NetJets Inc. reached an agreement with the Mayo Clinic under which NetJets can offer owners a services package called the Mayo Clinic Executive Travel Response. The package will provide NetJets owners access to medical support from Mayo Clinic via telephone 24 hours a day. A dedicated phone was registered for NetJets owners to reach Mayo Clinic medical personnel. In emergencies, the Mayo Clinic will coordinate with hospitals, doctors and other emergency services at the location of the NetJets owner.
Transportation Security Administration teams have been "testing" general aviation airports and flight operations to assess their current security status, the National Business Aviation Association warned its members last week. The TSA agents are concentrating on fixed-base operations and flight departments, the association said. In some cases, the TSA representatives were challenged by employees and "got turned around" before gaining access to aircraft, but in other instances TSA officials apparently were able to go where they pleased.
CANADIAN CONTROLLERS TO VOTE ON CONTRACT BY JULY 4 - Nav Canada will know early next month whether its controllers will accept a tentative agreement on a new contract; the organization could use some good news after reporting another depressed month of air traffic figures. Canadian Air Traffic Control Association (CATCA) President Rob Thurgur told BA affiliate Aviation Daily that voting on the tentative agreement would take place June 26-July 4, with information meetings for members being held across the country until then.
Those who took part in the initial three-day Part 135/125 sessions were uniform in their praise for the quality of individuals involved and "very impressed" by the quality of pre-planning by FAA officials. There is general agreement that it will require a lot of hard work and the full two years FAA has allotted to complete the process, but participants expressed optimism that workable ways to modernize the regulations will be found.
MOONEY AEROSPACE GROUP reached an agreement with holders of the company's notes to waive all outstanding defaults and set fixed note conversion prices. The company said that as a result of the restructuring, it has received more than $5 million in new funding.
In the final push to prepare new legislation to replace AIR-21, which expires at the end of this year, the Senate named conferees last week to reconcile its version of the FAA reauthorization bill with the House counterpart. The House is expected to announce its conferees sometime this week. The Senate conferees are John McCain (R-Ariz.), Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), Conrad Burns (R-Mont.), Trent Lott (R-Miss.), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), Ernest Hollings (D-S.C.), Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) and John Breaux (D-La.).
On a more positive note, NBAA said TSA conducted audits Monday of the eight Part 91 Teterboro, N.J.-based flight departments that have received TSA Access Certificates (BA, April 7/155), and all apparently passed scrutiny "with flying colors," an NBAA official said.
BOEING ATM SIGNS COLLABORATION PACT WITH EUROPEAN COUNTERPARTS - Boeing Air Traffic Management reached an accord with the European Air Traffic Alliance to work together on advanced traffic management technologies to ensure a seamless transition in worldwide aircraft operations. The groups said they will work jointly toward accelerating air traffic modernization and jointly address issues affecting global operations. The agreement brings together two relatively new, but competitive organizations in the air traffic management arena.
Cessna Aircraft selected L-3 Avionics Systems to provide Electronic Standby Instrument System units as standard equipment on the Cessna Citation business jet line. The GH-3000 was recently certified aboard the Bravo and Encore models, with approval on the Excel planned later this year.
DAVID J. ANDERSON was named senior vice president and chief financial officer at Honeywell, headquartered in Morris Township, N.J. He was most recently senior vice president and chief financial officer at ITT Industries. Anderson, who succeeds Richard Wallman, will report to Honeywell Chairman and CEO Dave Cote.
RAYTHEON MODIFIES KING AIR 350 FOR NEW SPECIAL-MISSION APPLICATIONS - Raytheon Aircraft is enhancing the Beechcraft King Air 350 for special-mission use "in response to growing homeland security concerns around the world," the Wichita, Kan.-based company announced last week at the Paris Air Show.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN TO CONSOLIDATE OKLAHOMA UNITS - Northrop Grumman Corp. broke ground last week on a new facility that will allow the company to consolidate about half its Oklahoma City, Okla. workers in a single location. The new building, which will have about 50,000 square feet of space - including 5,000 square feet of laboratories - will be built at 6401 South Air Depot Boulevard. Northrop Grumman has about 500 employees working at a number of sites in the Oklahoma City area.
