Dassault scheduled its 26th Worldwide M&O (maintenance and operations) session May 30-June 1, 2006 at the Boca Raton Resort and Club in Boca Raton, Fla. The seminar will include model-specific technical and operational sessions and knowledge sharing meetings. NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen will be a keynote speaker at the opening and general session and the event will conclude with a dinner and gala reception.
JIM THOMPSON was appointed director of engineering, Nacelle/ Thrust Reverser Systems Division, for The Nordam Group. Thompson will oversee the engineering team that designs and develops nacelle and thrust reverser systems for business and regional aircraft. He formerly served with Garrett Aviation Services, where he was vice president, programs and technology. He also filled the roles of vice president and general manager of Garrett-Van Nuys and director of program development.
Gulfstream Aerospace said a Gulfstream G450 established a new speed record, flying 3,290 nautical miles from Washington, D.C. Dulles International to Luton, England in six hours and 12 minutes. Gulfstream said the flight benefited from a 30-knot tailwind for most of the trip. The aircraft flew an average speed of Mach 0.85. The record is pending National Aeronautic Association review.
BizJet International, the Tulsa, Okla., subsidiary of Lufthansa Technik, struck cooperative agreements with Palwaukee Service Center in Wheeling, Ill. and Thornton Aircraft Company in Van Nuys, Calif. The agreements expand BizJet's portfolio of capabilities and will enable the repair station to enhance its services to customers on the West Coast and in the Chicago area, BizJet said.
ROSS AVIATION ACQUIRES SANTA FE JET CENTER - Ross Aviation has acquired the Santa Fe Jet Center at San Fe, N.M. Municipal Airport, the third major acquisition for the company in the past 12 months. The Santa Fe facility, which will now be known as Santa Fe AirCenter, joins Scottsdale AirCenter and Denver AirCenter in the Ross Aviation stable.
EMBRAER Model EMB-120, -120ER, -120FC, -120QC, and -120RT airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2005-22871; Directorate Identifier 2005-NM-191-AD] - proposes to require installing a rivet and washer in the hole of the upper frame of the auxiliary power unit (APU) firewall. This proposed AD results from a report indicating that, during production, a pinhole was left open at the upper frame of the APU firewall. FAA is proposing this AD to ensure that the APU compartment is isolated from the rest of the airplane in the event of an APU fire.
FAA SLATED FOR INCREASED FUNDING, MORE GENERAL FUNDS IN FY06 - Congress late last week was putting the finishing touches on a $13.8 billion funding package for FAA in fiscal 2006 that includes substantially more funding than FAA requested, and far more funding from general federal receipts than the agency sought.
RAY MURPHY, director of operations for American Jet International (AJI), was appointed to head the National Business Aviation Association's Part 135 Committee. Murphy will lead 15 committee members who review operational issues, regulatory initiatives, FAA guidance and other issues facing Part 135 operators. He has 23 years of aviation experience and joined AJI six years ago.
EBBS AND ERAU BOARD AGREE TO PART WAYS - George Ebbs, president of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University for the past seven years, will step down at the end of the month after he and the board of trustees agreed to go in different directions.
The Nordam Group was selected to provide components for Gulfstream G550 business jets that will be used as Compact Airborne Early Warning platforms by the Israeli Ministry of Defense. NORDAM will provide graphite-reinforced composite fairings, bonded panels and interior liners. NORDAM previously had supplied components for the Gulfstream 550 High-Performance Instrumented Airborne Platform delivered to the U.S. National Science Foundation earlier this year and for the Special Electronic Missions Aircraft G500 developed for the Israeli Ministry of Defense.
Federal Aviation Administration awarded a one-year contract valued at $1.35 million to Amherst, N.H.-based AeroSat Airborne Internet to evaluate an Airborne Internet system. FAA is exploring communications requirements for the Next Generation Air Transportation System and said Airborne Internet could enhance safety and efficiency of future air travel by providing automatic updates of critical data, such as the weather, turbulence and landing conditions at different airports.
