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.
Officials at the Chicagoland area airport in Gary, Ind. (GYY) lost no time in promoting their facility after Chicago Mayor Richard Daley destroyed the runway at Meigs Field (CGX) in Chicago. The Indiana facility issued a March 31 press release headlined "Meigs Closes. Gary/Chicago Airport Is The Place To Be." GYY officials note their airport has a 7,000-foot runway, an instrument landing system and "handling and fuel charges far below Meigs and easy 30-minute expressway access to McCormick Place."
Two Business Jets were damaged last week in gear-collapse mishaps. A Model 500 Citation I, N628BS, was damaged March 31 when the right main gear collapsed after the airplane landed at the Wilmington, N.C. Airport. A 1986 model Hawker, N160WC, suffered a nose-gear collapse April 1 while the airplane was taxiing out from a maintenance hangar in Seattle, Wash.
Lancair continues to ramp up its production and is on track to deliver more than 50 aircraft in 2003. The company, which suspended production last summer for more than seven months, has delivered six aircraft since Feb. 28, a rate of one a week. Lancair intends eventually to bring production back up to one aircraft per business day. "We're close to fully staffed at this point and our back shop operations are getting up to speed more rapidly than we had anticipated," said Lancair Vice President Ron Wright.
Cox & Company, Inc. won another significant contract from Raytheon Aircraft for de-icing equipment. Cox & Company, which is based in Manhattan in New York City, said RAC will use its Electro-Magnetic Expulsion Deicing (EMEDS) to keep the horizontal stabilizer of the new Hawker Horizon business jet ice-free. The new agreement marks the second application for EMEDS, which was certificated by FAA in May 2001 for use on the Beech Premier I. RAC has delivered more than 50 Premiers with the EMEDS system installed. Cox & Co.
AIR TRACTOR, INC. Models AT-300, AT-301, AT-302, AT-400, and AT-400A airplanes (Docket No. 2003-CE-09-AD; Amendment 39-13088; AD 2003-06-01) - supersedes AD 2002-13-02, which applies to all Air Tractor Models AT-300, AT-301, AT-302, and AT-400A airplanes that have aluminum spar caps; certain Air Tractor Models AT-400 airplanes that have aluminum spar caps; and all Models AT-300 and AT-301 airplanes that have aluminum spar caps and are or have been converted to turbine power.
