AFL-CIO and the Transportation Trades Department of the union organization wrote to senior government officials Thursday asking them "to take immediate action to temporarily revoke the certification of certain foreign-based aircraft repair stations until such time as thorough security audits are conducted by responsible agencies and rules are put in place to ensure that these stations do not pose an imminent national and aviation security risk." In letters to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, FAA Administrator Marion Blakey and James Loy, Under Secretary for Securi
DEMETRIO GARCIA was named director of aviation business development at T.Y. Lin International of San Francisco, Calif. He will be responsible for expanding the company's domestic and international aviation services. Most recently regional manager at United Airlines, Garcia brings more than 15 years of aviation experience to his new position.
W.W. (Bill) Boisture, a member of the senior management team at Gulfstream Aerospace for nearly a decade, unexpectedly resigned as president of the company Friday. See article below.
GA GROUPS CONTINUE FIGHT OVER MEIGS; DALEY SEEKS SUIT DISMISSAL - General aviation advocates, led by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association and Friends of Meigs Field, last week stepped up efforts to prevent further destruction of Meigs Field while Chicago Mayor Richard Daley sought dismissal of court actions against the city. Friends of Meigs Field April 4 won a temporary restraining order from the Cook County Circuit Court that prevents the city from demolishing the remainder of the Chicago lakefront airport.
Signature Flight Support President and CEO Elizabeth Haskins last week argued that the federal government should compensate Signature and other affected businesses for losses stemming from the ban on GA at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Mark V. Rosenker, recently sworn in as a member of the National Transportation Safety Board (BA, April 7/161), was designated vice chairman of the agency by President Bush. Before joining NTSB, Rosenker spent nearly two years as deputy assistant to the president and director of the White House Military Office.
Boeing named Sir Michael Jenkins to the new position of president of Boeing UK, where he will "coordinate all company activities enterprise-wide in Britain from the Boeing UK offices in central London." Jenkins, 67, was most recently vice chairman of the investment banking firm of Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein, a post he held since 1996 that focused on the bank's continental European operations.
Raytheon Aircraft Co. is holding a Maintenance and Operations Conference June 3-5 for all Hawker and Beechjet operators at the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock, Ark. To RSVP, contact Susie Oliver at (316) 676-0432 or Crystal Crowley at (316) 676-3046.
GD NAMES BRYAN MOSS TO HEAD GULFSTREAM AS BOISTURE RETIRES - Bryan T. Moss, the veteran aircraft sales executive who has been vice chairman of Gulfstream Aerospace, was named president of the Savannah, Ga. business jet manufacturer Friday by parent company General Dynamics after W.W. (Bill) Boisture shocked industry observers by resigning from Gulfstream and GD earlier in the day.
EUROCOPTER FRANCE Model SA330F, G, and J; AS332C, L, and L1; SA341G; SA342J; AS350B, BA, B1, B2, B3, and D; AS355E, F, F1, F2 and N; SA-365C, C1, and C2; SA-365N and N1; and AS-365N2 and N3 helicopters (Docket No. 2002-SW-56-AD) - proposes to require determining whether specified main or tail rotor parts are installed and, if so, updating and recording the correct hours time-in-service or cycles of each part. If the hours TIS or cycles of any rotor part exceed its life limit, this AD would also require replacing that part with an airworthy part within 50 hours TIS.
A Boeing 707 that flew for 28 years in presidential service as an Air Force One aircraft is being disassembled at the San Bernardino, Calif. International Airport and will be reassembled and put on display at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif. The aircraft, which carries the tail number 27000, will be disassembled by late summer and is expected to be on public display by late 2004. The equipment, tools, technical expertise and labor needed for the project will be donated by the Boeing Company.
New Piper Aircraft Inc. received a contract for 10 aircraft from the University of North Dakota. UND ordered seven Warriors, two Seminoles and an Arrow. The order brings UND's Piper fleet to 118. "Enrollment is up as much as 20 percent to 30 percent at many of the aviation schools we sell to," said New Piper President and CEO Chuck Suma. "As a result, many of our customers, including the University of North Dakota, are using increased revenues to place orders for more sophisticated training aircraft such as Piper Arrows and Seminoles."
Chairman and CEO of the Intrepid Sea-Air-Space Museum Foundation in New York was among the six killed in a King Air crash in Leominster, Mass. earlier this month (BA, April 7/157). Anthony Fisher, 52; his wife, Anne; two passengers, Michael Campanelli and Thomas Fox; and pilots Robert Monaco and Eric Jacobson died when their King Air 200 crashed into a single-story sheet metal shop on April 4. The Fishers' daughter, Tora, 13, survived the crash. The group left from LaGuardia International Airport in New York and was en route to Hanscom Field in Bedford, Mass.
Triumph Group, whose manufacturing units produce a wide range of components and subassemblies for aircraft and engines, said Friday it is realigning its operating structure to reduce five operating divisions into three. The company also said that effective March 31 it designated its Metals Group as a discontinued operation. Triumph is scheduled to issue its fourth quarter and fiscal 2003 financial statement after the markets close April 24.
The federal government needs to regain control of the national transportation system and not buckle to efforts by local politicians and business leaders to restrict airspace access in the name of security, general aviation leaders told a House panel. Testifying before the House aviation subcommittee Wednesday, several general aviation groups stressed the continuing strain that security has placed on the industry and urged subcommittee members to act to ensure that the federal government - not local politicians - drives decisions behind any airspace restrictions.
Gulfstream Aerospace has decided to delay development of its new G150 business jet because of market conditions and a desire to keep research and development costs down. Gulfstream President Bill Boisture confirmed Friday that Gulfstream and officials of Israel Aircraft Industries met about six weeks ago and reached a decision to slow down the program.
TWO GRAND AIRE AIRCRAFT CRASH IN SEPARATE ACCIDENTS - Ohio charter operator Grand Aire Express lost two of its Falcon business jets when they crashed in separate accidents Tuesday, killing three and injuring two. One Falcon 20, N183GA, crashed in a remote area of a nature preserve, a mile short of Toledo Express Airport. The twin-engine aircraft took off from Traverse City, Mich. and was returning to Toledo, where Grand Aire is based, when it went down on approach, killing all three on board. The three victims were employees of Grand Aire.
A broad-based group of industry representatives will begin meeting under FAA auspices in June to develop a series of recommendations for updating and overhauling key sections of the Federal Aviation Regulations including Parts 91, 119, 135 and 125.
Federal Aviation Administration will hold another Domestic Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum (DRVSM) seminar June 3-4 in the Chicago area to present information to operators and other interested parties on the agency's RVSM implementation plans. The seminars are open to anyone interested who plans on operating above FL290 after January 2005. In addition to the Chicago meeting, which will be held at the Hyatt Regency O'Hare, 9300 W. Bryn Mawr Ave., in Rosemont, Ill., seminars will be held in the Seattle and Dallas areas over the next 12 months.
Stagnation in the used business jet market is evident in the latest figures from AvData, Inc., which say there were 73 used business jets delivered to North American buyers in March, a 36.5 percent drop from the 115 airplanes delivered during the same month a year ago. See charts below.
