NATIONAL BUSINESS AVIATION ASSOCIATION, which has attracted a large segment of the nation's big flight departments and seen its membership expand significantly in the past several years, is making an effort to attract pilots who head some of the nation's smaller flight departments. The association is preparing a mailing to companies operating turboprop aircraft offering them a one-year membership in NBAA and two registrations for the association's October convention in Las Vegas for $99.
NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD is investigating an operational error that occurred in FAA's Cleveland control center on June 23. NTSB said a Piper Navajo enroute from Elmira, N.Y. to Akron, Ohio and a Navy E-2 Hawkeye enroute from Norfolk, Va. to Wellsville, N.Y. passed within two miles laterally and 100 feet vertically at 16,000 feet 20 miles southwest of Bradford, Pa. The standard separation is five miles apart or 1,000 feet vertically. Neither aircraft reported taking evasive action and there were no injuries.
AEROSPATIALE Model ATR42 and ATR72 series airplanes (Docket No. 98-NM-146-AD) - adopts a new AD that requires one-time inspections to verify the correct shape of the stiffeners for the upper engine cowl and to detect wear of the aft upper fittings of the rear engine mounts, and corrective actions, if necessary. FAA said the actions specified by the AD are intended to prevent wear (scratches or grooving) of the aft upper fittings of the rear engine mount, and consequent reduced structural integrity of the engine mounts. FAA estimates about 152 aircraft on the U.S.
DE HAVILLAND Model DHC-100, -200 and -300 series airplanes (Docket No. 97-NM-04-AD) - revises an earlier proposed AD that would have required modification of the flight compartment door. The latest proposal would add repetitive inspections for wear of the flight compartment door hinges following modification, and repair or replacement of the hinges with new hinges, if necessary. The new proposal also revises the applicability of the existing AD.
RAYTHEON COMPANY named Robin L. Beard president and chief executive officer of the company's corporate operations in Washington, D.C. Beard served five terms in the U.S. House of Representatives as a congressman from Tennessee and also served as assistant secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Most recently he has been president of Raytheon International in Brussels, Belgium. He will continue to serve in that post while directing Raytheon's congressional liaison and other corporate activities in Washington.
CESSNA Model 750 Citation X series airplanes (Docket No. 98-NM-208-AD) - adopts a new AD that requires repetitive in-flight functional tests to verify proper operation of the secondary horizontal stabilizer pitch trim system, and repair, if necessary.
North Carolina officials are requesting proposals from parties interested in providing fixed-base services at a new general aviation airport. The Davidson County, N.C. Airport Authority is requesting proposals until 2 p.m. Sept. 17 for an FBO to provide services at the new Davidson County Airport and manage the leased and public facilities for the county. The airport is under construction, and the runway is expected to open for operations in December. The remainder of the airfield has a completion date of approximately April 1999.
LEARJET Model 60 airplanes (Docket No. 98-NM-227-AD) - adopts a new AD that requires repetitive measurements of the brake wear dimension between the housing subassembly and the pressure plate that is adjacent to the top pistons of the brake assembly; and follow-on corrective actions, if necessary. FAA said the AD was prompted by reports of abnormal (uneven) brake wear. The actions specified are intended to detect and repair an abnormal brake wear condition, which could result in loss of brake effectiveness and cause the airplane to leave the runway surface.
RON KENNETT, who was the director of The Royal Aeronautical Society for 10 years and has 42 years of aerospace experience, retired from the society July 31. He will continue to be involved in the aerospace industry as a non-executive director of Turner Meredith Limited, a public relations firm that organizes awards programs including the Aerospace Journalist of the Year and the Science, Engineering and Technology Student of the Year. The Royal Aeronautical Society named Keith Mans to succeed Kennett. Mans is a former Vulcan pilot and a member of Parliament.
Federal Aviation Administration last week required the replacement of the rigid fuel tube with a flexible fuel tube on more than 2,300 AlliedSignal TFE731 series turbofan engines. The airworthiness directive, published in the Aug. 11 Federal Register, replaces a directive that has been in place since 1993 calling for installation of a clamp assembly to support the rigid fuel tube. The agency said it has received reports of fuel leaks from a cracked fuel tube on engines in compliance with AD 93-10-
Pan Am International Flight Academy (PAIFA) will build a comprehensive training facility in Memphis, Tenn. to house simulator training for Federal Express' planned fleet of Ayres Loadmaster LM200 aircraft. PAIFA said Intelx Corp. will manufacture the Level D full flight simulator for the LM200 and Kohlman Systems Research will provide the simulator's flight data package.
INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF MACHINISTS AND AEROSPACE WORKERS ratified a three-year labor agreement Aug. 8 with Wyman-Gordon covering 625 bargaining unit employees in the company's Houston, Texas plant. The agreement provides for three percent wage increases in each year of the contract, along with introduction of "skill" premiums" for certain job classifications. The forgings and castings manufacturer said that with ratification of the new agreement, its largest facilities in Houston and Grafton, Mass.
Lachlan (Mac) Beatson, who has served as president of Bombardier's Learjet facility in Wichita for the past two years, announced his retirement last week and Bombardier named Learjet veteran Jim Ziegler to take over his duties.
AirNet Systems, Inc., which called off one planned acquisition in June, announced the acquisition of a Boston, Mass.-based express delivery management service last week. AirNet, headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, paid $2 million and 118,000 shares of its common stock for Mercury Business Services, Inc. Mercury is owned by Andrew Cooke and founder Peter G. Salisbury, both of whom will remain with AirNet in a dual sales and operations capacity.
HOUSE LEGISLATORS encouraged FAA to consider differences between repair stations that service transport category aircraft and those that provide maintenance for smaller or general aviation aircraft as the agency continues its rewrite of Part 145. Report language accompanying House legislation to reauthorize FAA programs recommended FAA "consider the creation of a distinct Federal Aviation Regulation to regulate repair stations that perform maintenance, repair, alteration or overhaul of aircraft under 14 C.F.R.
SYSTEM RESOURCES CORP., Burlington, Mass., won an FAA contract to provide a variety of information technology services, one of 14 contractors sharing in the $1.25 billion FAA Broad Information Technology Services contract. SRC said its contract has a potential value of $50 million. The new award covers provision of IT services in four functional areas: system management; systems maintenance and support; systems engineering and design; and information security systems. It also will include Year 2000 work and training.
AVIATION SALES COMPANY executed a definitive sales agreement with Primark Corp. to acquire Triad International Maintenance Company (TIMCO) for $70 million. TIMCO, the Greensboro, N.C.-based FAA repair station, specializes in overhauling widebody aircraft.
PAT ZERBE, manager of public relations for Raytheon Aircraft in Wichita, resigned from her post, effective. Aug. 21, to become director of media relations for Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Zerbe will report to Karen Tripp, vice president of business communications for Collins. Zerbe has held various public relations positions for Raytheon and the former Beech Aircraft over the past 14 years. Before that, she worked for the Salina Journal, a daily newspaper in Salina, Kan.
WOMEN IN AVIATION, INTERNATIONAL passed the 3,000-member mark with more than 100 new members joining during the Experimental Aircraft Association's AirVenture Oshkosh 1998. The organization, an outgrowth of the annual Women In Aviation Conference, has added about 1,000 new members a year since it was founded in January 1995.
A Miami firm that has concentrated on providing simulator training in large airline transports, announced plans last week to focus more attention on the corporate market following its acquisition by a Boston-based investment company.
PARADISE ISLAND AIRLINES, INC. (PIA) was sold to G-Air Holdings Corp., a Texas corporation that is the parent corporation of Gulfstream International Airlines, a Continental Connection carrier. PIA, which has a fleet of four 50-passenger de Havilland Dash 7 turboprops, will continue to provide daily service between airports in south Florida and Paradise Island in The Bahamas. Gulfstream operates a fleet of 25 Beech 1900s.
ALTHOUGH FAA only informally requested comments on its "Streamlined Administrative Action Program," the agency has received 1,900 comments on the controversial ticket program. One commenter, who says he has worked in the industry for 62 years, told FAA that "This issue has spawned more adverse reaction from the field than any previous CAA or FAA proposal...to my recollection." Industry associations continue to hear strong opposition from their members and most have urged FAA to drop the program.
The National Transportation Safety Board called on FAA last week to require "that all TPE331-powered airplanes be equipped with an engine ignition system that is activated automatically (without pilot input) following an engine flameout." The board's action follows reports of 25 incidents of ice-induced flameouts on TPE331-powered airplanes since 1974, many of which were dual-engine flameouts. NTSB has addressed this issue before and FAA has issued several airworthiness directives over the years designed to prevent engine flameouts in TPE331-powered aircraft.
ALLIEDSIGNAL INC. commenced a cash tender offer to buy all 224 million shares of AMP Inc., at a price of $44.50 per share, or approximately $10 billion.
Doughty Hanson&Co., a European-based private equity fund, plans to acquire the BTR Aerospace Group from the U.K.-based BTR plc for 510 million pounds ($831 million). The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close by the end of September. The acquired units are being renamed the Dunlop Standard Aerospace Group and Doughty Hanson said the companies in the group "are all among the market leaders in the niches they serve. They have experienced rapid and sustained growth under BTR."
