A recently installed composite tail rotor, portions of which separated from a Colgate-Palmolive Eurocopter BK-117 as the aircraft lifted off Tuesday from New York's 60th St. Heliport, is the initial focus of a National Transportation Safety Board investigation into the accident that claimed the life of a senior executive of the consumer products company and injured three others.
A group of four aviation veterans who formerly worked together at K-C Aviation, have formed a corporate aircraft refurbishment and retrofit company in McKinney, Texas and are attempting to reduce the cost of such services by outsourcing much of the work to outside vendors.
ALF502 and LF507 series turbofan engines (Docket No. 97- ANE-36; Amdt. 39-9955; AD 97-05-11) - supersedes an existing AD applicable to ALF502R series engines that requires initial and repetitive inspections of the oil system chip detectors and oil filter bypass valve and optional installation of an improved oil filter bypass valve, to ensure the integrity of the reduction gear system and over-speed protection system.
Bombardier Aerospace and Lufthansa's maintenance service subsidiary, Lufthansa Technik AG (LTAG), signed an agreement April 18 to create a new technical center to service Bombardier business jets in Europe. The new joint venture, Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services GmbH, will be based at Berlin's Schoenefeld Airport to carry out the maintenance, repair and overhaul of the Learjet 31, 35, 36, 45, 55 and 60 models; Canadair's Challenger 600, 601 and 604 models; and the long-range Bombardier Global Express aircraft.
Federal Aviation Administration revoked the air carrier certificate of Target Airways for alleged record-keeping violations. The Reno, Nevada- based charter carrier was flying as Great American Airways with nine DC-9s. FAA said it uncovered numerous falsifications of flight and duty time records, training records, and load manifest documents. FAA said the Regional Airline Safety Inspection Program, "triggered by a whistleblower's complaints," led to the findings.
TAC Air, the Texarkana aviation division of Truman Arnold Companies, realigned its management team, naming James McPhaul vice president and head of the division. McPhaul, most recently president and general manager of Jackson Hole Aviation (BA, April 14/164), spent eight years in management positions with AMR Combs and American Airlines. He will direct TAC Air's chain of seven fixed-base operations and charter business. Brian Harris, a TAC pilot from 1988 to 1994, returned to the company as director of operations.
GA TEAM 2000, the national initiative to boost the student pilot population, received about 250 calls on its 1-888-BE-A-PILOT line in the first few days the toll-free number was up and running.Organizers for the national campaign established the line as an information source for prospective student pilots. More than 900 flight schools signed up to participate in the program after GA Team 2000 organizers mailed certified letters to some 5,000 flight schools and fixed-base operators detailing the program (BA, March 24/131).
NATIONAL BUSINESS AIRCRAFT ASSOCIATION will host a second reception and meeting for the business aviation community next month in Dallas, Texas. The May 22 event, which will be held in the K-C Aviation hangar at Love Field, will include briefings by NBAA President Jack Olcott and NBAA senior staff on industry issues including air traffic control user fees, FAA reform, NBAA's 50th anniversary celebration in Dallas this fall and the association's Travel$ense program. The first reception, held April 3 in San Jose, Calif., drew 170 attendees.
New Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards for methylene chloride - a primary component in aircraft paint stripper - are unworkable, are imposing unnecessary costs on the aircraft paint industry and should be rescinded, Stevens Aviation Chief Executive Kurt Herwald told a House congressional panel last week.
American Eagle ordered 12 ATR 72-210 aircraft in a deal that Aero International (Regional) valued at more than $200 million. AI(R), the consortium of Aerospatiale, Alenia and British Aerospace, will ship the first ATR 72-210A to American Eagle in July and continue deliveries through May 1998. The contract will bring the total number of ATRs ordered by American Eagle to 45 ATR 72s and 46 ATR 42s. The ATR 72-210A is part of the new generation of ATR models.
ROTEX HELICOPTER AG of Balzer, Liechtenstein, took delivery of a Kaman Aerospace K-Max "aerial truck" helicopter. Rotex will use the helicopter for its logging and construction operations in France, Germany, Switzerland, Italy and other European countries.
LOCKHEED MARTIN Chairman and Chief Executive Norman Augustine will step down as CEO Aug. 1, but continue as chairman of the board of directors, the company announced Friday. Augustine has headed Lockheed Martin as chairman and CEO since January 1996 and previously was vice chairman and president. Before the Lockheed and Martin Marietta merger in March 1995, he was CEO and chairman of Martin Marietta. Augustine joined Martin Marietta in 1977 as vice president of aerospace technical operations.
