BRAZILIAN MANUFACTURER Embraer posted a net profit of $470 million in 2001, a 70.7 percent jump from the $272 million it reported for 2000. The company topped the list of Brazil's principal exporters for the third consecutive year with $2.9 billion in overseas shipments. CEO Mauricio Botelho emphasized that after Sept. 11 only 18 purchase options - 15 from Brazil's Rio-Sul and three from foreign carriers - were rescheduled. He said there were no cancellations.
A Boeing Business Jet flew 6,854 nautical miles from Seattle, Wash. to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, making the trip the farthest distance flown in a BBJ. The flight, which started at Boeing Field on April 7, took 14 hours and 12 minutes. The aircraft, owned by a company called BBJ One, is the first to be certified under Part 135 allowing charter operations.
A mild winter has put construction of the 760,000-square-foot Dulles annex to the National Air and Space Museum ahead of schedule, museum officials said last week, adding that they hope to begin moving the first artifacts into the Steven F. Uvar-Hazy Center next March. The center is slated to open to the public in December 2003, purposefully timed to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the first powered flight by the Wright brothers.
TWIN COMMANDER AIRCRAFT CORPORATION received certification to install Meggitt Avionics' MAGIC electronic flight and instrumentation system on the 690 series Twin Commander aircraft. MAGIC is a suite of four instrument panel and gauge displays that will show fuel levels, airspeed, attitude, altitude, vertical speed and heading references. The new system will be standard on Grand Renaissance Twin Commanders and available for retrofit in other Twin Commander 690-series models.
BOMBARDIER Model CL-600-2B19 series airplanes (Docket No. 2001-NM-346-AD) - proposes to require inspection of certain installed electrical relays to determine whether they have certain manufacturing date codes, and replacement of the electrical relays with those date codes with new relays with different manufacturing date codes. This action is necessary to prevent the failure of an electrical relay due to a defective moving blade assembly, which could result in the inability to generate electrical power from the emergency system.
Medaire of Phoenix, Ariz. was honored as Gulfstream's 2001 Small Business Supplier of the Year. The Small Business Council of Gulfstream presented the award to MedAire last month at the Fourth Annual Year End Event in Savannah, Ga. The two companies have been partners since 1989 when Gulfstream became the first to make Med Aire's medical safety products and services a standard feature on every new aircraft sold.
FLIGHTSAFETY INTERNATIONAL'S center in Daleville, Ala. received Level D certification from FAA for its new UC-35B full flight simulator. The new simulator is the U.S. Army's version of the Cessna Citation Encore business jet. The simulator will be used to train both military and civil pilots.
Fairchild Dornier's insolvency administrator Eberhard Braun still wants to sell the company as a whole, but said the schedule to achieve his "strategic goal" is very tight. Braun has two and one-half months left to find a buyer for the company. He is allowing spending only where it is absolutely necessary, and he defended the move to lay off virtually all sales staff except three Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany-based employees (BA, April 8/163).
Air Methods Corporation's products division received a contract from General Dynamics Landing Systems for development and production of a litter system for the U.S. Army's medical evacuation vehicle. The contract is for 27 units to be delivered this year and includes an option for the production of 91 more units, to be delivered between 2003 and 2007. If GD exercises all its options, the contract value could reach $5 million.
National Air Transportation Association is rounding out membership of its recently formed Airline Services Council, which will promote and represent interests of aviation businesses that provide services to scheduled airlines. The council includes GlobeGround North America, Airport Terminal Services, Signature Flight Support/ASIG, WorldWide Security Associates, Gate Gourmet, Menzies Aviation Group, Aramark/ServiceMaster Aviation Services, LSG Sky Chefs, Worldwide Flight Services, Swissport, ITS, Hallmark Aviation Services, Mercury Air Group, FSS and Servisair.
National Transportation Safety Board is investigating two recent accidents in Minnesota involving Piper PA-46-310P aircraft that made forced landings after loss of engine power. N9103Q sustained substantial damage March 31 when the pilot ditched the plane in the Mississippi River near South St. Paul, Minn. shortly after departing Fleming Field (SGS) in South St. Paul. The pilot and two passengers were not injured. NTSB said N9184F also sustained substantial damage when the pilot made a forced landing on a road in Hastings, Minn. after the pilot had departed St.
