MILLENNIUM CONCEPTS, based in Wichita, Kan., won a contract from Gore Design Completions to provide structural design and certification work for the interior of a Boeing Business Jet. The project will be the first time Millennium has teamed with San Antonio, Texas-based Gore. Millennium has a background in designing and certifying VIP interiors on a range of business aircraft, from Cessna Caravans to Boeing 747s.
A booming business jet market helped make up for slow regional airline aircraft sales for Bombardier Aerospace, which last week reported revenues of $8.2 billion for fiscal 2007. Bombardier Aerospace revenues for the year ended Jan. 31, 2007 were up slightly from the fiscal 2006 revenues of $8.1 billion.
AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION has begun to offer the Air Safety Foundation Pinch Hitter course on-line. The course is designed to familiarize non-pilots with a basic cockpit layout to make them more comfortable flying as a passenger. The course will provide virtual flying practice and simulates control of the ailerons, rudder and landing. The course is not intended to be used as flight training, but it does provide tips for passengers in case of pilot incapacitation. The course is at www.asf.org/pinchhitter.
Model AS350B, AS350B1, AS350B2, AS350B3, AS350BA, AS350C, AS350D, and AS350D1 helicopters [Docket No. FAA-2006-25085; Directorate Identifier 2006-SW-02-AD; Amendment 39-14996; AD 2007-06-15] - Requires replacing a certain hydraulic drive belt. Also required is reducing the lubrication time interval for a certain hydraulic pump drive shaft. This amendment is prompted by in-flight failures of the drive belt and the drive shaft.
MOONEY is offering Jeppesen's NavData services and electronic charts on Ovation2 GX, Ovation3 and Acclaim airplanes. The NavData package will be preloaded onto the Garmin G1000 avionics systems and subscriptions to the Jeppesen service will coincide with aircraft delivery date. The Jeppesen-Mooney bundle includes an aviator bag that holds the G1000 NavData Starter kit, JeppView digital charts for the Multi-Function Display (MFD), a binder, tabs, and paper en route charts.
Joined ServiceElements as motivational speaker/ facilitator and strategist. Ramsay has an 18-year business aviation career, beginning as a customer service representative for Butler Aviation at Baltimore-Washington International Airport. She has served with flight departments, Signature Flight Support, Jet Aviation and most recently, the Exxon Avitat Network. She has chaired the National Business Aviation Association Schedulers and Dispatchers Conference and Committee.
A worn tire on a Piaggio Avanti twin turboprop is the focus of a National Transportation Safety Board investigation of an accident that substantially damaged the aircraft this month.
SEN. JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-W. Va.) joined the growing list of key lawmakers who are declaring the Bush Administration's user fee FAA funding plan as essentially a no-go. Rockfeller, chairman of the aviation subcommittee, said he doesn't think the FAA plan is "going anywhere in particular in either branch of Congress." Rockefeller said he told FAA Administrator Marion Blakey that the plan is failing "not just because of the user fees, but because people [in Congress] hadn't been given enough information. They didn't have a plan.
SOLOY AVIATION SOLUTIONS signed an agreement with Airwork New Zealand to sell and support Soloy's AS350 conversion kit. The kit converts the helicopter to Honeywell LTS101 power. Airwork is an approved Honeywell Maintenance Center. Based in Ardmore Airfield, Auckland, Airwork New Zealand has bases throughout New Zealand and Australia.
NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD is celebrating its 40th anniversary. NTSB launched as an independent entity April 1, 1967 after the Bureau of Safety was removed from the Civil Aeronautics Board. Since then, NTSB has overseen investigation of some 130,000 aviation accidents, in addition to thousands of highway, rail, marine and pipeline accidents. The safety board, which has fewer than 400 employees, is charged with investigating every civil aviation accident and major accidents involving other modes of transportation.
Beech Models 45 (YT-34), A45 (T-34A, B-45), and D45 (T-34B) airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2006-25105; Directorate Identifier 2006-CE-33-AD; Amendment 39-14982; AD 2007-06-01] - Supersedes AD 62-24-01, which currently requires repetitively inspecting, using the dye penetrant method, the front and rear horizontal stabilizer spars for cracks and replacing any cracked stabilizer.
