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.
The International Registry of Mobile Assets established by the Cape Town Convention and Protocol of 2001 has been significantly better accepted than expected. Over 3,500 users have been registered -- four times the number forecast for the entire first year. Niall Greene, managing director of Aviareto, which manages the registry, said, "The International Registry was established to settle competing claims to property interests in aircraft and engines.
The NBAA and the Associação Brasileira de Aviação Geral (ABAG) have "deferred" the 2006 Latin American Business Aviation Conference and Exhibition, LABACE 2006, due to a construction project at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo, Brazil. The event, jointly sponsored by the two organizations, originally was scheduled for Aug. 10-12 at Congonhas Airport. In early May, Brazilian aviation authorities notified the NBAA and ABAG that the VARIG Engenharia e Manutencao ramp would be unavailabledue to construction.
Cessna Aircraft plans to offer an enhanced vision system (EVS) on the Citation Excel/XLS and an Integrated Flight Information System (IFIS) on CJ1 and CJ2 aircraft. The product enhancements were unveiled during Cessna's recent annual Citation Customer Conference in Wichita. The Max Viz EVS-1000 uses a fuselage-mounted infrared camera to enhance situational and terrain awareness during times of low visibility.
With an order for 50 Embraer Phenom 100s and an option for 50 follow-on aircraft, JetBird announced at EBACE in May that it will do for Europe what the low-cost VLJ-based on-demand services in the United States will do for North America. Domhnal Slattery, a veteran banker and aviation financier with the Royal Bank of Scotland, now retired from the bank and leading the jet service start-up from headquarters in Switzerland, heads the company.
Meanwhile, the Airline Transport Association (ATA), has been waging a campaign to shift about $2 billion of passenger taxes to business aviation operators. It wants to do this by suspending the tax and instituting instead a program of ATC user fees that would cost out the movement of any turbine aircraft regardless of size at roughly the same rate -- based on distance traveled and time in system. Lately the ATA has kicked up its public efforts (see the following item) several notches to win over legislators.
How amusing to read the letter of a simulator instructor insisting on the word "throttle" instead of "thrust" (or "power") in your very nice CJ article (Letters, June, page 8).
Million Air Teterboro has renamed itself Meridian as part of an ongoing effort to consolidate its operations at Teterboro Airport in New Jersey. In addition to the FBO's name change, the operation's aircraft maintenance division became Meridian Jet Center. The company also is adding new logos and signage. The rebranding comes as the company moves into its new 33,000-square-foot headquarters and FBO facility. A new 40,000-square-foot hangar and maintenance shop are slated for completion in October.
