ATLANTIC COAST AIRLINES successfully completed a $50 million convertible debt offering. The proceeds will help finance the acquisition of the company's regional jet fleet, allow the repurchase of 1.46 million shares of the company's common stock from British Aerospace, and allow the retirement of higher interest debt. The underwriters of the offering, Alex Brown&Sons and Robinson-Humphrey Co., have 30 days to place up to $7.5 million of the notes with institutional holders.
LUFTHANSA TECHNIK AG's Irish maintenance and repair subsidiary, Lufthansa Shannon Turbine Technologies (LSTT), signed a five-year exclusive agreement with Braathens S.A.F.E. to repair CFM56-3 combustor assemblies. The decision comes after 12 months of testing by Braathens of LSTT's services.
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION, which in May declined to complete a full cost-benefit analysis on new icing detection requirements for the Embraer Brasilia because the requirements were "in the interest of maintaining safe aircraft" (BA, May 19/223), is at it again. Now FAA claims a full cost- benefit analysis is unnecessary on an airworthiness directive for new fan guards on CF700 series engines that is expected to affect more than 400 engines at a cost of more than $17 million.
STEPHEN LYNCH was named vice president-international special mission Hawker deliveries for Raytheon Aircraft. Lynch, who has 27 years of aviation experience, most recently was production director, responsible for Hawker 800XP, Hawker 1000 and U-125A aircraft assembly in the United Kingdom.
GULFSTREAM AEROSPACE delivered the first Gulfstream IV-SP completed at its Brunswick, Ga., completion center to Executive Jet International June 24. The Brunswick facility is working exclusively on completions of G-IV-SPs destined for the Gulfstream Shares fractional aircraft ownership program managed by Executive Jet. The Brunswick completion center expects to complete five to six aircraft a year.
Coltec Industries completed the acquisition of AMI Industries, a manufacturer of flight attendant and cockpit seats for commercial aircraft. AMI, headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colo., is expected to have 1997 revenues approaching $30 million, according to Coltec.
AMOCO CORPORATION is seeking a partner to help it preserve a Lockheed Super G Constellation that had been displayed atop a restaurant in Pennsylvania for the past 30 years. The aircraft, located in Penndel in Bucks County, will be disassembled this week to permit construction of an Amoco station on the site of the closed restaurant. "We recognize the historical significance of the Super G Constellation as well as the local sentiment surrounding this particular plane," said David A. MacDonald, Amoco's property development manager.
The Nov. 19 runway collision at Quincy, Ill., between a King Air 90 that was taking off and a Great Lakes Aviation/United Express Beech 1900 on its landing roll was due to "the failure of the pilots in the King Air A90 to effectively monitor the common traffic advisory radio frequency or to properly scan for traffic, resulting in their commencing a takeoff roll when the Beech 1900C was landing on an intersecting runway," the National Transportation Safety Board said last week.
In a decision that encouraged industry officials, the European Joint Aviation Authorities last week approved a 180-minute extended-range, twin- engine operations (ETOPS) threshold for business jets flown commercially, provided they meet certain conditions. JAA originally considered a 120- minute ETOPS limitation in a proposal that drew strong opposition from the Federal Aviation Administration and the General Aviation Manufacturers Association.
AIRPORT SYSTEMS INTERNATIONAL, Overland Park, Kan., won a contract valued at approximately $2.3 million for installation of navigational aids at the Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport under construction in Highfill, Ark. The contract calls for delivering, installing and commissioning two instrument landing systems consisting of localizers, glideslopes and distance measuring equipment, as well as delivery and installation of two approach lighting systems, an automated weather observation system and runway visual range equipment.
GA TEAM 2000 is expanding its advertising campaign to a four-week run of its "Stop Dreaming, Start Flying" television commercial on targeted cable networks beginning July 7. The learn-to-fly promotional effort attracted between 120 and 150 calls a day while the commercials aired in the initial two-week trial runs, and about 30 calls a day when the commercials were not running.
THE AEROSPACE MERGER EXPRESS kept rolling last week as the Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman boards of directors agreed to combine the companies in an $11.6 billion transaction that will result in a $37 billion conglomerate with nearly 230,000 employees, and Boeing won Federal Trade Commission approval to proceed with its acquisition of McDonnell Douglas. See related article below.
