President Bush nominated Edmund ``Kip'' Hawley as the next Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA). Currently, Hawley serves as a technology consultant in California and is a member of the FAA's Air Traffic Services Committee. Prior to this, Hawley was vice president of Transportation Services for Union Pacific Railroad in Omaha, Neb., and served as Deputy Assistant Secretary and Executive Director of Governmental Affairs for the DOT.
Executive Jet Management reported 2004 revenue jumped 35 percent compared with 2003, reflecting a 35 percent increase in charter hours flown. The EJM fleet of more than 100 aircraft flew 28,451 flights, 2,150 of which were international. The company predicted that revenues will be up more than 25 percent in 2005 as new offices in San Jose, Calif. and Teterboro, N.J. and an expanding outside sales force continue to bring in business.
Gulfstream operators will be able to buy spare parts worldwide from representatives of either Gulfstream Aerospace or Aerospace Products International. Under an agreement between the companies, 33 API sales representatives will supplement Gulfstream parts sales representatives to provide worldwide spare parts sales support for the Gulfstream product line.
The European Regions Airline Association (ERA) called in the European Ombudsman to sort out a complaint of maladministration against the European Commission (EC). The association claims the EC published incorrect and misleading information on new passenger rights when flights are cancelled or delayed.'' We have been forced to take this action to ensure that consumers, who have had their expectations raised by the EC, get the correct information regarding their travel rights,'' said Andy Clarke, ERA director of air transport policy.
The Gulfstream G150, manufactured by Israel Aircraft Industries, made its first flight from Ben Gurion International Airport May 3. The wider-fuselage successor to the G100 spent four and one-half hours aloft during its initial flight. The pilots conducted checks of handling qualities and systems, cycled the landing gear and operated the flap/slat system. Maximum altitude on the flight was 20,000 feet and the aircraft reached a maximum speed of 250 knots. IAI said the program remains on schedule for type certification by FAA and Israeli aviation authorities by early 2006.
It's as true today as it was for Charles Lindbergh and his not-so-lucky contemporaries in the 1920s. Outside of aerial combat, crop dusting, and airborne firefighting, perhaps oceanic crossings represent the most challenging -- and potentially dangerous -- operations involved in air transportation.
Stevens Aviation plans major improvements and expansion of its operations at Greenville-Spartanburg (GSP) Airport in South Carolina, assuming its current lease, which expires in October of 2006, is renewed. The plans include building a new hangar and an operations building from which it will serve locally based and transient aircraft with fueling, flight planning, concierge, and other services.
The laser-based Visual Warning System went operational in the National Capitol Region on May 21. VWS, fielded NORAD in coordination with the FAA and the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office, illuminates aircraft, which have penetrated the NCR ADIZ and cannot be contacted by radio, with ground-based low-level red and green laser beams. The lasers are narrow-beam, meaning that if you can see the flashes, you are the target.
Safe Flight Instrument Corp. announced that its Integrated Angle-of-Attack computer system has been integrated into Universal's EFI-890R Electronic Flight Instruments to create a Low Airspeed Awareness (LAA) display. Premier Air Center's East Alton, Ill. facility recently certified the system in a Falcon 20, and is already working on a second installation and plans certification of a similar Safe Flight Integrated Angle-of-Attack computer
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's School of Corporate Training & Professional Development and McGraw-Hill's Aviation Week Group are presenting a series of seminars to address heightened concerns about aviation security. The three courses, which will focus on terrorist threats as they pertain to the transportation industry and provide insight into the means to combat the threat, are relevant to all public safety, law enforcement and transportation industry employees at all levels of management.
Airline sock puppet, and long-time user fee advocate, the Reason Foundation issued its latest report in Washington on May 4 proclaiming that trust fund depletion will create an FAA funding crisis, and that the scheduled carriers bear an unfair share of the Air Traffic Organization cost not proportional to their share of the benefits. Consequently, the report recommends that future ATO costs be covered through fees paid proportionately by users -- notably, charter and fractional operators and turbine-powered business aircraft.
Although the use of RNP 2 X 0.3 occurred throughout this article, the new SAAAR criteria will permit use of lower values in decreasing increments as small as RNP 2 X 0.10, which is only 1,215 feet each side of centerline. The ability to demonstrate aircraft and flight crew compliance with smaller RNP values becomes more difficult and expensive; thus, these values should be avoided except where a significant operational advantage over RNP 2 X 0.3 would result.
