Regional Airports Ltd. (RAL), which owns London Biggin Hill and London Southend Airports, is to build a 160,000-square-foot hangar, capable of holding up to four BBJ-size aircraft, at Biggin. At Southend Airport, there is planning consent for 220,000 square feet of additional hangarage for corporate as well commercial airline use. The Biggin Hill Executive Handling ramp is also to be increased by around 30 percent with work completed by year-end.
Diamond's D-JET resumed flight testing after installation of a real-time data acquisition system and minor planned modifications to the engine inlet fairings. In a series of flight tests the speed and altitude envelope was progressively expanded from the previously flown 170 knots and 12,000 feet to a cruise speed of 280-plus KTAS and 25,000 feet, the aircraft's altitude certification limit. The latest flights were performed by pilots Christian Dries, CEO of Diamond Aircraft Industries, and test pilot Anthony Brown.
Intelligence | 13 * Nav Canada Charging for Small Aircraft * Business Aviation Accidents Down for First Half of 2006 * Raytheon Requests Certification Standards Exemption for Hawker 4000 * Secretary Mineta Steps Down * US Helicopter Launches New Service Edited by James E. Swickard Commentary 7 | Viewpoint By William Garvey A Friend in Need 60 | Cause & Circumstance By William Garvey Too Late for a Go-Around
Kansas City Aviation Center (KCAC) and Universal Avionics have launched a program to install three EFI-890R EFIS displays into the Pilatus PC-12. KCAC will hold the STC for the retrofit of the single-engine turboprop.
Bombardier has relocated two of its strategic business jet units to London Farnborough Airport. Bombardier's business aircraft sales headquarters for Europe, as well as the headquarters of its charter arm, Skyjet International, are now located within TAG Aviation's new Farnborough facilities.
(Kerrville, Texas) -- Heather Rider has been named the company's sales representative in the Northeast, with responsibility for selling airplanes in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. A graduate of the University of North Dakota, she previously served as an account manager at Iviation, an aircraft services company based in Memphis.
"Unless we are talking about new or near-new long-range jets, this market is no longer the frenzied, red-hot bazaar that it was six months ago, stated Fletcher Aldredge in the second-quarter edition of his Market Leader newsletter. The publisher of the Vref Aircraft Value Reference, which tracks used aircraft prices, added, "Holding times are up and so is availability of some models."
The arrival of the Beech King Air 200 in 1974 sent shock waves throughout the turboprop industry, especially at Piper Aircraft where the Cheyenne II, a direct competitor for the Beech E90, had just made its debut. If Piper wanted to compete, it quickly would have to develop a much larger and more powerful model. Piper launched a clean-sheet turboprop development program that would become the PA-42 Cheyenne III in 1979.
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey defended the Bush administration's decision to seek nearly $1 billion less for airport funding in fiscal 2007 than authorized by Congress, saying, "We must make the absolute best use of the taxpayers' dollars. Like other government agencies, the FAA had to take a hard look at our programs and make some difficult choices." Blakey was testifying before a Senate Commerce Committee field hearing in Anchorage, Alaska, chaired by Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), who had earlier expressed concerns about proposed FAA budget cuts.
A Gates Learjet 35A operated by International Jet Charter was destroyed when it impacted water and light stanchions while making an instrument approach through afternoon fog for landing at Groton-New London Airport (GON), in Connecticut. Both pilots were killed, but the three passengers survived with minor injuries. One of the passengers said he felt the aircraft "thrust up" just before it crashed, at which point "the jet tumbled across the water" before coming to rest upside down.
Dassault elected to fit the Falcon 7X with one of the most redundant fly-by-wire (FBW) systems ever installed in a civil jet. It's highly fault-tolerant so its master minimum equipment list will be long and complete. Dispatch will be permitted with multiple single components faults, including failure of one channel of each side-stick controller, one SmartProbe inoperative and loss of a single flight data concentrator, one channel in a main flight control computer (MFCC) or in an actuator control monitoring unit.
