cabin without the engines running which in turn helps to maintain a stable cabin temperature while en route. Even in sub-freezing weather, passengers have the pleasure of boarding into a luxuriously warm cabin. All Raytheon Aircraft Services locations are certified to install this upgrade on the Beechcraft Premier I/IA.
The Experimental Aircraft Association's Young Eagles Program hit a milestone in July, when the 1.25 millionth Young Eagle took flight. Young Eagles Chairman Harrison Ford and Executive Director Steve Buss announced the milestone during the EAA's AirVenture in Oshkosh. Larry Durst, a pilot from Roseburg, Ore., flew 14-year-old Tucker Morey in a Cessna 182.
The peripatetic life of Lloyd Carlton Stearman was full of moving vans and irony. When he was an elementary school student in Kansas, Stearman caught sight of his first airplane. It was being flown by an adventurous fellow by the name of Clyde Cessna, a man whom years later would become Stearman's partner.
ATR sold six regional turboprops to Tanzanian carrier Precision Air Services under a contract valued at $97 million. The contract calls for delivery of three ATR 42-500s and three ATR 72-500s between 2008 and 2010. Precision Air Services already operates six ATR aircraft -- four ATR 42-320s and two ATR 72-210s. The new turboprops will modernize the Precision fleet and allow the carrier to expand its regional routes across Africa. ATR and Precision Air Services also have a memorandum of understanding for a training program in France.
Voyager Jet Center, an aircraft management and flight services company and the FBO at Pennsylvania's Allegheny County Airport, has added a Hawker 850XP to its charter fleet. VJC-managed aircraft operate on Atlantic Aviation Flight Services' certificate. For additional information, visit www.voyagerjet.com.
Boeing officially signed Connexion's death warrant on Aug. 17. The company announced that it has decided to exit the high-speed broadband communications connectivity markets. The Boeing move compounds the turmoil in the wake of Verizon's retreat from inflight phone service to business aircraft (see below). Boeing said it will work with its customers to facilitate an orderly phase out of the Connexion by Boeing service.
ADMS-COMMAND is an entry-level, modular ADMS system developed for emergency response agencies with limited training space or other financial or operational restrictions. ADMS-COMMAND uses the same technology used in the full, multi-station ADMS-TEAM system, but in a more adaptable and flexible configuration. ADMS-COMMAND is a single laptop-based training simulator, which is expandable into a team training system with the purchase of additional stations.
Bong Wie, a professor at Arizona State University, has been selected to receive the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics 2006 Mechanics and Control of Flight Award.
The SJ30-2's Primus Epic CDS, short for control display system, features three 10-by-eight-inch, portrait-configuration flat-panel displays. The outer left and right displays are PFDs and the left-of-center unit is an MFD. Standard equipment includes dual sets of Primus II radios with control units mounted in the instrument panel, TCAS, EGPWS, four-color weather radar, single radio altimeter, basic NZ2000 FMS and Iridium phone. Dual AHRS, yaw dampers, symbol generators and DADCs are included, along with a single-channel, three-axis autopilot.
These graphs are designed to illustrate the performance of the SJ30-2 under a variety of range, payload, speed and density altitude conditions. Do not use these data for flight planning purposes because they are gross approximations of actual aircraft performance.
Landmark Aviation, Tempe, Ariz., named Scott Bridge as the general manager for its Albany, Ga., facility. Eric Hermann has been named general manager of the Rochester, N.Y., FBO and Alphonso James was named general manager for the Greensboro, N.C., facility.
Farnborough Aircraft Corp. Ltd.'s (FACL) single-engine turboprop-powered Kestrel F1 made its maiden flight on July 29 from Bend, Ore. The U.K.-based company was granted full intellectual property rights for the Kestrel F1 by an Oregon Court earlier in the month. The Kestrel F1 (previously called the Farnborough F1) was part of a joint development between Epic Aircraft and Farnborough Aircraft Corp. Ltd., but their two-year relationship ended in recrimination. Chief test pilot Graham Archer said: "The aircraft performed flawlessly throughout the first flight.
