JASON MILLER was appointed general manager of StandardAero’s facility at Houston Intercontinental Airport. Miller had served as acting GM since April. Before joining StandardAero, Miller served as a U.S. Marine Corps flight instructor, a Marine KC-130 pilot, a KC-130 Division lead in Operation Iraqi Freedom, and an Air Operations Officer in Afghanistan.
A move by China to loosen airspace restrictions for business jets could help fuel a demand recovery in the battered market, a Wall Street analyst says.
SIGNATURE FLIGHT SUPPORT is hoping to provide incentives for customers to top off their aircraft through an offer of triple AVTRIP points at selected U.S. locations. The “Top Off Promotion” will be active at participating U.S. Signature Flight Support and Executive Beechcraft locations through the end of the year.
NETJETS EUROPE CEO Bill Kelly has resigned. The company, part of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Group, provides fractional ownership services similar to that of NetJets in the U.S. Kelly is to be replaced by P. Eric Connor, an executive with another Berkshire company, MidAmerican Energy. Kelly began his rise through the executive ranks as an accountant with KPMG and holds an LLB from Trinity College in Dublin.
SOCATA TBM 700 airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2009-0886; Directorate Identifier 2009-CE-045-AD] – This proposed AD would require operators to replace the power-lead bolts on R700 and R701 shunts, per the instructions of Socata Mandatory Service Bulletin SB 70-169 (dated May 2009). This proposal, which resulted from an MCAI originated by the European Aviation Safety Agency, is intended to prevent elongation of the bolts, a condition that could lead to heating, electrical arcing, smoke and a possible loss of electrical power in flight.
EMBRAER is considering setting up a final assembly line for its Embraer 170/190 family in China, Executive Vice President-Airline Market Mauro Kern said. A decision to go ahead with such a project would come within the next year. “In about six months, we will have a clearer view of what we will do,” Kern said. The line would most likely be located in Harbin. Embraer already has a joint venture with Aviation Industries of China to manufacture the smaller ERJ-145 there. But existing orders will keep the facility busy only until early 2011.
FRASCA INTERNATIONAL received FAA Level 7 qualification on its AS350 B2 helicopter flight training device (FTD) installed at FlightSafety’s helicopter learning center in Tucson, Ariz. Frasca also is designing and building a Sikorsky S76 C++ helicopter simulator training device for Era Training Center in Lake Charles, La. That device, the third ordered by Era, will be Level 6 qualified. Era also uses Frasca trainers for the EC135 and AS350 B2 helicopters.
EMBRAER delivered a third Legacy 600 executive jet to Dubai-based Titan Aviation last week at its headquarters in Sao Jose dos Campos, Brazil. The jet belongs to an unnamed customer and will be added to the company’s portfolio of managed and operated aircraft, which includes two Legacy 600s, as well as a Lineage 1000 scheduled to be delivered in 2012.
Embraer has delivered the first Embraer 190 jet to the Brazilian government. The aircraft will be used to transport Brazil’s president and will be operated by the Brazilian Air Force’s Special Transportation Group. The Air Force’s Embraer 190 includes space for meetings and a private area for use by the president. It also has a special safe communications system, and can carry up to 54 passengers and crew.
MILLION AIR last month completed its deal with Signature Flight Support to acquire the former Hawker Beechcraft fixed-base operation at Indianapolis International Airport. Signature agreed to sell the facility as a U.S. Justice Department condition of approval for its acquisition of seven Hawker Beechcraft Services FBOs last year. Signature, which already had its own facility at Indianapolis before acquisition of the Hawker Beechcraft facilities, will continue to run its historic facility.
Gulfstream Aerospace’s new flagship G650 taxied up to its production hangar, powered by twin Rolls-Royce BR725 engines, as about 7,000 people gathered in the aircraft’s new Nicholas Chabraja Manufacturing Building for its debut last week in Savannah, Ga.
MARK TILLMAN joined the JSSI board of directors. Tillman most recently spent eight years as the commander of the Presidential Airlift Group and chief pilot for the U.S. president. Tillman was responsible for all aspects of operations for Air Force One, including security, maintenance, parts, facilities, communications, budgeting, personnel and training.
Very Light Jets (VLJs) will play a key role in the future of European business aviation, but no one should believe that they will bring easy profits or easyJet prices, said Patrick Margetson-Rushmore, chief executive of business jet charter operator London Executive Aviation (LEA).
