The Senate Thursday unanimously passed sweeping security legislation that temporarily prohibits a person or company from selling, leasing or chartering an aircraft to an alien without first ensuring that a background check is completed. The background check is part of a series of requirements in the Senate bill that will touch every segment of the aviation industry. Those measures range from federalizing airport security screeners to requiring the Administration to submit a report on airspace restrictions implemented since the Sept. 11 terrorist attack.
UNIVAIR AIRCRAFT Models (ERCO) 415-C, (ERCO) 415-CD, (ERCO) 415-D, (ERCO) 415-E, (ERCO) 415-G, (Forney) F-1, and (Forney) F-1A airplanes (Docket No. 2000-CE-79-AD) - proposes to supersede Airworthiness Directive 86-22-09, which currently requires inspection of the fuel line nipple for damage and replacement of any suspect part. AD 86-22-09 resulted from reports of failures of the fuel line nipple caused by improper installation or incorrect alignment.
A Sikorsky H-92 helicopter was temporarily grounded by an engine problem in Ottawa Tuesday during the aircraft's first visit to Canada. Planned flight demonstrations of the H-92, being offered by Sikorsky as a replacement for Canada's aging Sea King helicopters, were halted when a test flight revealed a problem with one of the aircraft's two General Electric CT7-8 turboshaft engines.
The fractional aircraft industry has spawned a new category of service as a group of New York investors formed a company to buy and then sublease shares of Executive Jet NetJets aircraft. The company, Marquis Jet Partners, Inc., is selling customers its "Private Jet Card," which gives them 25-hour blocks in NetJets aircraft.
EXECUTIVE JET CENTER opened a Million Air FBO at the Mobile, Ala. (MOB) Regional Airport. Million Air Mobile is a designated Phillips 66 Aviation Performance Center.
ASTRO-AIRE ENTERPRISES, Oakland, Calif., was appointed a Honeywell-Grime authorized repair center. Astro-Aire, which holds an FAA Repair Station license and is celebrating its 40th year in business, will bench check, repair and overhaul/modify all makes and models of Grimes manufactured aircraft lighting and power supply devices.
ROLLS-ROYCE plc Dart 525, 525F, 528, 528D, 529, 529D, 530, 532, 535, 542, and 552 series turboprop engines (Docket No. 2001-NE-29-AD; Amendment 39-12446; AD 2001-19-06) - requires the removal of certain part number (P/N) high-pressure turbine (HPT) discs and replacement with serviceable discs. This amendment is prompted by three reports of uncontained HPT disc failures and the manufacturer's investigation into disc failure.
PRIVATAIR opened a western sales and operations division in Monterey, Calif. The new base will handle business west of the Mississippi River. Woody McClendon was appointed vice president and manager in charge of the division.
THE BOEING-SIKORSKY RAH-66 Comanche team will consolidate its senior leadership into the Joint Program Office and relocate the office from Huntsville, Ala. to the Stratford, Conn. area early next year, the companies said last week. The consolidation and moves are expected to affect only a small portion of the approximately 1,000 Boeing and Sikorsky employees assigned to the helicopter program.
GE Aircraft Engines, saying that aircraft manufacturers anticipate new aircraft deliveries to decline sharply over the next two years, expects to lay off up to 4,000 employees, or 13 percent of its total workforce by early next year. GEAE said that before Sept. 11 it had expected a production slowdown for large commercial jet engines to begin by mid-2002 but that recent events "accelerate, and exacerbate, the timetable of the aviation industry slowdown."
AIRSHOW added three new members to its sales and marketing team: John Hill, account director; Lonnie Muir, sales director; and Jaime McGrath, sales engineer. The company also launched a new corporate branding campaign with a newly designed logo as well as a new slogan, "Dedicated to making the cabin work."
JET AVIATION at London Biggin Hill is remodeling its main hangar to accommodate aircraft maintenance and additional services. Construction will be completed by the end of this year with the facility scheduled to be fully operational by early 2002.