Raisbeck Engineering, Inc., Seattle. Sam L. Jantzen Jr. was promoted to vice president and general manager; Bobby Patton was promoted to marketing manager of King Air Performance Systems; Edwin Black was named marketing manager of Learjet Performance Systems; Leslie Dycus was named advertising and public relations manager.
Klein Tools recently expanded its Tool Tote line with two new multi-pocket tote bags -- a 17-pocket Tool Tote with a shoulder strap (Cat. No. 58890) and a seven-pocket Tool Tote (Cat. No. 58886).
I wasn't surprised when I read in Intelligence (July, page 11) about the airlines' satisfaction with the Midwest Airspace Enhancement (MASE) that took effect during the second week of June. It's just another example of the incompetence at the FAA.
AgustaWestland, a Finmeccanica company, has selected Kaan Air to serve as the Italian airframe manufacturer's sales and authorized service center in Turkey. Kaan Air will provide sales, maintenance and repair services, as well as maintaining a spare parts inventory for AgustaWestland helicopters. The Turkish company will be building new facilities for the service center, which is scheduled to be fully operational in 2007. Separately, AgustaWestland has opened a regional sales office in Warsaw, Poland, to market its range of civil and military aircraft.
US Helicopter launched scheduled service between Bridgeport/Stratford, Conn. (BDR), Manhattan's East 34th Street Heliport and JFK International Airport on June 26. Except weekends and holidays, the company operates 12 hourly flights from the heart of New York City to JFK using Sikorsky S-76 equipment configured for eight seats. Passengers flying with the company's strategic partner American Airlines have the added advantage of checking baggage through to final destinations and obtaining boarding passes for their AA legs when they board their helicopter, and vice versa.
The Experimental Aircraft Association warns that while auto fuel can be used in some aircraft, ethanol possesses chemical properties that harm aircraft engines and fueling systems. "It is critical for aircraft owners using auto fuel to know if the gasoline being used in their aircraft is pure," the association said. So the EAA recommends that all auto fuel be tested for ethanol before fueling an aircraft." It is selling a test kit for $15. For more information, visit www.eaa.org.
Arnold Scott has been an investigator with the NTBS since 1982, working out of its Colorado office. He likes the climate, he says: "They have four distinct seasons, with cold winters, and hot summers." When he moved his wife and the five kids out west, they settled first in Aurora. But when Judith --"she always wanted to live in the country"-- found a 27-acre ranch about 50 miles northeast of Denver, she called Scott to tell him about it. "I said ok, buy it," he recalls with a chuckle. That was in 1993, and they've been there ever since.
A dearth of open space suitable for urban development has combined with the need for cash-strapped municipal governments to seek short-term tax revenues, creating a "perfect storm" in the ongoing assault on general aviation airports.
The FAA published a final rule regarding drug or alcohol testing and medical certifications that includes several changes to airman medical certification standards and applies to all certificated airmen. It also impacts all organizations with FAA-mandated Drug and Alcohol Testing Programs. The rule changes the airman medical certification standards to disqualify an airman based on an alcohol test result of 0.04 or greater breath alcohol content.
Embraer announced the firm order backlog and production schedule for its Executive Jets business at a press conference during the 45th Farnborough International Airshow. "As of June 30th, 2006, our executive jet firm order backlog stands at U.S.$ 1.25 billion," said Maurício Botelho, Embraer chairman, president and CEO. "In respect to the Phenom 100 and Phenom 300, since our launch announcement just over a year ago, we have logged in excess of 235 firm orders." The Legacy 600 was launched in 2000 at the Farnborough Airshow, with deliveries beginning in the following year.
Vice President - Analysis, The Teal Group, Fairfax, Va. Raised in metropolitan New York, Aboulafia earned a master's degree in War Studies at Kings College in London. Trained in the details of armed conflict, he became an expert on the technology employed in war, particularly aircraft and engines. Hired by Teal in 1989, his field of interest has expanded to include all of aerospace. A fine writer, unemotional observer and pithy commentator, he is a favorite source of news editors and producers, trade conference speaker and lecturer.
