U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Donahue last week urged the business aviation community to join other industry segments in support of the initiative to dedicate Airport and Airway Trust Fund dollars to aviation, saying "we need to be very, very careful on how that money is spent." Donahue added that he would give an "absolute commitment that the chamber is going to help you." The trust fund initiative, however, is emerging as a major dilemma for GA leaders.
BILLIONAIRE WARREN BUFFETT is bullish on the fractional aircraft ownership market, telling attendees at a Boeing Business Jets press conference last week fractional ownership "clearly is a field that is going to explode over the next decade. It's going to be a big winner." Buffett, whose Berkshire Hathaway purchased both fractional aircraft provider Executive Jet (EJI) and simulator training provider FlightSafety International, spent two days at last week's NBAA convention in Las Vegas.
The Federal Aviation Administration published a proposal last week to revise the eligibility and certification requirements for aircraft dispatchers. The agency said current regulations "do not reflect the significant technological advances that have occurred in the aviation industry and the enhancements in training and instructional methods that have affected all aircraft dispatchers."
THE NEW PIPER AIRCRAFT is equipping its 1999 model Saratoga II HP and Saratoga II TC with avionics packages from Garmin International and S-Tec Corp. Piper said the packages, aimed at cutting pilot workload, will include Garmin's GMA 340 audio selector panel with marker beacon and stereo intercom, two GNS 430 high-resolution color LCD multi-function full-color displays with integrated VOR/LOC/GS/COM and GPS, that Piper said will provide moving map displays. The S-Tec System 55 dual axis autopilot with automatic electric trim also is part of the package.
The Boeing Business Jet program, flushed with a major order from Executive Jet, which is owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, has expanded its lead over Airbus in the competition to sell airline transports to the corporate aircraft market and now holds nearly a four-to-one backlog advantage over the European consortium.
BOMBARDIER AEROSPACE installed and received certification for an autothrottle system on its newest Challenger 604 demonstrator. The autothrottle system, developed by Safe Flight Instrument Corporation, will be available as an option for all Challenger 604 operators. The system provides automatic thrust control during climb, cruise and descent, improving climb performance and payload/range potential and speed control.
PETER (JACK) BASSO was confirmed by the Senate as the assistant secretary for the Office of Budget and Programs at the U.S. Department of Transportation.
EXECUTIVE JET plans to open its first pilot base outside of Columbus, Ohio in Las Vegas in December. A third EJI pilot base in Florida is expected to open next year.
HERBERT NAEF was appointed chief pilot for Jet Aviation Business Jets, Zurich, Switzerland. Naef, who has been flying since 1976, has more than 9,000 flight hours, flying for a number of Swiss aviation companies before joining Jet Aviation seven years ago. He has served as a captain on a Geneva-based Learjet, manager of flight standards, instructor/training captain on Challenger and Falcon and fleet chief, Challenger and Falcon.
Following House and Senate passage last week, President Clinton Wednesday signed the federal omnibus spending bill, H.R.4328, which provides a $9.56 billion budget for the Federal Aviation Administration in fiscal 1999 but only a six-month extension of airport spending authority (BA, Oct. 19/172). The bill reauthorizes FAA programs, including the Airport Improvement Program, for six months, which means Congress must pass another reauthorization bill before the end of March to avert another lapse in AIP spending authority.
DENNIS MULLINS was appointed general manager of Stevens Aviation's facility at Jeffco Airport in Broomfield, Colo. Mullins has 30 years of corporate and airline maintenance management experience. Most recently, he was president of Hollingsead International.
GALAXY AEROSPACE'S worldwide headquarters complex at Fort Worth, Texas Alliance Airport is on schedule for completion in December, the company said last week. The 165,000-square-foot facility will include offices, a factory service center, a completion center and a parts distribution center. The completion center will begin outfitting Astra SPX aircraft in January and Galaxy jets in February. The corporate offices will relocate to the new site in March. The company is increasing employment and plans to have more than 200 on staff by next year.
Bombardier Aerospace is developing a new transcontinental business jet powered by AlliedSignal AS 907 turbofans that is designed to carry eight passengers coast-to-coast under nearly all weather conditions. The new "Continental" model, with a base price of $14.25 million, is designed to plug the gap in the Bombardier product line between the Model 60 Learjet and the Challenger 604.
DASSAULT FALCON JET completed an expansion program at its Little Rock, Ark. completion center, marking the end of a three-year project involving the construction of seven buildings covering 200,000 square feet. The project, which brings DFJ's total space in Little Rock to 478,500 square feet, included a completion hangar for preliminary cabinetry fitting, a cabinet shop, a warehouse, a paint preparation and parts fabrication building, a service center, a delivery hangar and a customer annex building.
