FAIRCHILD AEROSPACE named Joe Breeman senior vice president-customer support, responsible for the company's entire customer support organization worldwide. He most recently was vice president-engineering and fleet reliability for Northwest following a stint as the carrier's vice president-engineering, inspection and quality assurance. Before that he logged 20 years of engineering experience at Douglas Aircraft, where he was chief design engineer for the DC-9/MD80 family of aircraft.
DASSAULT Model Falcon 2000 series airplanes - adopts a new AD that requires revising the Airplane Flight Manual (AFM) to provide the flightcrew with procedures for monitoring and properly setting the fuel booster pump pressure and repetitive visual inspections of the fuel lines to detect fatigue cracking and fuel leakage. The AD also requires a one- time dye penetrant inspection of the fuel lines to detect cracking, replacement of any discrepant part with a new part and installation of new brackets between the pressure switch and fuel pump of the Nos.
Bavaria International Aircraft Leasing Co. ordered five Boeing 717 (formerly McDonnell Douglas MD-95) aircraft, the first orders for the 100- seat airplane since ValuJet, now AirTran, ordered 50 and took options on 50 more in October 1995. The Munich-based company will lease the airplanes when deliveries begin in late 1999 and into 2000.
VISIONAIRE CORP. will hold an open house for its new manufacturing facility in Ames, Iowa May 26. The 101,000-square-foot manufacturing facility and 15,000-square-foot test hangar will be used to assemble and test "the VisionAire Vantage, the world's first composite, single-engine business jet" for which the company said it has more than 100 orders.
TRACOR'S board of directors unanimously approved the tender offer by the North American Group of GEC-Marconi, which commenced at $40 per share for all the shares of Tracor, Inc. The subsidiary of General Electric Co. plc announced plans to acquire the Austin, Texas-based aerospace and defense contractor late last month.
India's sole private-sector aircraft maker, Taneja Aerospace and Aviation Ltd. (TAAL) signed a Memorandum-of-Understanding with the federally-run National Aerospace Laboratories (NAL) to design and develop a 15-seater turboprop aircraft for civilian use. Budgeted at about 1.1- billion Indian rupees (US$31.5-million), the project would be financed by the Indian government's Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and its Technology Development Board. The prototype is scheduled to be ready by late 1999.
FAA ADMINISTRATOR Jane Garvey will deliver the keynote address June 2 at the American Association of Airport Executives' 70th annual conference May 31-June 3 in Nashville, Tenn. Other speakers are House Transportation aviation subcommittee Chairman John Duncan (R-Tenn.), Continental Airlines Chairman Gordon Bethune and National Transportation Safety Board Chairman James Hall. For more information, call (703) 824-0504.
RICHARD SMALLWOOD, director-business on the board of management for BMW Rolls-Royce GmbH, left the German engine manufacturer last month to return to Rolls-Royce, plc where he will be senior vice president-customer business Europe, South and Central American and Customer Business Director for British Airways. Smallwood's former responsibilities at BMW Rolls- Royce will be handled by Dr. Klaus Nittinger, chairman of the board of management.
ROBERT SMITH is the new director of commercial completions at Dassault Falcon Jet's completion center in Little Rock, Ark. Smith previously served as director of operations for American Eurocopter in Dallas, and prior to that was director of operations for MBB Helicopters, West Chester, Pa. Smith reports to H.M. (Mike) Strange, vice president of industrial operations.
Corporate Angel Network, which began arranging free flights in 1981 to get patients to cancer treatment centers, celebrated its 10,000th flight last month. The passenger selected for the 10,000th flight was Melissa Henne, 43, of Richmond, Va. Diagnosed with breast cancer six years ago after the birth of her second child, Henne has been commuting one day a week for more than a year from Richmond to the Northern New Jersey Cancer Center in Hackensack, N.J., where she is undergoing therapy with an experimental treatment.
Air New Zealand sold the light aircraft operations and the coach touring business of its Mount Cook Group Ltd. subsidiary to Tourism Holdings Ltd., a major tourism operator in New Zealand, Australia and Fiji. The aviation assets transferred in the sale include three Pilatus Porters and six Cessna 185s, all of which are outfitted with skis; two de Havilland Twin Otters; three Britten-Norman Islanders; two Nomads; one Cessna 207, and two helicopters, a Boelkow Bk117 and an Aerospatiale AS 350B.
