CJ2 DAMAGED AFTER SLIDING OFF RUNWAY - A Cessna Aircraft CJ2 business jet was seriously damaged Monday after sliding off a wet runway while the crew was attempting to land at an airport in Venezuela. The Cessna 525A, N27VQ, is registered to Cessna Finance Corp. and was being operated by Venequip as a business flight.
GOODRICH SHIFTS JOBS OF THREE TOP EXECUTIVES - Goodrich Corp. has shifted the roles of the executives who lead its three business units, a move that is conducted periodically to give the leaders broader and deeper experience, according to the company's director of media relations. The shift, effective immediately, involves these changes: * Jack Carmola, who had been president of Engine Systems, will now lead the Airframe Systems unit.
June 29-30 - NBAA Management Fundamentals for Flight Departments Workshop, San Francisco, www.nbaa.org July 7 - NBAA Business Aviation Regional Forum, San Jose, Calif., www.nbaa.org July 11-14 - SAE International's Conference on Environmental Systems and European Symposium on Space Environmental Control Systems. Hotel Villa Pamphili, Rome. Call +1 (724) 776-4841 or see www.sae.org July 16 - National Aviation Hall of Fame 44th Annual Induction Ceremony, Dayton, Ohio, (937) 256-0944
All five persons aboard a Beech King Air 90 turboprop were fatally injured early Thursday morning when their aircraft crashed while attempting to land at the airport in New Roads, La. The aircraft, N62BL, had taken off from Jonesboro, Ark. about two hours before the accident.
RAYTHEON OFFERS LONGER-RANGE SPECIAL MISSION KING AIR - Raytheon Aircraft is developing a longer-range special mission King Air, the 350ER, in an effort to attract customers in the surveillance and reconnaissance markets. The King Air 350ER is equipped with additional nacelle fuel tanks, incorporates heavy weight landing gear and has a 1,500-pound gross weight increase to 16,500 pounds. The alterations to the King Air will enable the aircraft to conduct a low-altitude mission for more than seven hours.
Rolls-Royce acquired a Boeing 747-200 to use as a flying test bed for future engine development programs. The company will first test a Trent 1000 on the test bed. Testing of the engine, under development initially for the Boeing 787, will begin in mid-2007. Rolls-Royce bought the 747 from Air Atlanta Icelandic and sent the aircraft to Texas, where L-3 Integrated Systems is converting the aircraft to a flying test bed. The 747 will be based at L-3's Waco facilities.
EADS PICKS ALABAMA SITE FOR POTENTIAL TANKER ASSEMBLY - EADS North America will assemble KC-330 tankers in Mobile, Ala., if it wins a potential U.S. Air Force competition to supply refueling aircraft, the company announced June 22. Even if it does not get a tanker contract, the company plans to build an engineering center at the Mobile site to support Airbus commercial aircraft. That center is expected to open in about a year.
A celebrate general aviation event at Ronald Reagan National Airport Thursday evening drew a few hundred GA supporters, including proponents of reopening DCA to business aviation flights, but organizers were unable to win approval from the Transportation Security Administration to fly in a number of number of business aircraft for a static display. Sen. George Allen (R-Va.) and Rep.
GULFSTREAM Model Galaxy and Gulfstream 200 airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2004-19565; Directorate Identifier 2004-NM-104-AD] - withdraws a proposal that would have required inspecting for incorrect torque of the retaining bolt of the aft trunnion of the main landing gear, and for associated damage to certain components, and adjustments or repairs if necessary. Since the issuance of the NPRM, FAA has received new data that the identified unsafe condition has been corrected on 100 percent of the affected worldwide fleet.
Savannah Air Center (SAC), the Savannah, Ga. interior completions and aircraft modification specialist, won authorization from Bombardier Aerospace to perform completions on Bombardier Global 5000 and Global Express XRS business jets. SAC was previously authorized to do interiors, upgrades and maintenance on earlier Bombardier business jet models.
Nordam Group is transferring its European headquarters from the Netherlands to Toulouse, France, in a move designed to bring the company closer to its European original equipment manufacturer customers. Alain Poupin, vice president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa for NORDAM, will be responsible for the Toulouse office. In addition to Toulouse, Poupin will oversee staff in Paris, London and Nottingham, England; Amsterdam, Netherlands; and Hamburg and Leipzig, Germany.
