Attorney Carl Vogt, who served as chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, was elected to chair the American Bar Association's Forum on Air and Space Law, beginning next summer. Vogt, a pilot who had won widespread support from the aviation industry for nomination as FAA Administrator before President Clinton chose Jane Garvey for that post (BA, April 7/151), will take over as chairman of the Forum on Air and Space Law in August.
The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee last week approved by voice vote H.R.2626, which provides relief to operators from certain provisions of the Pilot Records Improvement Act (PRIA) (BA, Oct. 13/160). The bill, which cleared the aviation subcommittee earlier last month (BA, Oct. 26/177), permits on-demand operators to hire, train and allow pilots to fly passengers for a 90-day period while collecting background information required under PRIA.
Agreeing with her predecessor that substantial improvements in air carrier safety will be necessary to avoid unacceptably high numbers of accidents as air traffic volume grows sharply in the next decade, FAA Administrator Jane Garvey said last week that achieving new safety goals will require a new era of government/industry collaboration.
RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT promoted Jackson Hulsey to vice president-engineering. Hulsey, who has served as acting leader of engineering since March 1997, will be responsible for all areas of engineering, including program engineering, development/research, product support services, preliminary design, test and support and technology and design services. He joined the company in 1983 as a senior engineer-frame design and was promoted into positions of increasing responsibility within the engineering organization.
Boeing Business Jets, which formally entered the business jet market in July 1996 with an extended-range corporate BBJ version of its 737-700 airliner (BA, July 8, 1996/13), has aligned itself with Executive Jet to become the latest manufacturer to enter the fractional ownership fray, Boeing Business Jets and Executive Jet officials announced last week in New York City. "The NetJets fractional ownership program is a key strategic element in the BBJ marketing plan," said Boeing Business Jets President Borge Boeskov.
SAMSUNG AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES received a letter of intent from China's Hainan International Aviation Tourist Estate Co. for three Samsung-Bell 427 helicopters. Samsung and Bell Helicopter Textron are jointly developing the eight-seat, light twin-engine helicopter. Samsung said the latest order brings the 427 backlog to 18 firm orders. The helicopter is slated to begin test flights in 1998 with delivery in 1999.
FAA, Department of Defense and industry officials are scheduled to meet Nov. 4 to discuss the U.S. position on increasing the area over the North Atlantic where reduced vertical separation minimum (RVSM) standards apply. Airline and business jet operators currently must meet RVSM standards to fly between FL330 and FL370 over the North Atlantic and those levels are expected to be eventually expanded to FL280 and FL410. U.S. officials will take its position to the international North Atlantic Implementation Managers Group meeting Dec.
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION appointed Tom Kraft and Robert Eastin to its national resource specialist team, which provides experts to advise industry, government agencies and international aviation authorities. Kraft, who worked for Boeing, will be responsible for aeronautical communications and Eastin, who worked for McDonnell Douglas, will advise on fracture mechanics, fatigue and damage tolerance.
FLIGHTSAFETY INTERNATIONAL received certification for its new Citation V Ultra full-flight simulator installed at the Citation learning center in Wichita. The simulator, which is initially certified at Level C, is built to Level D standards with a VITAL ChromaView visual system providing bright daylight scenes. The Citation learning center contains a ranges of full flight simulators for Citations from the CitationJet to the Citation X.
ON-DEMAND AIR CHARTER OPERATORS moved a step forward toward receiving relief from new pilot record-sharing requirements after the House aviation subcommittee last week unanimously approved legislation that makes "technical corrections" to the Pilot Records Improvement Act (BA, Oct. 13/160).The legislation, H.R.2626, would permit charter operators to hire pilots and allow them to fly passengers for 90 days while the required background records are collected. H.R.2626 also would allow scheduled carriers to hire and train pilots while gathering the records.
SIMUFLITE TRAINING INTERNATIONAL is offering a two-day, non-technical course on Human Factors in Aircraft Maintenance aimed at providing methods for reducing maintenance-related errors. The training will be offered through an agreement with Grey Owl Aviation Consultants, a Canadian company that provides training and services for maintenance departments. SimuFlite will provide the course at its center in Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport or at a client's location. For more information, contact SimuFlite at (800) 527-2463.
HUGHES ELECTRONICS CORP. Vice Chairman Michael Smith was elected chairman and chief executive officer. Smith, the brother of GM Chairman John Smith Jr., replaces C. Michael Armstrong, who resigned to become chairman of AT&T Corp. after five years as Hughes' CEO. In addition, Charles Noski was elected president. He returns to Hughes after leaving the company a month ago to become chief financial officer of United Technologies Corp. Steven Dorfman will replace Smith as vice chairman and was elected to the Hughes board of directors.
