CAE SimuFlite is relocating a Sikorsky S-76 and a Gulfstream IV simulator from its Dallas, Texas facility to the company's new training center in Morristown, N.J. The new center also will house simulators for the Falcon 7X, Falcon 900 EX/EASy and 2000 EX/EASy. CAE broke ground on the center earlier this fall and will begin moving simulators into the facility by summer 2006. The facility initially will incorporate six simulator bays but will be designed to accommodate future expansion.
"Meeting technical specifications for eye protection can never be enough if workers are not comfortable wearing the product," said Erica L. Osley, senior product manager for Uvex, a Bacou-Dalloz brand. "But if you can even go beyond that and develop a product workers actually want to wear, then you've fulfilled your mission and more. Uvex FitLogic Safety Eyewear was among the winners of this year's Industrial Design Excellence Awards featured in Business Week magazine and BusinessWeek Online.
Lufthansa Technik (LT) is preparing for the first VIP A380, even though airlines have booked all the production slots so far. Nevertheless, its completion center in Hamburg, Germany, will be ready, and when the first VIP A380 arrives, Lufthansa Technik will already have had extensive experience helping with parent Lufthansa's fleet of the giant aircraft. LT unveiled its concept of how a complete aircraft could look at NBAA following release of upper-deck concept renderings earlier this year.
Dec. 17 marks the 70th anniversary of the first flight of the Douglas DC-3. The National Aviation Hall of Fame will celebrate the iconic airborne master-of-all trades' birthday. Dec. 17 also happens to be the 102 anniversary of the Wright Brothers' first flight. The party is at Santa Monica Airport, where the DC-3 first took to the air from what was then Clover Field in 1935. Led by the NAHF's own aircraft, "Duggy the DC-3," a flyover of DC-3s and C-47s will make a circuit above Santa Monica to coincide with the 2 p.m.
Crane Aerospace and Electronics, Lynnwood, Wash., appointed Dewey Turner III to senior vice president of global sourcing and manufacturing for the Aerospace Group.
According to figures issued by the Russian Business Aviation Association (ADA), VIP charter flights and the number of owned aircraft in Russia are growing by 40 percent annually. With an eye on this growth, Russian and Western business aviation operators for several years have been trying to create a real full-service FBO in the country and particularly in Moscow, but with little success. That failure, in the midst of booming business activity, serves to highlight serious troubles in local airport infrastructure.
SHARING AN AIRPLANE BETWEEN companies should allow each company to enjoy more airplane than either could afford alone. However, poorly planned corporate aircraft marriages tend to end badly and may sour newcomers on the entire concept of business aviation. Agreeing on scheduling and cost sharing plans in writing before taking your vows can go a long way toward keeping the union friendly and functioning later on.
Sino Swearingen Aviation officials formally accepted a type certificate for the SJ30-2 business jet from FAA Deputy Administrator Bobby Sturgell at the NBAA convention. The certification includes day/night/IFR and single-pilot operations. Major items that still need approval include flight into known icing conditions and the aircraft's cabin interior. Meanwhile, company executives say their next major objective is obtaining a production certificate from the FAA.
Linden Blue invited B&CA inside the carbon-fiber fuselage mock-up, one actually made on production aircraft tooling. It was virtually the same size as that of a CJ2+, but it had much larger cabin windows. The main four-seat club section in the aft cabin has fold-out work tables, overhead LED reading lights and gasper air outlets mounted in the sidewall armrests. Without overhead air ducts, the ceiling panels are higher and there's more available headroom.
Aircraft Technical Publishers was selected by Piaggio America to manage technical publications related to its Avanti aircraft. The agreement covers all technical libraries, distribution and customer service worldwide for the Avanti.
Embraer Executive Jets, Sao Jose Dos Campos, Brazil, has announced several changes in its restructuring of this unit. Mauricio Aveiro will lead the global services and customer support unit; Scott Kalister has been named vice president, executive aviation customer support in the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean; Ernest Edwards is vice president, executive aviation marketing and sales for the United States, Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean.
Reed Exhibitions, Singapore, has announced that Clive Richardson will return to the company as senior vice president of the company's aerospace and defense business for the Asia Pacific region.
Keystone Ranger Holdings has agreed to sell its rotorcraft operations to Sikorsky Aircraft. The business units to be transferred to Sikorsky include Keystone Helicopter Corp., with facilities in West Chester and Coatesville, Pa., and Composite Technology, Inc., of Grand Prairie, Tex., with additional operations in Canada, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Singapore. The transaction is expected to close before the end of the year.
Last summer, B&CA's nearly year-long discovery process into the workings of a small plant in Spanish Fork, Utah -- a center for excellence in composite construction in the United States -- brought dramatic results. Linden S. Blue, now vice chairman of UAV-maker General Atomics and a consummate general aviation futurist, opened the door to B&CA on an aviation project he's been pursuing for more than two decades. That project, unveiled publicly at the 2005 NBAA Convention in Orlando, is the $3.65 million Spectrum 33.
Eclipse Aviation has 2,357 total orders for the Eclipse 500 very light jet. This includes options for 765 aircraft secured with non-refundable deposits. The backlog received a recent boost with orders for 30 aircraft from Massachusetts air-taxi operator Linear Air and 50 aircraft from U.K.-based JetSet Air Ltd. Eclipse expects to begin delivering aircraft soon after certification which is anticipates receiving in the first quarter of 2006. The first available delivery position is in June 2008.
Expect product announcements every year from Raytheon Aircraft, says Brad Hatt, president and general manager of the Hawker business unit. The Hawker 850XP, which debuted at NBAA, is the latest iteration of the 800XP and the 800XPi that was introduced at this year's EBACE. List price will be $13.65 million in 2006 dollars, up from the XPi's $13.45 million, which was itself a $250,000 increase over the 800XP.
The Kings began working as flight instructors in 1974 and soon developed on-site programs that had them traveling to different locations throughout the West for 48 weekend training sessions a year. To help them critique their presentations, they began to videotape each other, a decision that ultimately created a video pilot training revolution. It is said half the pilots in training watch King videos, CDs or DVDs.
Each year we editors at B&CA exchange observations on people who have made significant contributions to the business aviation community. Because of these remarkable individuals' special vision, determination and actions, business aviation operations have been made safer, less constrained, faster and more cost effective. Fortunately, we have been blessed with many such contributors over the years and many are at work for our collective benefit right now.
With each brief question, the man responded quickly, eagerly with palpable excitement. The same question again, and the same earnest response. And again. And again. The interview was being videotaped for later broadcast, and as is the way of that medium, the questions get repeated to introduce or correct changes of angle, of light, of background. No matter. For this man, each chance to speak was an opportunity, and he took it with vigor.
The Battery Lock will render an aircraft battery useless. It satisfies the TSA's security guidelines for general aviation airports publication A-011 and a second lock for the New Jersey DOT state-required two-lock system. The Battery Lock is constructed using a tough space-age plastic polymer and a seven-pin circular, hardened ball-bearing lock and can be installed and removed with one hand while reaching into the most difficult locations. The Battery Lock will work on all jets and helicopters using the battery type shown in the accompanying photo.
Eclipse Aviation has 2,357 total orders for the Eclipse 500 very light jet. This includes options for 765 aircraft secured with non-refundable deposits. The backlog received a recent boost with orders for 30 aircraft from Massachusetts air-taxi operator Linear Air and 50 aircraft from U.K.-based JetSet Air Ltd. Eclipse expects to begin delivering aircraft soon after certification which is anticipates receiving in the first quarter of 2006. The first available delivery position is in June 2008.