PAT QUINN was named manager of certification/DAS administration for Midcoast Aviation. Quinn will be tasked with ensuring that all modifications and completions performed by Midcoast comply with FAA requirements.
It would be difficult to find a more upbeat gathering than last week's NBAA convention in Orlando, with aircraft manufacturers announcing new airplane models and logging record numbers of orders. Despite the outlook for continued strong demand for business aircraft, industry officials are warning of a major fight in Washington, D.C. next year surrounding proposed huge increases in taxes on business aircraft operators. See article below.
JAY EMERY was appointed vice president of Raytheon Aircraft Services. Emery joins Raytheon from Lexus, where he was a senior member of the Lexus customer service team. Before joining Lexus in 1992, he was manager of transportation services for the state of California.
Piaggio America signed an agreement to outsource technical publications to Aircraft Technical Publishers. The agreement covers all technical libraries, distribution and customer service worldwide for the Avanti.
Iridium Satellite, the mobile satellite communications carrier, last week reported that its aviation business has more than doubled this year. Iridium said the number of subscribers in the aviation market recently passed the 5,000 mark, and the number of aircraft fitted with Iridium-based data systems has increased 200 percent in the last 12 months. "The aviation sector is a core and growing market for Iridium," said Don Thoma, executive vice president of Iridium Satellite LLC.
DASSAULT CONSIDERING WAYS TO BOOST RANGE OF 7X - Dassault Falcon Jet officials threw out a teaser at last week's NBAA convention in Orlando, saying they are looking at several options designed to increase the range of the company's new 7X business jet.
Gulfstream Aerospace said it has sold 10 business jets in the Asia-Pacific region so far this year, including its first to a customer in China. The sales include seven new aircraft - five G550s, one G350 and one G200 - and three used airplanes - two GIV-SPs and one GV. Want Want Holdings, Ltd., a Shanghai-based producer of snack foods, became the first customer in China to purchase a Gulfstream jet by placing an order for a G200. Two other Gulfstreams are based in Beijing and are registered in China under leasing agreements.
Senate Commerce Committee earlier this month approved the nomination of Mark Rosenker as a member of the National Transportation Safety Board. Rosenker was first sworn in as a board member in March 2003 and was re-nominated to a five-year term in January. He currently is serving as acting NTSB chair, because the Commerce Committee has yet to take action on the nomination of Ellen Engleman Conners for a second two-year term as chair. Conners initially became chair in March 2003, and her term expired in March 2005.
AVCRAFT DORNIER Model 328-100 airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2005-22813; Directorate Identifier 2002-NM-117-AD] - proposes to revise an existing AD that applies to all AvCraft Model 328-100 airplanes. The existing AD currently requires revising the Airplane Flight Manual (AFM) to provide the flightcrew with additional information regarding procedures to ensure complete pressurization of the hydraulic lines for the flaps. The existing AD also requires, for certain airplanes, modification of the flap actuators of the flight controls.
BAE SYSTEMS Model Avro 146-RJ airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2005-22792; Directorate Identifier 2005-NM-084-AD] - proposes to require reviewing the airplane's maintenance records to determine if certain tasks of the BAe 146/Avro RJ Maintenance Planning Document have been accomplished. This proposed AD also would require doing repetitive detailed inspections of the external fuselage skin adjacent to the longeron at rib 0 from Frame 29 to Frame 31 and repairing any damage if necessary.
BOMBARDIER LAUNCHES NEXT-GENERATION CHALLENGER, LEARJET - Bombardier is replacing two staples in its product line with the next generation - a Challenger 605 and Learjet 60 XR, the Canadian manufacturer announced last week. The Challenger 605 is the follow-on to Bombardier's Challenger 604 business jet, but will have an increased payload of 200 pounds, a redesigned interior and an integrated avionics suite that the company says moves toward a paperless cockpit.