FLIGHT SAFETY FOUNDATION’S European Advisory Committee has issued an Operator’s Guide to Human Factors in Aviation. The guide contains more than 100 articles and visual aids that are divided into four categories: crew action and behavior; personal influences such as knowledge, stress and fatigue; organizational and environmental influences; and information influences. A copy of the guide can be obtained at www.skybrary.aero
SIKORSKY named Carey Bond president of its Global Helicopters business. Bond remains chief marketing officer and reports to Sikorsky President Jeffrey Pino. Bond joined Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. in 2005, and most recently was vice president and chief marketing officer. He also helped oversee Sikorsky’s acquisition and integration of Keystone Helicopter Corp. in Pennsylvania and PZL Mielec in Poland. A 25-year industry veteran, Bond also has led Bell Helicopter’s Worldwide Customer Support and Service Organization.
SAFE FLIGHT INSTRUMENT CORP. recently provided Embraer with its 150th Stall Warning and Protection System and Angle-of-Attack (AoA) sensors for the Embraer Phenom 100. Safe Flight ramped up in recent months and expects to increase deliveries this year. The Stall Warning and Protection System was designed to integrate with the Phenom 100’s avionics suite. The SWPS computer interfaces with AoA sensors to measure the direction of local airflow with respect to the fuselage reference, and calculates normalized AoA.
FORECAST INTERNATIONAL predicts a $1.7 billion market for retrofits and upgrades of light aircraft through 2018. Forecast International believes propulsion upgrades will be a primary driver of the market. Electronics upgrades have spiked thanks to FAA mandates, Forecast International said, but added that end of the market should stabilize.
QUINTIN CAIRNCROSS was appointed operations director for ExecuJet Middle East. He will oversee ExecuJet’s fully managed aircraft fleet in the Middle East. He previously served with the South African Air Force and South African Airways and Emirates, where he held positions of safety auditor, quality auditor and deputy chief flying examiner. Cairncross also spent a brief period with Grob Aerospace as director of flight training before joining ExecuJet in 2008.
ATR expects to end the year with orders roughly on par with deliveries, and believes next year will see about the same level of customer commitments. Despite a slowdown in orders, the aircraft maker this year is still expecting to deliver about 50 turboprops, down about 10 percent from last year, the Franco-Italian regional turboprop maker said. Next year should see stable order activity, although a strong recovery is not yet expected, ATR said. Securing aircraft financing for airlines remains a challenge, but there are some indications the situation is improving.
AFTER AN INIITIAL layoff of 1,200 workers in March, Gulfstream Aircraft was able to reduce production without making further significant cuts, Gulfstream President Joe Lombardo said last week. The company did furlough 2,200 workers, but all of those employees had returned by the end of July. “As we ramp up the G650 line, we’ll see what happens with production,” said Lombardo. “We will be careful of what we do and hope to get to the point where we can hire again.”
With the marketing hype largely subsided and deliveries averaging only around 200 per year, the very light jet (VLJ) has yet to prove that it is anything more than a subcompact business jet, according to Brian Foley, president of Sparta, N.J.-based Brian Foley Associates. “This is in contrast to a time when ‘revolutionary’ and ‘disruptive technology’ were industry buzzwords, and at least one now-defunct manufacturer had forecast its own yearly production numbers in the thousands,” he noted.
LAURENT NEGRE was promoted to president of ATR’s customer support organization (Eastern Support). Negre most recently was sales director responsible for sales in Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.
FLAIRJET later this month plans to add the first Embraer Phenom 100s on the U.K. “G” Registry. The company’s two aircraft, G-DRBN and G-SRBN, are slated to arrive at London Oxford Airport by mid- to late October. FlairJet CEO David Fletcher currently is earning his type rating in Dallas, and two other pilots are in training at CAE’s facility in Burgess Hill. FlairJet is managing the two Phenoms for a third party, but plans to take delivery of its first purchased Phenom in 2012.
STANDARDAERO has completed its first aftermarket installation of Aviation Partners Inc.’s high-mach blended winglets on a Falcon 2000 large-cabin business jet at its facility in Springfield, Ill. The new winglets add up to 260 nm in range, reduce emissions and enhance resale value, according to company officials, who note the winglets are production standard on the new Falcon 2000LX.
DORNIER 228-100, -101, -200, -201 and -202 airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2009-0574 Directorate Identifier 2009-CE-028-AD; Amendment 39-16030; AD 2009-20-07] – Inspect the main landing gear and, if applicable, replace the main landing gear stub axle, per the instructions of RUAG Aerospace Defence Technology Dornier 228 Service Bulletin SB-228-276 (dated Oct. 16, 2008). This AD, which resulted from an MCAI issued by an aviation authority of another country, is intended to prevent main landing gear failure. FAA estimates that this AD will affect 15 aircraft on the U.S.