The Next Generation Air Transportation Systems Institute, which has had difficulty keeping an executive director in place, is now seeking another candidate after the resignation last month of Stephen T. Fisher.
The former Raytheon Aircraft Company workforce continued to deliver new airplanes to customers last week, but those deliveries were taking place under the new Hawker Beechcraft banner, following the sale of the Wichita manufacturer for $3.3 billion to GS Capital Partners, a partnership between Canadian conglomerate Onex Corp. and investment banker Goldman Sachs.
NATIONAL AIR TRANSPORTATION ASSOCIATION has scheduled its 2007 Day on the Hill May 7. The event will provide NATA members a venue to discuss key aviation issues with House and Senate members. The event follows NATA's committee meetings, where Nicholas Sabatini, FAA associate administrator for aviation safety, and Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.), the chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, are scheduled to speak.
AIRCELL, which in 2006 won a Federal Communications Commission spectrum auction for exclusive air-to-ground frequencies for broadband service, is planning to roll out broadband for business aviation early next year. The initial service will cover coast-to-coast in the U.S. beginning at 10,000 above ground level. AirCell plans to add service in Canada, Mexico and the Caribbean after initial launch. The system will be designed to automatically transition between ground stations to provide uninterrupted service across the country.
ECLIPSE AVIATION is still struggling to get production of the Eclipse 500 Very Light Jet going (BA, March 12/119). After delivering the first customer aircraft at the end of December, the Albuquerque, N.M. manufacturer didn't deliver the second one to a customer until last month. A third airplane received its Certificate of Airworthiness Wednesday, according to a spokesman.
EADS SOCATA delivered the first TBM 850 VFT (Very Fast Turboprop) to be registered in Germany. The aircraft was handed over to Brose Flugservice, the corporate flight department of the Brose group and will replace a TBM 700C1. The aircraft will be based in Coburg in Bavaria, Germany, where Brose operates three business aircraft including a TBM 700A. Brose produces door and seat components and systems for the automotive industry.
Was named vice president, treasurer for the new Hawker Beechcraft Corp. Sellew will manage cash and liquidity management, bank financing, currency and interest rate hedging and vendor financing. A graduate of the University of Massachusetts with a master's of science in finance from Bentley College, Sellew had a 21-year career with Raytheon and is a graduate of the company's Financial Leadership Development Program. Most recently he was director, international sales finance for Raytheon's Corporate Treasury organization.
GTSIO-520 series reciprocating engines [Docket No. FAA-2005-20850; Directorate Identifier 2005-NE-05-AD; Amendment 39-14976; AD 2007-05-15] - Supersedes an existing AD that requires initial and repetitive visual inspections of the starter adapter assembly and crankshaft gear and unscheduled visual inspections of the starter adapter assembly and crankshaft gear due to a rough-running engine.
Senior Democrats on the House aviation subcommittee last week reiterated concerns about the shift toward contracting out aircraft maintenance and questioned whether FAA should require air carriers to use only certificated contractors. Speaking during a subcommittee hearing on outsourced maintenance Thursday, Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) said, "I can't understand why we have a parallel system" of certificated and noncertificated contractors.
Models AT-602, AT-802 and AT-802A airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2007-27212; Directorate Identifier 2007-CE-011-AD] - Proposes to supersede an AD that currently requires repetitively inspecting the engine mount for any cracks, repairing or replacing any cracked engine mount, and reporting any cracks found to the FAA. Since FAA issued AD 2006-22-08, the agency has received reports of two Model AT-802A airplanes with cracked engine mounts (at 2,815 hours time-in-service (TIS) and 1,900 hours TIS) below the initial compliance time in AD 2006-22-08.
Was named general manager of Dallas Airmotive's Premier Turbines division in Neosho, Mo. where he will be responsible for day-to-day operations and profitability of the engine repair and overhaul facility. "Alton has done an outstanding job as our director of supply chain management since joining us in January 2005," said Hugh E. McElroy, president and CEO of Dallas Airmotive. Johnson spent 21 years in maintenance management in U.S. Army Aviation assignments.
