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.
The stereotype, however unfounded, came easily to mind: an amalgam of a horse trader, fighter jock and Red Skelton's San Fernando Red wearing a serious suit. The used airplane broker.
Whether you own a FAR Part 135 operation with a single King Air 200 or are a global enterprise operating a fleet of Gulfstreams, you have the compound responsibility of keeping your aircraft safe and airworthy while overseeing your maintenance budget wisely. To manage your aircraft and your money well, provide your maintenance technicians with the procedures, tools and the time they need. As an aircraft mechanic I am proud of my work ethic and having acquired the experience that enables me to do my job right. I've no doubt your people feel the same.
Officials of Spirit Wing Aviation, developers of the Williams International FJ44-2C-powered Learjet 25, said they now anticipate receiving FAA certification of their SpiritLear by midsummer 2006.
Marked by a series of loud reports and showers of sparks that momentarily unnerved exhibitors in adjacent booths Embraer unveiled full scale mockups of its newly named Phenom 100 very light jet and Phenom 300 light jet at the NBAA convention in Orlando. Although featuring identical cabin cross-sections and Garmin 1000 integrated cockpits layouts, the two aircraft will have little structural commonality.
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.
