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.
LAWMAKERS CONCERNED ABOUT DEA AIRCRAFT REQUIREMENTS - Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are concerned that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency doesn't have enough available aircraft, or access to other U.S. aircraft such as from the Defense Department, to stop large drug shipments bound for the United States.
JOHN JUMPER, the former chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, joined the board of Rolls-Royce North America Holdings. Jumper served 40 years with the Air Force, reaching the rank of general. He was a member of the Joint Chief of Staffs and also had served as deputy chief of staff for air and space operations and senior military assistant to two secretaries of defense. He accumulated more than 5,000 hours of flight time, including 1,400 combat hours during two tours in Southeast Asia.
Cessna Aircraft tried to spike speculation this month about new single-engine models it is considering with a statement at the AOPA Expo in Tampa that "no decisions have been made regarding configuration, specifications or timetable" (BA, Nov. 7/207). The Wichita manufacturer wasn't ready to detail the new models in Tampa, but potential buyers won't have long to wait for information. The company is expected to make an announcement early in the new year about two new, largely aluminum, single-engine models.
HONEYWELL ALF502L series and ALF502R series turbofan engines [Docket No. 92-ANE-34-AD] - proposes to supersede an existing AD that establishes stress rupture retirement life limits for certain third stage turbine discs used in conjunction with certain third stage turbine nozzles. This proposed AD would bring requirements forward and unchanged, from the previous AD for ALF502R series turbofan engines.
28,269: The number of attendees at NBAA's 58th Annual Meeting and Convention last week in Orlando, Fla. The show attracted 1,142 exhibitors, who bought 4,815 10- by 10-foot exhibit spaces. Some 110 aircraft were on static display. Attendance was down from the 31,259 attendees at the 57th annual event last year in Las Vegas, but the number of exhibitors topped NBAA's previous record of 1,084, set last year. Attendance this year nearly matched the 28,574 who attended the 2003 NBAA convention, which also was in Orlando.
Garmin unveiled a new digital weather radar product that will interface with the company's G1000 avionics suite and MX-20 multi-function display. The GWX 68 radar will be offered with either a 10-inch antenna providing 270 nautical miles of weather coverage, or a 12-inch antenna, which has a 305-nm range. The radar incorporates Garmin's WATCH (Weather Attenuated Color Highlight) function, which identifies "deceptively strong or unknown intensity" parts of a storm, and Target Alert, which looks ahead for intense storms in the 80- to 320-nm range.
Sino Swearingen Aviation officials, who formally accepted a type certificate for the SJ30-2 business jet last week from FAA Deputy Administrator Bobby Sturgell, say the next objective for the company is obtaining a production certificate from FAA and getting production of the new plane under way.