The general aviation community was expected to receive some relief from airspace restrictions around New York and Washington, D.C. over the weekend, but faced new restrictions in Boston, continuing restrictions over the nation's 30 busiest airports, and growing public concerns about the threat of small aircraft. FAA late last week released a notice to airmen (NOTAM) scaling back the temporary flight restrictions banning Part 91 flight within a 25-nautical-mile ring of New York Kennedy International and Washington Reagan National airports to 18 nm.
Canada's air navigation services provider, Nav Canada, opened a $5.7 million(C) Air Operations Center in Saskatoon, housing the new Air Traffic Control Tower, Flight Service Station (FSS) and Technical Operations Work Center.
FATAL ACCIDENTS involving the U.S. business jet and turboprop fleets doubled in the first nine months of 2001, compared with the same period a year ago, according to Robert E. Breiling Associates of Boca Raton, Fla. Through September 2001, there were 53 accidents, including 20 fatal accidents, which resulted in 43 passenger and 23 crew fatalities. During the first three quarters of 2000 there were 37 accidents, including 10 fatal accidents that resulted in 29 passenger and 16 crew fatalities.
NATIONAL BUSINESS AVIATION ASSOCIATION said a survey of its associate members indicates that nearly 500 companies plan to have an exhibit presence at the rescheduled NBAA convention in New Orleans Dec. 12-14, about half the total that had planned to exhibit at the show during the original Sept. 18-20 dates. While some large manufacturers have indicated they will not exhibit in December (BA, Oct. 1/151), NBAA President Jack Olcott said he's "really encouraged" by the initial response.
WOMEN IN AVIATION, INTERNATIONAL attracted $553,000 in donations for its 2002 scholarship program, which provides financial assistance to high school or college students and other individuals pursuing an aviation career. Twenty-five organizations have sponsored the dispatcher, general, flight, engineering, maintenance, management and tuition scholarships, which will be presented at the 13th annual International Women in Aviation Conference in Nashville, Tenn. in March.
PRATT&WHITNEY CANADA CORP. delivered its 1,000th PW500 engine to Cessna Aircraft Co. The 1,000th engine, a PW545A, powers the Citation Excel business jet. "The PW500 engine family was born with Cessna and grew with Cessna, which makes this milestone all the more special to all of us at P&WC," said Gilles Ouimet, president and CEO of the Canadian engine manufacturer. The company currently produces the PW530A, the PW535A and the PW545A.
THE NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD recommended that FAA require Boeing to change the lubrication procedure for the horizontal stabilizer trim system on DC-9, MD-80/90 and Boeing 727 series aircraft. The recommendations resulted from the board's investigation into the Jan. 31, 2000 crash of an Alaska Airlines MD-83 off the coast of California. The board also asked that Boeing be required to revise the end play check procedure for the system.
JOHN YATES was appointed a sales associate at JB&A Aviation, based in Houston, Texas. Yates was most recently regional sales manager for the Astra SPX and Galaxy business jets at Galaxy Aerospace, where he worked for six years. He has more than 15 years' experience in sales management with a software and process engineering background.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL Michael A. Canavan, FAA's associate administrator for civil aviation security since Dec. 4, 2000, resigned Friday based on a "mutually agreed decision between he and the [agency] administrator [Jane Garvey]," said spokesman Paul Takemoto. Before joining FAA, Canavan was the chief of staff, Headquarters, U.S. European Command, Stuttgart, Germany, for the Army.
BUTLER NATIONAL CORPORATION, Olathe, Kan., filed an STC application with FAA for design and approval of an "Aircraft Cockpit Shield." The shield would "isolate and protect flight crews from unwarranted intrusion or weapon discharge," the company said.
JUDY WILLIAMS was named a sales associate at JB&A Aviation. She will be responsible for sales in Florida and the Eastern states and will open a new regional office in Orlando, Fla. Williams was most recently vice president, marketing at TAG Aviation and has held sales positions at O'Gara Aviation and Hangar One, Inc., a Beechcraft distributor.
B/E AEROSPACE delivered the first upholstered seats for the Embraer Legacy business jet. The company, under a contract with Nordam Interior Integration, is providing "single and double seats for forward and aft facing installations, along with a fully 16G-certified side-facing three-place divan," B/E said. The Legacy program could yield sales of up to $52 million for B/E by 2009, based on expected aircraft production levels, the company said.
