Williams International received FAA type certification on July 31 for its FJ44-3A turbofan engine for Cessna's new CitationJet 3 (See ``Cessna Citation CJ3,'' page 34). FAA officials presented the type certificate to Gregg Williams, president of Williams International, at the Experimental Aircraft Association's recent AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis. The dual-channel FADEC FJ44-3A engine produces 2,780 pounds of thrust, a 14-percent increase in takeoff thrust and 12-percent more cruise thrust than the FJ44-2C engines on the CJ2.
WE KNOW THAT MOST accidents occur when tolerances line up unidirectionally. Sometimes, the tolerances are way out of the box, while at other times the unidirectional shift is very subtle. Such is the case of FedEx Flight 1478, which struck trees on short final approach and crashed short of Runway 9 at Tallahassee (Fla.) Regional Airport (TLH) just before dawn on July 26, 2002. The three cockpit crewmembers were seriously injured and the aircraft was destroyed by the impact and fire.
FOR MANY YEARS Alaska, Montana, New Hampshire and Oregon have not had any state sales and use taxes. Now there are a few more states that do not impose state sales and use tax on aircraft specifically. The first state to exempt the sale of aircraft from its sales and use tax was Connecticut, which, however, imposed a weight restriction -- therefore only exempting aircraft weighing over 6,000 pounds. Massachusetts followed a couple of years later and exempted the sale of all aircraft, regardless of weight, from its state sales tax. And effective Jan.
The King Air Foundation is restoring the first Beechcraft King Air, s.n. LJ-1, so that it can make a 30-leg flight around the world -- and the foundation wants celebrities to pilot each 1,000-mile, four-hour leg. The flight, planned for 2005, is expected to take 45 days. The LJ-1 has four seats, and passenger space on each leg of the flight will be auctioned and raffled to the public. Winners can pick the celebrity pilot they want to fly with on the trip.
Business Jet Center completed a $5 million expansion of its facilities at Dallas Love Field, including a new hangar and adjoining office and ramp space. Business Jet Center increased its square footage by about 24 percent, from 178,000 square feet to 220,000 square feet. Ramp space has grown 65 percent, from 9.6 acres to 16 acres.
Cessna is developing a series of Service Bulletins for installation of the new Honeywell Runway Awareness and Advisory System (RAAS) on the Citation Bravo, Encore, Excel and X. Cessna released the Service Bulletin for the Excel in July and will release the remaining bulletins this month. The RAAS system improves situational awareness and helps protect against runway incursions by providing an aural advisory to the flight crew during taxi, takeoff, final approach, landing and rollout.
Paul A. Schweizer, who along with brothers Ernie and Bill founded Schweizer Aircraft, died Aug. 18 at age 91 in Elmira, N. Y. The son of Swiss immigrants, Schweizer became enamored of aviation as a teenager, and in 1930 he and his brothers designed and built a glider and taught themselves to fly it. Since then their company has produced over 6,000 aircraft, a third of them sailplanes and gliders, but today builds helicopters, UAVs, and covert surveillance aircraft.
New Piper Aircraft will offer Avidyne's FlightMax Entegra Integrated Flight Deck as optional equipment on all of its entry-level aircraft: the PA-28 family -- the Warrior III, Archer III and Arrow. The FlightMax systems have been available for about a year on the Saratoga II HP, the Saratoga II TC, the Piper 6X and the Piper 6XT.
Rene Co.'s 8400K Optical Micrometer measure the width of scratches and the vertical depth of surface features. The kit includes a Microm-eter with digital display, three bases for different surfaces, four lenses (two eyepiece, two objective), a flashlight with batteries and spare bulb, and an allen wrench. The digital display features a readout in inches or millimeters. In inches, the readout displays four places to the right of the decimal. Accuracy is 0.001 inches, resolution is 0.0005 inches. In millimeters, the readout displays two places to the right of the decimal.
Proposed Rules Honeywell TFE731-2 and -3 engines -- Replace certain low-pressure first- and second-stage turbine rotor discs. Lockheed 1329 airplanes -- Conduct repetitive inspections to detect crack damage in the front spar cap assembly of the lower vertical stabilizer and repair any damage. If no damage is found, rework the spar cap doublers.
Stage III Technologies has designated Aero-Propulsion Management Services of the United Kingdom as its sales agent for Europe and the Middle East. APMS provides engine repair and overhaul management and technical support for airline, regional airline and business aircraft. APMS has specific expertise with Rolls-Royce Spey and Tay engines installed on Gulfstream aircraft.