SUPERSONIC RULES EYED BY FAA IN INFORMATION-GATHERING EFFORT - The Federal Aviation Administration is gathering information on supersonic technology in an effort it says could lead to future rules governing supersonic flight. The agency plans to hold a public meeting on supersonic technology and last month issued a request for technical information from other federal agencies, industries, universities and other interested parties on mitigating the sonic boom produced by supersonic aircraft.
Travelers between New York City and Washington, D.C. could have another transportation option by late next year - scheduled helicopter flights. A company called America Rising has placed orders for three of Sikorsky's new S-92 helicopters that it will use to provide the 75-minute flights between the Wall St. Heliport and the nation's capital.
National Air Transportation Association has collected nearly 50 signatures from legislators appealing to President Bush to open up access to Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport for charter operators who comply with the Transportation Security Administration's "Twelve-Five" security program. Last week some 32 congressmen signed a letter to Bush on the issue, one of about half a dozen from Capitol Hill in the past two months appealing to Bush to restore access to DCA (BA, June 16/277).
AEROSPATIALE Model ATR 42-500 and ATR 72 series airplanes (Docket No. 2002-NM-169-AD) - proposes to require inspecting the wire bundle in the area of electrical rack 90VU to detect damage, verifying that the conduit around the wire bundle is in the proper position, and installing a clamp between the wire bundles and the carbon shelves structure. This action is necessary to prevent chafing of a wire bundle, which could result in an electrical short and potential loss of several functions essential for safe flight.
Boeing is naming its new 7E7 airliner "The Dreamliner," a name officials said won a contest that drew some 500,000 votes. Boeing stresses that the 7E7 will be cheaper to operate than competing models, and is being designed to burn 20 percent less fuel per passenger than existing aircraft. The manufacturer plans to offer two basic models of the 7E7 - a basic version with about 200 seats in a tri-class configuration and a stretch model seating about 250 in a three-class arrangement. The airplane will have a range of 7,200 to 8,000 nautical miles.
IG FAULTS FAA ON COST-ACCOUNTING PROGRESS - FAA's Inspector General wants the agency to get serious about progress on its long-delayed cost-accounting system, including withholding bonuses from senior executives and program managers, and accuses FAA of taking only lukewarm measures since Congress demanded a cost accounting system in 1996.
In keeping with a fast-moving schedule set by congressional leadership earlier this year, the House and Senate each approved a version of a new FAA reauthorization bill last week. But the House version met some opposition from the White House, which threatened to veto the final legislation if certain provisions are not dropped.
ROBERT STANGARONE, the veteran aviation communications executive, joined Safire Aircraft this month as vice president-marketing and public affairs. He will be responsible for sales and marketing, communications, government and media relations, branding and positioning and internal communications. Most recently Stangarone had been managing director of Broadgate Consultants, Inc., and before that he was vice president, corporate communications for Fairchild Dornier.
A California Appeals Court last week upheld a $10 million judgment against an aviation insurance broker for breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and professional negligence in permitting an aviation insurance policy to lapse, the plaintiff's attorneys said. Aerial production and VIP charter specialist Wolfe Air Aviation sued the broker, Andreini and Co., after a helicopter crash left Wolfe exposed to liability. Wolfe's insurance policy expired 20 hours before the crash.
Federal Aviation Administration will reopen the public docket for two months to seek additional proposals and comments as part of its Part 135/125 review. Participants in the review process spent three days at a Washington area conference center last week going over the approximately 80 proposals and raising about 50 new issues, according to Ed Bolen, the industry chairman of the Steering Committee and president of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. The docket will remain open until the group's next major meeting Aug. 19-21.
