FAA Administrator Marion Blakey Thursday formally handed a provisional type certificate for the Eclipse 500 to Eclipse President and CEO Vern Raburn, marking the first such approval for the new breed of very light jets. Eclipse hopes to win full type certification, covering day/night, instrument flight rules, single pilot and reduced vertical separation minimums, by the end of August.
Airnet signed a definitive agreement to sell the assets of its Jetride passenger charter business to Pinnacle Air for $41 million in cash. The transaction is expected to close during the third quarter. Under the agreement, AirNet expects to repay $29 million of debt secured by the Jetride aircraft. Columbus, Ohio-based Jetride operates a fleet of Learjets for charter.
Garmin has begun to offer the G1000 integrated avionics suite for retrofit on the Beechcraft King Air C90. The Olathe, Kan. manufacturer hopes to secure a supplemental type certificate in spring 2007. The system will be available for aircraft with a factory-installed APS-65 automatic flight control system. The G1000 integrates primary flight, navigation, communication, terrain, traffic, weather, and Engine Instrumentation and Crew Alerting System on high-definition LCDs.
Raytheon Aircraft Company, struggling to achieve FAA certification of its Hawker 4000 and still producing puny profit margins despite a strong market for business aircraft, was put on the auction block by Raytheon Company Thursday. Last week's announcement marks the second attempt in six years by the parent firm to get rid of its Wichita, Kan. aircraft manufacturing unit.
Iridium Satellite reported that the aviation sector is its fastest growing market with its customer base more than doubling in the past year. The number of Iridium aeronautical terminals grew to more than 7,500 in June, and the company has been commissioning an average of 300 new units a month, Iridium said. The market is expanding beyond the core general aviation and business-jet business with growth in the helicopter sector, particularly air ambulance and rescue services.
Raytheon Aircraft Services secured FAA supplemental type certificate approval to install Rockwell Collins' Integrated Flight Information System, or IFIS, on the Pro Line 21-equipped Premier I. The IFIS is standard equipment on all new Premier IA jets, providing electronic charts, graphical weather and enhanced map display capabilities. The electronic charting function includes approaches, procedures, airport diagrams and Notices to Airmen. The IFIS also allows operators to receive real-time data link weather images.
The Air Traffic Control Association named another new president last week, and former ATCA head Paul (Bo) Bollinger began his duties in a civilian slot for the U.S. Air Force. Peter Dumont, a vice president of Serco who has served as that company's acting chief operating officer, will take over as ATCA president in mid-August. An Embry-Riddle graduate, Dumont was an air traffic controller and manager for the U.S. Navy. At Serco, his responsibilities have included FAA's contract tower program.
Joined the sales team of Hillsboro Aviation. Johnson will market new and used Bell helicopters in Hillsboro's 16-state Bell territory in the West. Johnson has 15 years of marketing and sales management experience, including 10 years of turbine helicopter sales. He previously worked at Austin Jets, HAS Corp. and Africair. He also was president of Helicopter Research and Marketing, where he provided consulting to prospective aircraft buyers and sellers.
Models TPE331 series turboprop engines [Docket No. FAA-2006-23706; Directorate Identifier 2006-NE-03-AD; Amendment 39-14688; AD 2006-15-08] - Requires initial and repetitive dimensional inspections of the fuel control drive, for wear or damage. This AD results from reports of loss of the fuel control drive, leading to engine overspeed, overtorque, overtemperature, uncontained rotor failure, and asymmetric thrust in multi-engine airplanes. FAA is issuing this AD to prevent destructive overspeed that could result in uncontained rotor failure, and damage to the airplane.
The prototype Spectrum 33 Very Light Jet, which was scheduled to fly to the EAA AirVenture show in Oshkosh, Wis. late last week, was destroyed in a takeoff accident Tuesday that killed both test pilots.
Named general manager for Landmark Aviation's fixed-base operation in Albany, Ga. Bridge formerly managed Landmark's Lakeland, Fla. facility and was operations manager of the Ocala, Fla. FBO.