The Challenger 870's glass cockpit features six CRTs that provide PFD, MFD and full EICAS functionality, including system synoptics and smart color cuing for advisories, abnormalities and emergencies. The package includes dual FMS with optional ACARs data link, dual GPS receivers, WXR 840 solid-state weather radar, dual 8.33 kHz spacing comm transceivers, dual nav receivers, Mode S transponder, TCAS, E GPWS, solid-state voice and flight data recorders, and enhanced maintenance diagnostics with quick access recorder.
Dassault's Falcon 7X made its first flight May 5. The new, top-of-the-line trijet took off from Bordeaux's International Airport, climbed to 10,000 feet for systems checks, and then climbed to 25,000 feet for acceleration/deceleration tests and autopilot and autothrottle checks. The flight lasted 96 minutes. Flight testing continued at the company's test center in Istres, France, where a second test aircraft is scheduled to arrive there as you read this; the third will follow this summer. The No.
Banyan Air Service, Fort Lauderdale, Fla., hired Jerry Proenza as the company's avionics service manager. He will be responsible for the bench, troubleshooting and repair divisions in the avionics department. Previously, Proenza was the owner and chief pilot of World Continental, Deland, Fla. Barnes Aerospace, Windsor, Conn., appointed Richard R. Barnhart to the position of general manager of maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO). Most recently, Barnhart was with Kaman Corp. as president of the firm's Aerostructures Division.
Bombardier Aerospace, Quebec, appointed Peter Likoray to the position of sales director for new and pre-owned aircraft in Canada. Likoray commands complete sales responsibility for Bombardier Learjet, Challenger and Global business jets in Canada.
NBAA President Ed Bolen is bullish about prospects for the EBACE European business aviation conference and trade show. This year's event drew 7,667 registrants, compared with 6,500 a year ago; exhibit space sold rose 21 percent and the number of airplanes on display rose from 36 last year to 50 last week.
Arnoni Aviation moved its Landing Gear and Accessory shops into a 25,000-square-foot facility next to the George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. The facility includes more than 10,000 square feet of environmentally controlled shop space. The larger facilities will allow the company to grow its HS125 landing gear overhaul business.
CSSI, a Washington, D.C. transportation and engineering services firm, won a contract valued at up to $35 million over five years from the FAA to provide research, engineering, analysis and policy support. The contract calls for CSSI to support the FAA's Office of Operations Planning System Engineering, Office of Environment and Energy and Airports Community and Environmental Needs Division. CSSI will develop and investigate technologies for implementation of advanced communications, navigation, surveillance and air traffic management concepts.
Today, airline travelers often feel they're treated like air freight. About 90 percent of all routes use the hub-and-spoke route system, the bane of the business traveler. Hub-and-spoke is great for stuffing cabins and thus boosting air carriers' bottom lines. But the store-and-forward air cargo processing model subjects road warriors to two- and three-leg business trips during which ground time often exceeds flight time. Hub congestion, security check hassles, weather delays and cancellations just compound the misery.
THIS MONTH'S DIATRIBE is directed at the Environmental Protection Agency, which apparently can't distinguish between necessary regulations and government busywork. Specifically, the EPA is imposing some very expensive requirements on airports and fuel suppliers to guard against the catastrophic potential of massive fuel spills from parked fuel trucks!
General Dynamics Aviation Services was named an approved service provider for the General Electric CF34 engine. The approval covers all six GDAS service centers and includes engine inspections, overhauls, recurring maintenance, nonscheduled repairs and warranty work.
NEARING 2:00AM ON Oct. 31, 1999, an EgyptAir Boeing 767 carrying 203 passengers and 14 crewmembers from New York to Cairo unexpectedly, and without warning, began descending from FL330. Within minutes, Flight 990 crashed into the frigid, pitch-black Atlantic, 60 miles south of Nantucket. All aboard perished.
At the end of April, Bell Helicopter was expecting to receive FAA certification of the Bell 210 within a matter of days. The rotorcraft, which is a civil-certified, improved version of the U.S. Army's UH-1H, is designed to provide ``a significant increase capability over comparative models at greatly reduced direct operating costs.''