Jamie McIntyre has been appointed to the national board of directors of Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame. President of Romeo Oscar Inc., a Montreal-based aerospace marketing, advertising and public relations firm, McIntyre, a Steen Skybolt pilot, has been involved in aviation since 1975. Canada's Aviation Hall of Fame documents, preserves and publicizes the names and deeds of men and women whose contributions to Canadian aviation have benefited the country.
Stevens Aviation has received Transport Canada approval for the installation of several new systems into a Piaggio Avanti flown by a Canadian operator. The new equipment includes a Bendix/King KGP 560 GA enhanced ground proximity warning system, a BF Goodrich SkyWatch HP899 traffic advisory system and a Bendix/King 980 multi-hazard awareness system, which is designed to prevent controlled flight into terrain accidents.
Remember all that hype about the ``Office in the Sky'' concept over the last two decades? It's been waiting for cost-effective voice and broadband connections between airplanes and the ground. Now, it's finally becoming a reality because of a revolution in three satcom technologies. These three technologies, supplemented by a couple of others, are quickly making most conventional air-to-ground telecommunications links as obsolete in the cabin as LORAN and VLF/Omega receivers are in the cockpit.
The tolerance for RVSM OPS is plus or minus 65 feet for aircraft built after April 9, 1997, and plus or minus 130 feet for aircraft built prior. This equates to less than one quarter of a percent at FL 40. The basic components of an RVSM-compliant system involve the pitot/static system, which includes the pitot tube/static port, standby altimeter, VSI, airspeed/Mach and associated plumbing. The air data computer is the brain of the system. For domestic RVSM, U.S. operations can have a single ADC, but for international RVSM operations, you need two.
In the contacts B/CA made with Sentient and Blue Star, we summarized charter operators' complaints into a series of discussion points to which we asked management to respond. Sentient was represented by an unidentified marketing executive; Sitomer answered on behalf of Blue Star.
Rolls-Royce has created an outstanding animated ``Journey Through a Jet Engine'' that has earned ``Way Cool'' and ``Must See'' ratings at the usually hard-to-impress highest editorial level at B/CA. It's specific to the Rolls-Royce Trent, but clearly shows just how a jet engine works and relates airflow, temps, pressures and rpm to every stage from inlet to exhaust. Plus, it's spiced with foot-stompers like the fact that each high-pressure turbine blade in the Trent generates as much horsepower (800) as a Formula One race car engine.
In response to an FAA request, the NBAA has developed a simplified letter of authorization (LOA) process for FAR Part 91 operators seeking RVSM approval of their aircraft. The agency is currently reviewing the first draft of this document, although it is unclear how soon operators will realize the benefits of this streamlined process.
Are the charter card membership companies appearing to ``hold out to the public,'' or otherwise attempting to portray themselves as commercial operators? B/CA asked the DOT if it was ``observing'' the charter card movement and what its position was regarding the super brokerages.
Raytheon Aircraft and D&D Aviation Services of Marietta, Ga., have developed a package of services to simplify obtaining DRVSM operational approval for Beechcraft and Hawker aircraft. Using D&D Aviation Services' copyrighted Domestic RVSM Procedures Manual and International Operations Manual (IOM), the two companies can develop application data packages for aircraft operators and submit applications for approval on their behalf.
Jet Aviation has appointed Kadri Muhiddin executive president for strategic projects in Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Muhiddin will be responsible for completions and maintenance sales in these regions and will report directly to Heinz Kohli, CEO of the Jet Aviation Group. Muhiddin will remain chairman of his own consulting company, Gamit Ltd. (based at Stansted, England), which is currently managing the technical interface and cabin outfitting of two Dubai Air Wing, head-of-state Boeing 747-400s (B/CA, August, page 28).
Midcoast Aviation (St. Louis) -- Jay Roever has been appointed product manager of corporate aircraft for Midcoast Aviation's operations at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and Spirit of St. Louis Airport. He will serve as the liaison between customers of the aviation service company and the various technical departments performing work on their aircraft. TWC Aviation (Burbank, Calif.) -- Greg Andrews has been named manager of aircraft acquisitions and sales for this aircraft charter, management, sales and maintenance company.
Italian charter airline Eurofly is planning to operate a scheduled 48-seat, premier-class only, Airbus A319LR New York service from either or both Rome and Milan in 2005. The company has inked a deal for one aircraft and plans to order another, says Airbus. Milan-based Eurofly already operates five A320s and two A330-200s on charters to destinations in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and the Caribbean. Eurofly will be the first airline to follow the PrivatAir/Lufthansa scheduled transatlantic all-premium-class model, which began with a BBJ in 2002.
Raynor Reavis, senior vice president of marketing and sales for Gulfstream Aerospace Corp. since July 2002, was elected a vice president of General Dynamics Corp., the business jet manufacturer's parent company. Reavis, 63, will continue to hold his position at Gulfstream.
