At the same briefing at the NBAA Convention, NBAA President Ed Bolen stated that the General Aviation Coalition, a semi-informal alliance among 16 general aviation associations, has worked well in the past and will continue to be useful when the full membership weight of interests, ranging from sport pilots to airframe manufacturers, needs to be brought to bear on government officials or legislators.
QinetiQ purchased Aerospace Filtration Systems, Inc. (AFS), which designs and manufactures high-performance engine inlet barrier filtration systems for helicopters, and its parent company, Westar Aerospace & Defense Group, Inc. AFS will remain a wholly owned subsidiary of Westar, and its corporate headquarters will remain in St. Louis, Mo. QinetiQ is a science and technology solutions company, employing more than 9,000 people.
American Eurocopter will deliver 55 EC 120 helicopters to the U.S. Border Patrol under a $75 million contract announced on Oct. 4 by the Department of Homeland Security. The helicopters will be assembled and delivered at a new Eurocopter facility in Columbus, Miss., and will replace Vietnam-era military surplus helicopters currently operated by the Border Patrol. Eurocopter cites the EC 120's low noise as a major advantage in the Border Patrol mission, which covers many areas of protected wildlife habitat.
DeCrane Aircraft and Audio International are looking for launch customers for two new DO-160-qualified cabin management systems. The Serial Digital Cabin, in development for the past eight months, offers studio-quality digital audio and video distribution in a system that can interface with open market equipment. The e-Cabin, in development for the past two years, features Ethernet with a gigabit-capacity digital backbone, universal plug and play, and synchronized audio and video. The companies will begin beta testing both products early next year.
The FAA awarded Bombardier Aerospace a contract for a new Global 5000 business jet to operate as an airborne R&D lab for the William J. Hughes Technical Center in Atlantic City, N.J. Its special 1,882-cubic-foot interior will be designed and installed by Midcoast Aviation in St. Louis for delivery in September 2005. This special-mission Global 5000 will join a fleet of 11 Bombardier Challenger 604, Bombardier Challenger 601 and Bombardier Learjet 60 business jets currently deployed by the FAA.
There's a medevac version of the EADS Socata TBM 700. The AeroSled PLUS installation is designed by Lifeport, Inc. of Woodland, Wash., and will undergo performance and utility testing over the next nine months. The Patient Loading Utility System (PLUS) is a self-contained module with full life support capabilities that can be installed in the same time it takes to refuel, says the company. The system mounts directly to existing hardpoints and seat tracks and weighs less than 160 pounds.
Dallas Airmotive Inc. (DAI) will soon conduct repair and overhaul operations on the PW300 and PW500 turbofans in 2005. The company, which was named a designated overhaul facility (DOF) for North America by Pratt & Whitney Canada for the two turbofans this past July, is going to perform work at its Forest Park facility in Dallas. Hot section inspections, overhauls and field service on the PW300 will be performed in first quarter 2005, and on the PW500 in the second quarter. DAI is already a DOF for PT6A, PT6T, JT15D, PW100 and PW901 APUs.
Originally developed by U.S. Type Ratings to give its own students a head start on Cessna Citation type-rating training, the Citation training course is now available from Sporty's on DVD. A professional Citation and multiengine jet instructor teaches the viewer how the Citation and its systems operate, as well as normal, abnormal and emergency procedures for each system. A preflight familiarizes viewers with basic aircraft components, and a 40-minute flight shows pilots what Citation training and an FAA flight check will look like.
Quebec-based CMC Electronics recently received orders from Honeywell for 100 CMA-2200 satcom antenna systems for Honeywell's Aero-I product. The CMA-2200 is an intermediate gain, electronically steerable phases array antenna that fully supports Inmarsat Aero-I satcom services. Honeywell has been offering the CMA-2200 to customers since 1997.
With technology changing so rapidly and the new global wave of mandatory equipment installations, we were curious to see what modifications aircraft owners had begun to embrace. To help tighten the focus and spot consumer trends, we compiled all the STCs issued by the FAA for business aircraft mods over the past year.
Bombardier announced the Learjet 40XR, a performance-enhanced variant of the Learjet 40 with one-third shorter climb times and up to 2,500 feet of reduced runway requirements when departing hot-and-high airports. With Honeywell TFE731-20BR turbofans borrowed from the Learjet 45XR, the 40XR gets a 650-pound MTOW increase that will enable operators to fill the tanks and seats and depart from B/CA's 5,000-foot elevation, ISA+20C airport using 1,214 feet less runway than the base model.
Chelton, Inc. of Lewisville, Texas, introduced its HGA-6000 satcom antenna at the NBAA Convention in October. Specifically designed for mounting under the tail radome of business jets and airliners, the HGA-6000 is the first antenna of this type to accept steering commands directly from any ARINC 741 compatible satcom system, eliminating the need to install a remote antenna control unit, thus simplifying the installation. In other news, the FAA has issued an STC to Chelton for installation of the Flight Logic Synthetic Vision EFIS systems in the Cessna 501 series.