Meggitt Aerospace Systems Division announced a major reorganization of the company's activities, along with the departure of the top two executives at its New Hampshire manufacturing facility.
V-22 Osprey program officials say they are confident that a comprehensive test program set to begin this month will remove any doubts about tiltrotor technology and safety. E.C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr., the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, has allowed the V-22 to return to flight testing, but he testified last month before Congress that the Pentagon is considering alternatives should the test program fail.
WELDON PROPOSES PENNSYLVANIA ROTORCRAFT RESEARCH CENTER - Hoping to boost the Mid-Atlantic region's role in aerospace-related technology development, Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said April 3 that he is pushing to create a cutting-edge rotorcraft research center near the Boeing Company's rotorcraft plant in suburban Philadelphia.
Cessna hopes to continue to penetrate the Latin American market with plans for expanding its Cessna Pilot Centers (CPCs) into Mexico, Brazil and other key areas, the company said. It recently added CPCs in Mexico, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.
V-22 Osprey program officials say they are confident that a comprehensive test program set to begin this month will remove any doubts about tiltrotor technology and safety. E.C. "Pete" Aldridge Jr., the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, has allowed the V-22 to return to flight testing, but he testified last month before Congress that the Pentagon is considering alternatives should the test program fail.
Meggitt Aerospace, whose S-TEC division in Mineral Wells, Texas is well known for supplying autopilots for piston-powered singles and twins, is attempting to expand its market to include the turboprop fleet. Officials are targeting Piper Cheyennes and older King Airs as candidates for new autopilots, electronics and instruments. The manufacturer holds hundreds of supplemental type certificates (STCs) from FAA for installation of new equipment on piston-powered aircraft.
Salvage crews recovered a recently restored Boeing 307 Stratoliner from Elliott Bay in Seattle last week after the crew ditched the vintage airliner when they encountered power problems during a test and training flight a few days earlier. The airplane, one of only 10 of its type built and the last remaining, is owned by the National Air&Space Museum and is destined to be housed in the museum's new facility at Dulles International Airport. It had been restored by a 30-member team of Boeing volunteers over the past six years.
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION proposed a series of civil penalties totaling more than $250,000 against the Boeing Commercial Airplane Group for allegedly failing to maintain its quality control system in accordance with approved data and procedures in its production certificate.
The Department of Labor Friday announced a new plan to help reduce ergonomic injuries. The plan includes industry-targeted guidelines, stricter enforcement measures, workplace outreach, advanced research and efforts to protect immigrant workers. The plan, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's latest approach to protecting against musculoskeletal disorders, comes a year after Congress threw out the agency's ergonomics rule, which called for risk assessment, training, record keeping and formation of ergonomics programs.
All four people aboard a Cessna 340 were killed March 24 when the pilot encountered problems while attempting to land at Centennial Airport (APA) in Englewood, Colo. The aircraft, N341DM, was being operated by Lear 171 Inc. of Billings, Mont. under Part 91 of the FARs. The flight had departed Gunnison, Colo. at 1540 local time under an instrument flight plan and about 50 minutes later was cleared to land on Runway 35R at APA. The local controller said that about 90 seconds after receiving landing clearance the pilot reported he had lost an engine.
DON EHLER was named manager of sales for Thunder Aviation. He was previously a marketing and sales executive for Alliance Systems and Programming, Inc. MICHAEL MCCONNELL was appointed vice president of customer and product support at Eclipse Aviation. He was most recently senior vice president of strategic planning for Mooney Aircraft. McConnell also worked for Dell Computer Corporation for 12 years with positions in marketing and management.
MEGGITT REORGANIZES AVIONICS UNIT - Meggitt Aerospace Systems Division announced a major reorganization of the company's activities, along with the departure of the top two executives at its New Hampshire manufacturing facility.
FlightSafety International won approval from Europe's Joint Aviation Authorities for its Learjet training programs in Tucson, Ariz., Atlanta, Ga., Wichita, Kan. and West Palm Beach, Fla. The JAA awarded approval of FlightSafety's pilot training programs for the Learjet 31A, 35/36, 45, 55 and 60 aircraft. FlightSafety's centers in Tucson and Atlanta both operate FAA Level "D" full flight simulators for Learjet 31A, 45 and 60 aircraft.