Butler National Corp. said its AVCON Industries subsidiary "has experienced a great deal of success" in sales and delivery of Reduced Vertical Separation Minimums (RVSMs) for Learjet 20 Series aircraft in the Latin American market. AVCON has upgraded 15 airplanes based in Latin America and has orders for five more booked or pending, the company said.
ARINC was awarded a $3 million contract from the City of Long Beach, Calif. to provide a new security system and enhanced security operations center at Long Beach, Airport. ARINC will install its AIM System for Airports, a security management tool that provides access control, intrusion detection, emergency telephone and notification systems, alarm and event annunciation, expanded closed-circuit surveillance, digital video storage, intelligent video analytics, improved gate control and enhanced personnel badging.
David Robb was named executive editor of AOPA Pilot magazine. Robb has 20 years of experience as writer, editor and publisher, and spent 14 years in the aviation and aerospace markets. A former editor and associate publisher of Avionics Magazine, Robb most recently was general manager of his family's AV-ED Flight School, Inc., based in Leesburg, Va. In his new position, Robb will report to Tom Haines, editor-in-chief of AOPA Pilot.
National Business Aviation Association and National Air Transportation Association have become increasingly concerned that the FAA is considering allowing the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) to lapse as yet another budget cut. Agency officials had discussed eliminating the remaining $400,000 in the program, which is administered through a contract with Booz Allen Hamilton.
HARTZELL propellers and MCCAULEY controllable propellers [Docket No. FAA-2005-20141; Directorate Identifier 2005-NE-01-AD] - proposes to require inspecting for wear and damage to the propeller blades and other critical propeller parts that were serviced by Oxford Aviation Services Limited, doing business as CSE Aviation, in the United Kingdom between September 1998 and October 2003. This proposed AD results from findings that CSE Aviation failed to perform specific inspections and repairs.
Bombardier Aerospace has relocated two of its most experienced sales representatives to a new East Coast sales office near Baltimore, Md. Bill Monroe, vice president of sales, Eastern U.S., and Doug Smith, sales director, Mid-Atlantic territory, will focus on sales of Bombardier Challenger and Global business jet models to customers in the eastern section of the country. Smith had been operating from his home in nearby Ellicott City, Md., and Monroe was based in Dallas, Texas, where the company's Eastern U.S. sales office was previously headquartered.
EADS Socata signed an agreement with French business aviation consultant Aero-Capital to market the EADS Socata TBM 700 single-turboprop aircraft. Aero-Capital will tailor its Magellan System aircraft operation analysis for the TBM 700 to provide customers in-depth information on technical, legal, financial and tax aspects of operating the aircraft.
BOMBARDIER Model DHC-8-400 series airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2005-20860; Directorate Identifier 2005-NM-043-AD; Amendment 39-14131; AD 2005-12-15] - requires revising the Airworthiness Limitation section of the Instructions for Continued Airworthiness of the Dash 8 400 series (Bombardier) Maintenance Requirements Manual to reduce the life limits of the main landing gear (MLG) orifice support tube, upper bearing, and piston plug; and to reduce the threshold for initiating repetitive detailed inspections for cracking of the engine isolator brackets.
TWO U.S. ARMY HELICOPTER PROGRAMS ENTERING KEY PHASES - Two U.S. Army helicopter acquisition programs are on the verge of entering key phases. The Light Utility Helicopter (LUH) program has been cleared to conduct a competition for a prime contractor, and the Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter (ARH) program is expected to make its own contractor selection as early as July, Army and industry officials told BA affiliate Aerospace Daily & Defense Report.
Pratt & Whitney Canada and Cessna Aircraft have extended a long-time working agreement to launch PowerAdvantage Plus (PA+), which will expand a pay-by-the-hour engine maintenance program to more Citation business jet operators. The jointly developed program will provide Cessna Citation operators the opportunity to enter into a program that covers parts, rental engines and engine shop labor in addition to certain consumables. It also will provide engine trend monitoring as part of the coverage.
FOKKER Model F.28 Mark 0100 airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2005-20868; Directorate Identifier 2004-NM-162-AD; Amendment 39-14132; AD 2005-12-16] - requires an inspection to determine the part number of the passenger service unit (PSU) panels for the PSU modification status, and corrective actions if applicable. This AD is prompted by reported incidents of smoke in the passenger compartment during flight. One of those incidents also included a burning smell and consequently led to emergency evacuation of the airplane.