IN SEPTEMBER, CONKLIN & de Decker and B/CA held their 2nd Annual Charter Operators and Management Tax Course. One of the more controversial issues discussed was charter brokering. This has become a hot-button issue not only with the IRS and the FAA, but also with the DOT. October's Point of Law (B/CA, page 138) addresses some of the operational issues; this discussion looks at only the application of the Federal Excise Taxes (FET) and how the IRS treats the charter brokering of aircraft.
This is not a paper aircraft as our competitors contend,'' said a confident Louis P. Bartolotta, managing director for the joint venture between Bell Helicopter and Agusta. In mid-September, the second production AB139 was delivered to the government of Namibia, which plans to use it for utility and emergency medical transportation. The first customer AB139 was delivered in December 2003 to Elilario, an Italian helicopter public transport company.
Gulfstream's three latest aircraft, the large-cabin G350 and G450 pair and the new midsize G150, are the focus of the company's attention for the near future. FAA approval for the G450 was awarded on Aug. 12, with entry into service scheduled for second quarter 2005. The G350 is proceeding on track and just a few steps behind the G450, with FAA approval expected before the end of the year. Customer deliveries should start in autumn 2005.
Israel Aircraft Industries says it is injecting cash and resources into the Aviation Technology Group (ATG) Javelin two-seat light jet project, and will modify, market and produce the airplane for military training applications. IAI president and CEO Moshe Keret and ATG CEO George Bye declined to put a number on IAI's new equity stake in ATG, but Bye defined it as a ``generous'' minority share. IAI is also assigning engineers to help ATG certificate the Javelin.
``Like emergency room physicians, pilots possess an uncanny ability to `non-react,' which is one trait that sets them apart.'' So says Dr. Robert Rose, an industrial psychologist whose company, Rose Consulting, works with companies to strategize in testing and profiling to identify people with optimum traits for specific jobs.
Honeywell, as well as AlliedSignal and Garrett-AiResearch before it, has been in the engine retrofit, modification and upgrade business for nearly three decades, so the firm's business managers are savvy about what goes into a successful engine modernization program. Almost all of these programs have enhanced the resale value of the candidate aircraft, but not all by the amount of the initial investment by customers.
Universal Avionics Systems Corp.'s recently certified, high-definition EFI-890R primary display unit was the headliner at the company's NBAA booth in the Las Vegas Convention Center. John Hamby, new marketing and communications manager for the Tucson, Ariz.-based company, said most of the attention and briefings dealt with the 8.9-inch diagonal EFI-890R, which can be used as either a primary flight display (PFD) or navigation display (ND). The EFI-890R is targeted for the retrofit market, hence the R suffix.
Max-Viz, a Portland, Ore.-based maker of enhanced vision systems, has received an STC for the installation of its EVS-1000 on the Pilatus PC-12 single-engine turboprop. The STC was completed and is owned by Western Aircraft of Boise, Idaho, one of six authorized Pilatus sales and service centers in the United States. The kit is available to customers through all authorized Pilatus service centers worldwide.
In the evolution of its business jet product line, Embraer is said to be considering aircraft both larger and smaller than the ERJ 135-based Legacy. But Marco Tulio Pellegrini, the company's market intelligence senior manager for corporate aircraft, says it's too soon to decide which way to go.
Gulfstream has selected Thales Avionics' Integrated Electronic Standby Instrument for the Gulfstream G150 business aircraft. Introduced in 1997, Thales' IESI provides the standby functions of aircraft attitude, airspeed and altitude, integrating three instruments into a single unit. Equipped with an active-matrix liquid crystal display, the IESI has already been selected for the Bombardier CRJ family, the Global family, the Bombardier Q400 turboprop airliner, and by Embraer, Boeing and Airbus.
CAE launched a pilot training program for the Embraer Legacy business aircraft at CAE's Phoenix training facility on the Arizona State University campus in Mesa, Ariz., where CAE operates an Embraer ERJ145 full-flight simulator. The program incorporates CAE Simfinity simulation-based classroom training aids that enable instructors to provide operationally oriented training. Recurrent pilot training, a four- to five-day program, began in May, while initial pilot training, 21 days in length, is scheduled to begin immediately.
Cessna will equip its single-engine aircraft with AMSAFE Aviation's Aviation Inflatable Restraint (AAIR) air bag system beginning in 2005. The air bags will be standard equipment in the pilot and copilot seats of all new Skyhawks, Skylanes and Stationairs. They are available for retrofit on existing Cessna singles through an STC.
The Helicopter Association International (HAI) is promoting its VerticalGateway.com, an open-source technology Web-hosting service subscribers can use to create and maintain Web sites using only a browser and Internet connection from anywhere in the world. Users can customize their sites through the Web with design, layout, colors and text options. Since most of the work is preprogrammed, VerticalGateway.com users need only to add content. The HAI Web-hosting team will set up accounts, help users get started and provide ongoing technical support.
