Jet Aviation's U.S.-based aircraft sales division set a new sales record during 2003. According to Walt Wakefield, vice president of Jet Aviation Aircraft Sales, the firm sold a total of 19 corporate aircraft last year. ``This reflects an improving economy, and buyers have sensed that we have reached the market bottom in pricing,'' said Wakefield. ``Despite the increased market activity, values still remain attractive in almost every segment when compared with historical levels.
Lufthansa Technik Logistik (LTL) in Hamburg, Germany, has won a competition to coordinate parts shipments to and from Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services (LBAS) facilities at Berlin-Schunefeld and Cologne, Germany, and Bombardier Aerospace in Montreal, Canada. This agreement is the first large contract that LTL has been able to conclude with its sister subsidiary LBAS, which was founded in 1997 as a joint venture of Lufthansa and Bombardier. The company offers services for Bombardier business aircraft, ranging from short-term maintenance checks to 12-year checkups.
GAMA announced increased billings and shipments of general aviation aircraft in the first quarter of this year compared with the same period in 2003. Billings were up 21.1 percent while shipments increased 9.7 percent. Significantly, the industry posted gains in all three model segments -- piston-engine, turboprops and business jets. ``The recovery that began last year in the piston market is not only continuing but spreading to the other model segments,'' said GAMA President and CEO Ed Bolen.
Several aircraft certification regulations pertain to lightning protection systems. The following are perhaps the most notable of the requirements: 25.1309 Equipment, systems and installations (a) The equipment, systems and installations whose functioning is required by this subchapter must be designed to ensure that they perform their intended functions under any foreseeable operating condition. 25.581 Lightning protection (a) The airplane must be protected against catastrophic effects from lightning.
YOU KNOW THOSE little wooden toy sets with different shaped pegs that kids can pound into place with a little hammer only if they put the properly shaped peg into the correct hole? Depending on their age, and assuming normal intelligence, it usually doesn't take kids too long to realize that no matter how hard you hit it, the square peg just will not fit through the round hole.
The Environmental Protection Agency now says it plans to delay the implementation of changes to its Spill Prevention, Control and Countermeasure (SPCC) regulations governing fuel storage. But the EPA hasn't said when official notice of the delay will be released or how long the deadline will be extended. The SPCC rule applies to owners or operators of facilities that drill, produce, gather, store, use, process, refine, transfer, distribute or consume oil and oil products.
The Ukraine became the 33rd member of Eurocontrol on May 1 after being a member of the European Civil Aviation Conference since December 1999. A bilateral agreement has been in place since 1995 concerning the billing and collection of air navigation charges and the Ukraine has been part of Eurocontrol's Central Flow Management system since 1998. ``We are delighted to become a full-fledged partner in the European aviation system.
AVCON Industries has an FAA STC group approval for its RVSM package for Learjet 20 series airplanes. The AVCON test program began in March 2003. AVCON modified and flight-tested six different Learjet 20 series airplanes equipped with the company's RVSM package and the JET FC-110 autopilot. AVCON has completed 11 installations and booked more than 50 orders for the retrofit. The company is selling the RVSM installation for just under $157,000, plus the cost of autopilot component inspections and repairs.
Maurice Weinberg, director of small turbofans for P&WC, said the 610F actually was run slightly higher than its planned maximum power rating to check the engine's durability. After just a few more hours of testing, Weinberg said, the No. 1 engine would be torn down for examination and then reassembled and put back into the test cell. The engine manufacturer is attempting to develop a family of small turbofans that are an entire order of magnitude easier to build and maintain, and Weinberg said the program so far is promising. The No.
Max-Viz Inc. -- the Portland, Ore.-based maker of enhanced vision systems for aircraft -- has obtained an FAA STC for installation of its EVS-1000 enhanced vision system on the Bombardier Global Express. Earlier this year the company won a Transport Canada STC for the installation.
Cessna Aircraft received an order from the Chinese government for two Citation XLS business jets. Cessna will deliver the aircraft to the China Flight Inspection Center of Air Traffic Management Bureau, General Aviation in second quarter 2005. The center will base the aircraft at Beijing's Capital City Airport and use them for flight inspection missions. A Cessna Citation Authorized Sales Representative, Alfred Lau of Aviation Supplies in Beijing, facilitated the sale.
