When TWA Flight 800 exploded off the coast of Long Island, N.Y., in July 1996, the Boeing 747 was reduced to thousands of pieces that sank to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. Charged with determining the probable cause of the disaster, the NTSB first tried to elicit answers from the aircraft's voice and data recorders, but found few. And so it was faced with the painstaking task of retrieving all those pieces of debris from the ocean floor and rebuilding the aircraft to determine what had brought it down.
The FAA says a ban on Stage 2 aircraft at Naples, Fla., Municipal Airport (APF) is unreasonable, unjustly discriminatory and preempted by federal law. According to GAMA President Ed Bolen, ``The FAA's ruling reinforces the federal interest that is inherent in a national air transportation system, particularly when that system is funded with federal tax dollars.
Chautauqua Airlines will add flights under the US Airways Express banner from New York's La Guardia Airport to Chattanooga, Tenn.; Wilmington, N.C.; and Dayton, Ohio, beginning on May 4. All service will be flown using 50-seat Embraer-145 regional jets, US Airways announced.
NetJets Europe plans to have 51 aircraft based in Europe by year-end, 15 of which are yet to be delivered. Fractional members in Europe have doubled in the last 12 months from 102 to over 200, and a large number of these come from the United Kingdom, says Charles McLean, Netjets Europe's communications director. The company recently achieved ``base operator'' status at Royal Air Force Northolt, which is close to Heathrow, entitling NetJets to operate seven days a week from the highly secure military base.
The TSA is concerned about a lack of activity on the restricted Web site where operators can download the final Twelve-Five Standard Security Program (TFSSP). It has been available to FAR Part 135 operators for several weeks and is accessible at https://webboards.tsa.dot.gov/ ACO500. Charter operators who requested the TFSSP should have been issued a unique Web ID and password that enables them to download the final program from the TSA Web board. The TSA is tracking activity on the Web site and has seen ``only a few hundred'' downloads of the posted information.
Visual disturbance is among the common symptoms associated with hypoxia, but the effects are most notable in dim lighting. As part of the FAA physiological training program, pilots get to experience firsthand the degradation of night vision that accompanies hypoxia. Our test was conducted at a chamber altitude of 18,000 feet. We were instructed to remove our oxygen masks, and make observations regarding an eye chart, color chart and a sectional aeronautical chart.
CelsiStrip self-adhesive temperature labels are an ``easily applied, reliable method'' for catching the maximum temperature levels of aircraft components under real conditions. The labels can be applied to any clean surface and will permanently change from white to black whenever their specific temperature levels are reached or exceeded. CelsiStrips are available in a variety of arrangements of 40 sequenced temperature levels from +105F/40C to +550F/260C.
Robert Perry, president of Triumph Structural Components Group, died suddenly on Feb. 18 at Hydro-Mill Co. in Chatsworth, Calif. He was president of Hydro-Mill when Triumph Group Inc. acquired it, and he became president of structural components when the company reorganized.
Nearly 2,900 people attended the first Latin American Business Aircraft Conference and Expo in So Paulo, Brazil, held March 13 to 15. The joint venture was sponsored by the NBAA and Associao Brasileira de Aviao Geral (ABAG). Eighty-eight exhibitors participated and 16 aircraft, ranging from a Cessna 172 and a Caravan to a Bombardier Global Express and a Gulfstream 500 were on display at Congonhas Airport.
One not-so-small step by the federal government could soon ignite one giant leap for airspace capacity. Without fanfare on Dec. 31, 2002, the FAA signed an industry-championed change, eight years in the making, adding Required Navigation Performance (RNP) instrument approach procedures to the rolls of the Terminal Instrument Procedures (TERPS) document and other tomes. The nondescript event will allow operators a year or so from now to begin flying baby-step versions of the futuristic RNP instrument approaches used by Alaska Airlines way up north.
Ranger Jet Center has expanded its ramp space at Kissimmee, Fla., Gateway Airport (ISM) to 312,000 square feet to accommodate increased traffic. The new space opened on March 1.
In pursuit of Group Approval of its RVSM package for Learjet 20-series aircraft, Avcon International completed a baseline flight-test program in its company Learjet 25D on Feb. 7. The next phase of the project will involve flight testing RVSM-compliant aircraft. Once the equipment installation is certified, Avcon will schedule a minimum of five customer aircraft for modification and flight testing to prove altitude consistency between installations and gain FAA Group RVSM approval.