B/E AEROSPACE, a provider of cabin interior products and services, has a new operating unit, the General Aviation/VIP Products Group (GAV). GAV, which is working with leading aircraft completion, modification and overhaul facilities to meet refurbishment demand, has been selected to supply seating for Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Cessna, Dassault and Gulfstream business jets. In addition, it provides lighting, oxygen delivery systems and other interior products.
AT BERKSHIRE HATHAWAY "we hope to buy a couple of businesses a year," Buffett told BA, but additional purchases in the aviation field don't appear to be in the immediate offing. "I don't see any [aviation businesses] that jump out at me," he said. Asked specifically if Berkshire Hathaway had any interest in acquiring the Combs Gates chain of fixed-base operations that recently went on the market to support the rapidly expanding EJI fleet (BA, Oct. 5/149), Buffett said that would be a decision for EJI Chairman Richard Santulli.
NATIONAL BUSINESS AVIATION ASSOCIATION plans a meeting Nov. 2 to "begin the process of identifying the best safety practices" of fractional ownership programs and "clarifying any ambiguity that may exist related to the 'operational control' of business aircraft," NBAA President Jack Olcott told a media gathering last week at the NBAA annual meeting and convention in Las Vegas.The Nov.
Dassault Aviation, which launched a feasibility study of a supersonic transport business jet (SST) a year ago, has invested $5 million in that study to date, but still has a number of key issues to resolve including how to power the aircraft, officials told reporters last week during the NBAA annual meeting and convention in Las Vegas, Nev.
CHRYSLER PENTASTAR AVIATION reported continued growth in all areas of its business with almost a 20 percent increase in charter operations over 1997 and the addition of a new 100,000-square-foot dedicated service center. The company plans to take delivery of two Gulfstream Vs in the fourth quarter 1998 and teamed with Gulfstream Aerospace earlier this year to offer Gulfstream Management Services.
AIR BP won an aviation fueling contract from the recently formed Piedmont Hawthorne Aviation. Piedmont Hawthorne Aviation became the nation's second largest fixed-base operation chain this summer with the merger of Piedmont Aviation Services, Hawthorne Aviation and American Beechcraft (BA, Aug. 3/49). Air BP will provide fuel through Eastern Aviation Fuels and brand support to Piedmont Hawthorne's 16 locations.
ALLIEDSIGNAL ALF502 and LF507 series turbofan engines (Docket No. 96-ANE-36) - proposes to supersede two existing ADs that require rework or replacement of No. 4 and 5 bearing oil system hardware, initial and repetitive inspection of the oil system, optional installation of an improved oil filter bypass valve and repetitive inspection of the No. 4 and 5 bearing oil inlet tube to ensure the integrity of the reduction gear system and overspeed protection system.
ALLIEDSIGNAL won FAA approval to extend the major periodic inspection interval for TFE731-5B engines powering the Falcon 900B and Falcon 20-5 from 2,100 hours to 2,500 hours. The company plans to issue service bulletins on the extended MPI interval for the -5B in early 1999. Operators of Raytheon Hawker -5B-powered aircraft must have an analytical inspection before extending the MPI intervals on their engines, AlliedSignal said.
SIMUFLITE TRAINING INTERNATIONAL promoted Jeffrey Roberts to president, succeeding Charles Carson who resigned in September to become president of American International Airways (BA, Sept. 21/127). Roberts, who has 17 years of experience in the flight training industry, has served with SimuFlite for six years, most recently as vice president-sales and marketing. "Jeff Roberts' vast knowledge of the business aviation industry has helped guide SimuFlite's growth over the past several years," said Jeff Smith, manager, GE Capital Corporate Aircraft Group.
GATX CAPITAL CORPORATION elected Jesse Crews president and chief executive officer. Crews succeeds Joseph Lane, who became general manager of IBM Global Financing and president of IBM Credit Financing. Crews joined GATX Capital in 1977 as a financial analyst and has held positions of increasing responsibility. He was named executive vice president in 1994 and chief investment officer in 1995.
A controversial provision to allow federal law enforcement officers to force down aircraft suspected of smuggling drugs died this month in a House/Senate conference on U.S. Coast Guard reauthorization legislation. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) had inserted the provision into Coast Guard reauthorization legislation, S.1259, shortly before Senate passage (BA, Sept. 21/125).