Access to FAA maintenance information has come a long way. Not so long ago, maintenance managers would fumble through flimsy strips of microfiche (for you readers raised in the digital age, these were transparent film-like pages that were then projected onto a glass screen) to search out applicable Airworthiness Directives (ADs) and other official information. As awkward as microfiche could be, it was an improvement over the hard copy binders of biweekly AD reports, since the film took up less space -- not a small consideration even today.
Flight Explorer won a contract with Air Charter Team to track its leased aircraft using Flight Explorer's FastTrack system. Air Charter, which leases aircraft ranging from twin Cessnas to Boeing 747s, will use a customized version of FastTrack on a secure Web site that will enable it to track the airplanes in real time.
Honeywell will provide Primus Epic ``Rehost'' software to FlightSafety International for the training company's personal computer-based classroom devices that will train pilots and technicians on the Primus Epic integrated avionics system. With Primus Epic Rehost, students will train using the aircraft software rather than special training software, which reduces functional differences in the training devices.
Dassault Aviation announced the Falcon 900DX tri-jet at EBACE in late May. It will replace the Falcon 900C in the firm's long-range business jet lineup. The 900DX, in essence, is a 900EX, complete with Primus Epic EASy cockpit and 5,000-pound-thrust Honeywell TFE731-60 engines. But fuel capacity is 18,830 pounds, a 10-percent reduction compared with the 900EX. Max range for the $31.65 million Falcon 900DX with eight passengers is 4,050 nm, versus 4,400 nm for the $34.65 million Falcon 900EX.
GAMA responded enthusiastically when the U.S. Senate passed a bill that contains a provision extending the so-called bonus depreciation ``placed-in-service'' date for business aviation aircraft. This is GAMA's top legislative priority for the year. The GAMA announcement noted that with the long lead time to produce an airplane, extension of the ``placed-in-service'' date is crucial to airframe manufacturers as well as purchasers who can then benefit from the depreciation schedule, which is set to expire at the end of this year.
Stand-alone TAWS boxes will become increasingly rare as integrated avionics manufacturers package Class A, B or C functionality inside their integrated avionics systems as standard or optional equipment.
YOU'VE SEEN THOSE wooden paperweights with the laser-etched fronts that look like shadowy blobs. Stare at one for a while, and the word ``FLY'' suddenly pops out. I've encountered these things for years. I know that the word ``FLY'' is there, but yet I never see it at first glance. I always have to stare, relaxing my focus until the image somehow reverses and the word emerges.
Embraer announced the delivery of the 800th jet in its ERJ 145 family on May 13. The 50-seat ERJ 145 aircraft was delivered to U.S. customer Chautauqua Airlines, which operates all models of the ERJ 145 family.
Little more than three years ago, a chartered Gulfstream III departed Los Angeles International (LAX) for Aspen-Sardy (ASE) in the Colorado Rockies with 18 folks on board. The crew checked the weather at the destination and it wasn't much above IFR minimums. There's a prohibition against flying the VOR/DME-C approach into Aspen at night. It's challenging enough in the daytime, as anyone who's flown it in IMC can attest.
I never knew my grandfather, Delancy West Davis, who was known to all as ``D.W.'' He died before I was born. But his story and times came up recently when I was conducting an aviation-related interview with Tim Gronberg, a Bombardier field service representative, over a business lunch. At some point between the hamburgers' arrival and downing the last drop of coffee we discovered that both D.W.
Of the 193 rotorcraft that Bell Helicopter Textron delivered in 2003, 19 were used commercial models. Overall, the airframe maker experienced more than a 20-percent increase in aircraft deliveries in 2003, compared with 2002.
Paradigm shift may well be two of the most overused terms in contemporary American business-speak. But in the case of the A700 AdamJet, as well as with other twin turbofan business jets due for entry into service in 2006 and beyond, the phrase is most appropriate. Adam Aircraft claims that for about $2 million in current year dollars, its Adam 700 will deliver a 340-knot maximum cruise speed, a 41,000-foot maximum operating altitude and a four-occupant NBAA IFR range of 1,100 miles.
The FAA has granted site acceptance for the advanced technologies and oceanic procedures (ATOP) system at Oakland, Calif., the first of its new oceanic air traffic control systems to be delivered by Lockheed Martin. ATOP will replace existing systems and procedures for aircraft separation on ocean routes and is expected to boost capacity on the routes. Although the FAA has signed off on delivery of ATOP, more testing is in order before the system is commissioned.