Meggitt Avionics announced that it has received STC approval for its Magic 2100 digital flight control system and Magic EFIS on the Cessna 441 Conquest turboprop. The approved EFIS installation consists of a six-tube, flat-panel, color LCD -- two Primary Flight Displays, two Navigation Displays and two Electronic Instrument Display System tubes. The Magic 2100 DFCS is a three-axis, fully-digital, attitude-based flight control system.
Jet Aviation recently announced it will concentrate its German parts sales activities at its Saarbrucken parts distribution center. The center will serve third-party maintenance stations, aircraft manufacturers, aircraft operators, flight schools and flying clubs, in addition to Jet Aviation's own maintenance facilities. Wolfgang Dillbaum, the recently appointed director of material management and distribution, said the parts distribution center houses over 10,000 different consumable and rotable parts from most major aircraft manufacturers.
A post-EBACE flight operations manual workshop will be held in Geneva, Switzerland, on May 10-11. Sponsored by the EBAA and the NBAA, the workshop will enable participants to develop a manual adhering to the International Business Aviation Council's (IBAC) International Standard for Business Aviation Operations (IS-BAO). Designed to ensure safe corporate flight operations, IS-BAO is based on ICAO standards that have been established as acceptable to world aviation regulatory authorities.
Pratt & Whitney Canada has appointed Tenix Aviation Pty Ltd., based at the Adelaide Airport in South Australia, as a Recognized Maintenance Facility (RMF) for its PT6A and JT15D engine models.
ICAO, Montreal, Canada, has appointed Dr. Taeb Cherif (Algeria) as its new Secretary General for a three-year term beginning Aug. 1. Dr. Cherif, whose aviation career spans three decades, has been Representative of Algeria on the ICAO Council since 1998.
The TSA has released its long-awaited guidance for FAR Part 135 operators to comply with fingerprint-based criminal history record checks required under the Twelve-Five security rule. The TSA previously extended the compliance deadline for the program until April 1, and ``Although the TSA has extended previous deadlines, it appears that the agency will finally have in place all the pieces required to fully implement its new security rules in the very near future,'' said National Air Transportation Association (NATA) Vice President Jeb Burnside.
Aviation Material and Technical Support (AVMATS), Chesterfield, Mo., has named Jerry Bryant as its Hawker technical sales manager. Bryant, who will be responsible for coordinating the Hawker outside sales program, will focus on technical aspects of work scope completion.
The Senate Commerce Committee approved several key aviation nominations, including: Ellen Engleman as chair of the NTSB; Richard Healing and Mark Rosenker as NTSB members; Robert Sturgell, deputy administrator of the FAA; Jeffrey Shane, under-secretary of transportation for policy for the DOT; and Emil Frankel, DOT assistant secretary for transportation policy.
Pratt & Whitney Canada has appointed Rocky Mountain Aircraft, located at Springbank Airport (CYBW) west of Calgary, Alberta, as a Recognized Maintenance Facility for its PT6 and JT15D engine models.
The Lancair Co. delivered its first Columbia 300 since resuming production at its Bend, Ore., factory earlier this year. Enrico Evers of Hanseatische Luftwerft GmbH (HLW), Lancair's dealer for Western Europe, was on hand to receive the aircraft on Feb. 28 on behalf of its new Dutch owner. ``We're nearly fully staffed again and have been ramping up our production line as rapidly as possible to deliver airplanes at an ever-increasing rate into the future,'' said Lancair President Bing Lantis. This is the second Lancair Columbia 300 delivery in Europe.
FlightSafety Boeing Training International (FSB), soon to be renamed Alteon, announced plans to construct a $60 million aviation training center near the Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport. This latest FSB training center to be built in the southeastern United States will be a 52,000-square-foot facility housing six full-flight simulators and associated training activities. The center will employ some 50 people and train up to 7,000 pilots plus additional maintenance technicians and cabin crews annually.
The BA609 commercial tiltrotor made its first flight on March 7 at Bell's Flight Research Center in Arlington, Texas. The Bell/Agusta Aerospace aircraft lifted off in helicopter mode, hovered at 50 feet, performed left and right pedal turns, forward and aft flight maneuvers, four takeoffs and landings, nacelle position changes and stability testing for 36 minutes before setting down. The flight followed seven weeks of ground runs and taxi testing. ``The first flight was flawless.
Analogic Corp. has joined with Sanders Design International to develop, manufacture and deploy an aircraft infrared countermeasures (IRCM) system to protect commercial airliners against shoulder-fired, heat-seeking missiles.