The $1.5 billion Advanced Automation System program, which the Transportation Department Inspector General termed a "total loss," failed because of an overly ambitious plan and poor oversight by FAA, according to the IG's report on the procurement effort (BA, April 27/187).
The Federal Aviation Administration, which failed to achieve industry consensus when it attempted a major rewrite of flight and duty time regulations two and one-half years ago, plans to revisit the matter and concentrate on the nettlesome issue of reserve status, that is, when pilots are expected to be "on call" and ready to fly if summoned to duty.
CHRYSLER PENTASTAR AVIATION, Detroit, Mich., installed Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning Systems (EGPWS) in both Gulfstream IV and a Gulfstream IV-SP business jets. The company said it expected to receive supplemental type certification from FAA in April for G-IV and in June for the G-IV-SP. Don White, vice president of maintenance for Pentastar, said the company has installed 15 EGPWS systems with 10 more scheduled by the end of 1998.
ROBERT F. CLOSSIN was named director of interior engineering at Dassault Falcon Jet's (DFJ) completion center in Little Rock, Ark. Clossin has 15 years of structural, mechanical and interior engineering experience. He was chief of interior engineering at Learjet in Wichita, Kan., director of structural engineering with K-C Aviation, in Dallas, manager of structural engineering at Midcoast Aviation, St. Louis, and a structures engineer with Cessna Aircraft.
HEXCEL CORP., a major manufacturer of composite materials and carbon fibers for the aerospace market, is expanding into the construction industry. Hexcel and Sika Finanz AG announced formation of "a global alliance to develop and market composite systems for the construction industry." Initial applications will focus on strengthening and repairing existing structures using composite materials.
VISIONAIRE CORP., St. Louis, Mo., manufacturer of the VisionAire Vantage business jet, selected Norton Performance Plastics, Corp., Ravenna, Ohio to supply the radome for the new aircraft. Deliveries are scheduled to begin in December and VisionAire said the contract calls for delivery of radomes for 326 aircraft.
WESTERN MICHIGAN UNIVERSITY recently took delivery of 10 new Cessna 172R Skyhawks, bringing their total to 18 units. The flight training program at WMU has 500 students and is expanding rapidly due to recent contracts signed with British Airways and Air Lingus for ab initio training.
AVIONS PIERRE ROBIN Model R3000/160 airplanes (Docket 97-CE-88-AD) - adopts a new AD applicable to all Model R3000/16 airplanes, which requires replacing the top bolts in the front wheel fork assembly and the top bolts attaching the front landing gear to the engine mount. The AD, which resulted from mandatory continuing airworthiness information issued by the French airworthiness authority, is designed to prevent collapse of the nose landing gear.
THE FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION issued an advisory circular concerning certification of agricultural aircraft. The AC, 21.25-1, Issuance of Type Certificate: Restricted Category Agricultural Airplanes, provides information and guidance for obtaining a type certificate in the restricted category for small, single-engine piston and turbo-propeller driven airplanes, which will be used for agricultural special purpose operations.
RTS REWORK, INC., Fort Worth, Texas, installed the equipment and established a new department at its facility to begin a new Pratt&Whitney Canada-approved insulation blanket restoration process. The repair procedure used by RTS repairs cracked or torn sections of blanket foil by applying patches of new foil and attaching it using tack welding. Voids in the blanket's interior are filled with clean fiber from new blanket material. The repairs are being done on all series of P&W Canada PT6A, JT8D and PW100 turbine engines.
SOUTHWEST AIRLINES opened a new $10 million flight operations training center adjacent to the airline's headquarters in Dallas. The 110,000- square-foot center houses five Boeing 737s, including a 737-700 equipped with a Head Up Guidance System. "Research for this facility was gleaned from visiting training centers all over the world, and the best ideas are incorporated into this gem of a building," said Paul Sterbenz, Southwest's vice president of flight operations.
TRANSPORT CANADA approved an increase in inspection intervals for the de Havilland DHC-8 regional airliner. The interval for "A" checks, (detailed visual inspection and routine maintenance) increases from 400 hours time- in-service to 500 hours TIS, and from 4,000 flight hours to 5,000 flight hours for a "C" check (a more extensive inspection, including functional checks and servicing). The interval for "D" checks (a very detailed inspection and upgrade procedure) remains at 40,000 flight cycles.