DayJet, the air taxi startup that plans to launch service with a fleet of Eclipse very light jets, has selected Gainesville, Fla. as the site for a facility where it will house and maintain the company's fleet. The Gainesville "DayBase," selected because of its central location in DayJet's launch region, will be the base for DayJet's fleet, flight operations and maintenance personnel in northern Florida. Pilots and aircraft will return to the DayBase when flight operations are concluded each day. The company plans to name a second base later.
FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, the Bush Administration's principal advocate for imposing user fees on the aviation industry, sounded a conciliatory note during a speech at last week's Experimental Aircraft Association gathering in Oshkosh, Wis. Blakey, who couldn't get her user-fee proposal past the Office of Management and Budget this year despite a major push on her part (BA, July 10/11), appeared more willing to work toward an agreement with the GA community instead of attempting to force a user-fee scheme down the industry's throat.
August 29-31 - SAE's General Aviation Technology Conference & Exhibition, Wichita (Kan.) Hyatt. Call 724-776-4841, fax 724-776-0790, www.aerospace.sae.org October 17-19 - National Business Aviation Association 59th Annual Meeting & Convention, Orlando, Fla., (202) 783-9000 October 27 - 64th annual Wings Club Dinner-Dance honoring Al Ueltschi, Chairman FlightSafety International, Inc. with its Distinguished Achievement Award; Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, New York, 212-867-1770, email: [email protected].
ARINC has a developed a new electronic library for general aviation aircraft that will store and display en route charts and documents. The eFlyBook stores all U.S. terminal procedures, en route charts, the airport facility directory and FAR/AIM documents. The eFlyBook combines chart viewing and compression software developed by MyAirplane.com, and the portable "iLiad" eReader built by iRex Technologies of the Netherlands. ARINC unveiled the new technology at last week's Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wis.
Model BAe 146 and Avro 146-RJ Airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2006-25437; Directorate Identifier 2006-NM-136-AD] - Proposes to require modifying the nose landing gear. This proposed AD results from reports of loss of the nose wheel assembly. FAA is proposing this AD to prevent the nose wheel nut from loosening, and consequently, the nose wheel assembly detaching from the airplane; and to prevent the nose wheel clamping loads from applying to the machined radius at the root of the stub axle, which could result in damage to the nose landing gear.
AirShares Elite, which sells fractional shares in Cirrus SR22 aircraft, continues to expand with new locations in Minneapolis, Minn. and Raleigh-Durham, N.C. The newest locations increase the number of bases for AirShares to 15. The company will have a Cirrus SR22 at Hummingbird Aviation at Flying Cloud Airport near Minneapolis in August. AirShares already has placed two Cirrus SR22s at Raleigh-Durham.
Model EMB-135 and EMB-145, -145ER, -145MR, -145LR, -145XR, -145MP, and -145EP airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2006-25422; Directorate Identifier 2006-NM-095-AD] - Proposes to require inspecting the fuel quantity indication system (FQIS) wire harness and the DC fuel pump wire harness to determine if the harnesses are properly attached at their respective attachment points and properly separated from one another, and performing corrective actions if necessary.
The Federal Aviation Administration completed its accident analysis of three older twin-turboprop aircraft and decided against a more full-scale safety review despite their accident records, the agency said in a report released this month. FAA's Office of Accident Investigation evaluated whether the agency should conduct in-depth safety reviews on the Beech 99, Swearingen 226/227 and Embraer 110 since their accident records were comparable to that of the MU-2.
Signature Flight Support named company veteran Steve Lee chief operating officer (BA, July 24/33). Lee formerly was chief financial officer, vice president of finance, marketing and business development and regional vice president of operations for Signature. He originally joined Signature predecessor Butler Aviation as controller. Five regional vice presidents will report to Lee as will David Best, managing director of the company's European operations.
Raisbeck Engineering appointed four new installation centers for its King Air performance-enhancing systems. The four companies are Hillaero Modification Center in Lincoln, Neb.; Superior Aircraft Maintenance in Medford, Ore.; Professional Aircraft Maintenance in Bakersfield, Calif.; and England's MCA Aviation.
Dassault this month completed 16 months of static and fatigue testing of its new Falcon 7X. The testing was accomplished using just one test article, Dassault said, noting that this was a first for a Dassault civil aircraft. The article was tested to two times the design life of the airframe or 40,000 simulated cycles. The test article reached 150 percent of design limit load on the wings, cabin and fuel tank.