TERRY HIBLER was named director-regional airline marketing for FlightSafety International. Hibler is a former airline captain with 16,000 hours of flight time and 10 type ratings.
ROBERT RIETH joined Wyle Laboratories as chief executive officer. Rieth formerly served as vice president, business/corporate development for Teledyne, Inc. and earlier served as group executive for the company's Aerospace Group.
Raytheon Aircraft received an order from Smithers, British Columbia operator Central Mountain Air for 10 Beech 1900Ds and options for up to 10 more of the regional aircraft. The Wichita, Kan. manufacturer valued the initial contract, including aircraft, training, spares and technical publications, at about $50 million. Delivery of the first two aircraft is scheduled this month with the remaining eight to be delivered through November. Central Mountain Air, which already operates five Beech 1900s in scheduled service, will fly the aircraft in Air Canada colors.
Echoing the sentiments of his counterpart in the House, Senate transportation appropriations subcommittee Chairman Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) last week suggested that the Federal Aviation Administration has not shown itself capable of collecting the $300 million in new user fees the Clinton administration proposed for fiscal 1998 (BA, Feb. 10/60). At a hearing on aviation safety and security, Shelby noted that the overflight fees signed into law on Sept.
RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT MONTEK COMPANY in Salt Lake City, Utah, signed a contract with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation to provide an aircraft precision landing system for Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wis. Developed by Montek and ARINC, the Model DIAS-3100 Local Area Augmentation System works with global positioning system satellites to provide precision landing guidance signals to aircraft 20 to 30 miles from the airport.
Robert H. Jenkins, president and chief executive officer of Sundstrand Corp., was elected to the additional position of chairman of the board, the company announced last week following its annual meeting. Jenkins succeeds Don R. O'Hare, 74, who had come out of retirement to replace Harry Stonecipher, who went to McDonnell Douglas. O'Hare retired Tuesday after 46 years with the Rockford, Ill., company. He assumed the post of chairman while it searched for a permanent successor.
The National Business Aircraft Association, reacting quickly to a front page article in Friday's Wall Street Journal, charged that the newspaper mischaracterized the safety record of business aviation. The article said "the reality of corporate aviation is far less reassuring than its image." Citing statistics prepared by independent safety consultant Robert E. Breiling Associates of Boca Raton, Fla., the article said the fatal accident rate for corporate jets was nearly twice that of scheduled major airlines for the six-year period 1991-1996.
Officials of Mooney Aircraft Corp., the Kerrville, Texas manufacturer of single-engine aircraft, hope to conclude a recapitalization of the company this summer that will result in increasing the number of shareholders and providing the financial support necessary to meet the company's expansion needs.
DHC-6 series airplanes (Docket No. 91-CE-87-AD) - proposes to revise an earlier proposal to supersede AD 80-13-11 R2. That AD requires repetitive inspection of the elevator, flap, aileron and rudder control rods for cracks, replacement of any cracked rod and installation of rod sleeves. The previous proposal would have required replacing the elevator trim and elevator/flap interconnect rods, the aileron control rods, the elevator control rods and the rudder control rods and repetitively inspecting the rods at certain intervals.
DHC-6 series airplanes that do not have wing strut Modification 6/1581 incorporated (Docket No. 93-CE-45-AD; Amdt. 39-9984; AD 97-07-10) - requires inspection of the wing strut for cracks or damage, replacement of cracked or damaged wing struts and incorporation of Modification 6/1581 to prevent future chafing damage. This AD results from several reports of wing strut damage caused by the upper fairing rubbing against the wing strut.
The Jet Aviation Group announced what it termed "excellent results" for 1996, with consolidated net sales of 387.3 million Swiss francs ($313 million in U.S. dollars), an increase of 13.1 percent over the previous year. Consolidated net income was up 11.5 percent to 10.4 million Swiss francs, or $8.45 million.
A BILL introduced in Congress last week calls for the implementation of Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association's Linked Financing concept, which would tie the aviation excise taxes to FAA's funding needs. AOPA developed the concept last year as an alternate to proposed user fees. AOPA President Phil Boyer said Linked Financing is "a better alternative. It keeps the current aviation funding mechanism...which has proven to be fair and efficient for almost three decades." The linked financing concept was first introduced in Congress by former Rep. Jim Lightfoot (R-Iowa).
HP137 Mk1, Series 200 and Models 3101 and 3201 airplanes (Docket No. 95-CE-10-AD; Amdt. 39-9985; AD 97-07-11) - supersedes AD 81-20- 01, which requires repetitive inspections of the nose landing gear actuator support structure and the front pressure bulkhead for cracks on HP137 Mk1 and Series 200 airplanes, and replacement of any cracked part.