AUSTRALIAN MINISTRY OF DEFENSE signed a $600 million contract with Kaman Aerospace International for 11 SH-2G(A) Super Seasprite helicopters for the Royal Australian Navy. Kaman previously signed a $185 million Seasprite contract with New Zealand (BA, June 30/292). In both cases the Seasprite was selected over the GKN Westland Super Lynx.
Models 1900, 1900C, 1900D airplanes (Docket No. 97-CE-11-AD) - proposes to require fabricating and installing a placard that restricts the use of the forward and aft vent blower assemblies to only the "OFF" or "HIGH" position. The proposed AD also would require incorporating a modification that would replace the bearing on the vent blower assemblies with improved design bearings, and provide thermal protection for the vent blowers, as applicable. Incorporating the proposed modification would eliminate the need for the placard.
Mercury Air Group, the Los Angeles-based chain of fixed-base operations, said it will take a special charge against earnings "in the range of five to seven cents per share on a fully diluted basis" due to a recent bankruptcy filing by Sun Jet International, Inc., and its parent company, Sun Jet Holdings Corp., located in Clearwater, Fla.
ANDRES ZELLWEGER joined Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University as dean of graduate programs and research. Zellweger previously had a 23 year career with the Federal Aviation Administration, most recently serving as director of aviation research.
JACK THOMPSON, who had been director of corporate marketing for FlightCom of Florida, joined the Flight Safety Foundation last month as deputy director of technical programs. Thompson previously was vice president of the National Air Transportation Association. FSF, the international aviation safety organization that provides safety information, audits and analyses, is located at 601 Madison St., Suite 300, Alexandria, Va. 22314.
DAC INTERNATIONAL, INC. and Universal Avionics Systems Corp. entered into an agreement with Skyways AB of Sweden to retrofit its Saab 340A/B and Fokker 50 fleet with Universal Avionics' UNS-1K GPS-based flight management systems. The new avionics are designed to permit the airline's fleet to comply with the forthcoming Eurocontrol Standard on Area Navigation mandated after Jan. 29, 1998.
GREAT LAKES AVIATION, which suspended operations in May under pressure from FAA, named Jeffery L. Redlin director of maintenance. Redlin has 16 years experience in airline maintenance including positions at Continental Express, Mahalo Air, Maverick Airways and InterAir in Zimbabwe, Africa. Great Lakes, which subsequently resumed limited service (BA, June 9/258), also named Chester H. Hooper director of cost control and quality assurance oversight. He had previously been with Great Lakes from mid-1994 to mid- 1995 as executive vice president-operations.
Gulfstream Aerospace Corp., which announced a 5,000-nautical-mile Gulfstream V business jet development program more than five and one-half years ago (BA, Nov. 4, 1991/181), delivered the first completed production airplane last week to publishing magnate Walter Annenberg. The aircraft delivered July 1, Serial No. 507 and painted white with gold trim, is a 6,500-nm airplane capable of nonstop flights such as Tokyo-New York and Los Angeles-Moscow. Annenberg's aircraft will be based in a new hangar at the New Castle County Airport in Delaware.
Discovery of cracks in the center pressure bulkhead of Canadair Regional Jets touched off a fleet-wide inspection late last month, and Canadian aircraft manufacturer Bombardier dispatched 80 technicians to make repairs to aircraft found with cracks. The problem was discovered at Skywest Airlines after a drop in pressurization in one aircraft from the normal 8.3 psi to 7.6 psi. Transport Canada issued an airworthiness directive calling for inspections by all RJ operators within 10 flight hours. FAA issued an AD last Monday.
TULSAIR BEECHCRAFT celebrated its 50th anniversary as a Phillips 66 Aviation branded fixed-base operation. Tulsair, which became a Phillips 66 dealer two years after it opened in 1945, is only the second FBO to reach the 50-year mark with Phillips 66, Phillips officials said. The FBO has three jet fuel and two aviation gasoline refuelers, six hangar facilities and a separate maintenance hangar. Operators of 75 aircraft base their aircraft at the FBO.
SIMCOM INTERNATIONAL plans to equip all of its simulators with Bendix/King KLN 90B global positioning system units. "GPS continues to become the dominant navigation source for general aviation," said Simcom President Walter David. "It is important that our simulators reflect the typical general aviation twin and turbine panel and that our customers have the opportunity to refresh their skills with prevailing technology." Simcom, based in Orlando, Fla.
NAV CANADA opened an air traffic control tower with current-technology equipment in Quebec City's Jean Lesage International Airport. Nav Canada also set up a new flight information center in Quebec City.