Saab Aircraft AB of Sweden is considering whether to cease production of the Saab 340 and Saab 2000 regional turboprops and does not believe development of a new regional aircraft is an option for it, the company said last week. Fokker, Europe's only other unaligned producer of regional transports, already has ceased production. "The manufacturing of regional- jet aircraft has extensive over-capacity," Saab said. "In the competition for the 50-seat segment, regional-jet aircraft have weakened the position of [the] Saab 2000.
MCCARRAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT opened a new runway for air carrier use this month. Runway 1L/19R, formerly used by light aircraft, has been upgraded to a full size runway to accommodate large transport aircraft.
Bombardier Business Aircraft (BBA) chose Target Aviation, Sao Paulo, Brazil, to act as that country's Learjet Authorized Services Facility, and plans to add Challenger services to Target's repertoire in the near future. "Target Aviation has been an ally in the sale of Learjet and Challenger business jets in Brazil for two years," said Dave Orcutt, BBA's vice president and general manager for customer support. "We are pleased to bring this partnership a step further with the addition of maintenance services for all Learjet products."
"Substantially increased shipments" in the general aviation market helped boost Raytheon Aircraft's operating income by 85 percent in the third quarter of 1997 with a 19 percent increase in sales, the Wichita manufacturer reported this month. Raytheon Aircraft achieved record third quarter sales and operating income of $594 million and $61 million, respectively. This compares with 1996 third quarter sales and operating income of $498 million and $33 million, respectively. For the nine months ending Sept.
The General Aviation Action Plan Coalition, comprising 15 general aviation industry associations, this month urged Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) to take quick action on confirmation of George Donohue as the next FAA deputy administrator. Donohue, currently FAA's associate administrator for research and acquisitions, was nominated for the position in late June, but the Senate Commerce Committee has yet to schedule a confirmation hearing.
SEVERAL AVIATION ORGANIZATIONS and the National Association of Counties last week agreed to join efforts to fight a proposal to give the Federal Communications Commission authority to preempt state or local zoning laws to facilitate rapid construction of new television broadcast towers (BA, Oct. 6/145). The organizations, which met at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Expo '97 in Orlando, Fla., plan to lobby FCC and Congress to block the proposal. AOPA said the proposal could pose a serious threat to aviation safety.
The City of Chicago this month began to solicit "statements of interest" for fixed-base operations at Merrill C. Meigs Field, Chicago, Ill. The solicitation comes more than eight months after the city reopened Meigs Field, with Signature Flight Support providing FBO services there in the interim. The city reiterated, however, that it plans to close Meigs permanently on Feb.
U.S. general aviation manufacturers already surpassed the record billings of $3.12 billion for all of 1996, reporting billings of $3.19 billion in the first nine months of 1997, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association announced Friday. Deliveries through the first three quarters of 1997 jumped to 954 units, a 30.7 percent improvement from the same time period in 1996. "This is turning out to be a great year for general aviation," said GAMA President Ed Bolen.
SEN. BILL FRIST (R-Tenn.), who placed a hold on the nomination of George Donohue as FAA deputy administrator (BA, Oct. 13/157), is expected to lift the hold this week. Frist requested the hold on Donohue after Transportation Secretary Rodney Slater did not reply to his request for slots for carriers at two high-density airports. Commerce Committee staff members have indicated they did not see any problems at this point with the Donohue nomination, but action on confirmation likely will be delayed until January. See article below.
BILL MAGYAR was named manager of FlightSafety International's Raytheon Aircraft maintenance technician learning center in Wichita. Magyar previously was director of maintenance training at FlightSafety's Greater Philadelphia/Wilmington learning center.
DAC INTERNATIONAL was selected to provide sales and marketing services for Securaplane Technologies of Tucson, Ariz. Securaplane designs and manufactures wireless aircraft smoke detection/reporting equipment, emergency power systems, main aircraft battery chargers and electronic aircraft security systems. DAC International is a subsidiary of Banner Aerospace.
Model DHC-8-100, -200 and -300 series airplanes (Docket No. 97-NM-120-AD) - proposes to require repetitive inspections of certain refuel/defuel tube assemblies in the engine nacelles for fuel leakage and corrective action, if necessary. It also would require eventual modification of all tube assemblies, which would terminate the repetitive inspections. This proposal is prompted by issuance of mandatory continuing airworthiness information by a foreign civil airworthiness authority.
Model DHC-8-100, -200, and -300 series airplanes (Docket No. 97-NM-63-AD; Amdt. 39-10147; AD 97-20-10) - requires modification of the attitude and heading reference systems (AHRS). This amendment is prompted by a report of loss of power to both AHRSs during flight due to a faulty terminal block to which the signal ground for the AHRSs are connected. The actions specified by this AD are intended to prevent simultaneous power loss to both AHRSs, which could reduce controllability of the airplane.
