ALLAN BERGQUIST was appointed vice president, sales&marketing for Howmet Corporation. Bergquist formerly was director, marketing for AlliedSignal Aerospace's Environmental Control Systems Business unit.
CESSNA AIRCRAFT'S backlog for its line of business jets continues to grow. Chairman Russ Meyer said the company now has orders for 98 Citation Excels, an increase of 10 units in less than two months since the No. 1 aircraft's first flight (BA, March 4/102). Excel deliveries are not scheduled to begin until the end of 1997 and by then Meyer expects to have orders for 125 or 130 units of the new model.
Sullivan Higdon&Sink (SHS), the Wichita, Kan. advertising and public relations agency that specializes in aviation accounts, is relocating to new quarters in Wichita today. The agency's 60 employees are moving into a newly renovated, two-story former factory at 255 North Mead that the company acquired last year. HOK, the nationally recognized, St. Louis- based architecture and interior design firm that designed the Baltimore Orioles Camden Yards stadium, oversaw the redesign of the former factory.
RAYTHEON CORPORATE JETS, INC., the British subsidiary of Raytheon Aircraft Company, named Ian Atkinson manager of the Hawker Service Center at Chester in North Wales. Atkinson previously was responsible for engineering services for Metro Business Aviation, based at Heathrow Airport. In addition, he has served as general manager of London Business Aviation, British Aerospace's fixed-base operation in Hatfield.
PHILADELPHIA'S Request For Proposals (RFP) to operate fixed-base operations at Philadelphia International Airport and North Philadelphia Airport drew lots of interest from the FBO community, but apparently not many bids. The incumbent, Atlantic Aviation, submitted a bid and Signature Flight Support teamed up with Dallas Airmotive to offer a proposal under which the latter would establish an aircraft maintenance facility at North Philadelphia while Signature would provide fueling services.
Federal Aviation Administration last month changed its certification requirements for Part 23 aircraft to allow alternatives to fuel pressure indicators on pump-fed engines. FAA previously required a fuel pressure indicator - which provides continuous fuel pressure readings and warns pilots of potential fuel system problems - for pump-fed engines on normal, utility, acrobatic, and commuter category airplanes.
Raytheon Aircraft Company selected Smiths Industries Aerospace to supply the cockpit instrument package and other avionics for its Beech MkII primary trainer for the U.S. Air Force and Navy Joint Primary Aircraft Training System. The program award, which Smiths Industries estimated could be worth more than $100 million over the life of the contract, includes avionics for the twin-cockpit aircraft with 12 multifunction electronic display units using flat panel active matrix liquid crystal displays.
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION will install new equipment, including a power conditioning unit and a standby engine generator, at St. Louis Lambert Field to eliminate recent equipment outages, the agency said last week. The power conditioning unit will "condition" raw commercial power, removing the fluctuations that can cause air traffic control systems to experience problems, and the generator will provide an added measure of safety, FAA said.
About a year after acquiring Textron Lycoming's gas turbine engine business, AlliedSignal Engines has made a $15 million commitment to dramatically improve reliability and slash costs in one of Lycoming's historically troubled programs - the LT101 turboshaft engine family.
The fierce, four-year competition between two fixed-base operations on the Jackson Hole, Wyo. Airport is scheduled to end Wednesday as the owners of the two operations formally merge their businesses. Jackson Hole Aviation, owned by Jeff Brown, and Satellite Aero, Inc., owned by Al Hilde, Jr., are merging their FBOs into one entity to be known as Jackson Hole Aviation, LLC, a Western FBO.
President Clinton, unveiling his Parks For Tomorrow initiative as part of last week's Earth Day celebration, called the reduction in aircraft noise over national parks one of the centerpiece actions of the initiative. Clinton said that the secretaries of Interior and Transportation will initiate rulemaking to reduce noise from overflights in the Grand Canyon within the year and also will address other "priority parks" including Rocky Mountain National Park.
Aaron C. Hilkemann, 38, a former banking industry executive, was named executive vice president and chief operating officer of Duncan Aviation, Inc., Lincoln, Neb. Hilkemann had been vice president and director of financial operations for FirsTier Financial, Inc. of Omaha until last year, when that company reduced its work force following a merger. He joined Duncan part time last fall and was named chief financial officer for Duncan Enterprises, which comprises a range of different businesses, at the start of the year.
RON VINSON was promoted to assistant director of maintenance training standards for FlightSafety International. Vinson, previously manager of technical standards, has been with FlightSafety for 16 years.
CERTIFICATION of Cessna's top-of-the-line Citation X is getting close. Meyer said test pilots finally were able to find the type of natural icing conditions necessary to satisfy FAA icing certification requirements. The last major step in the certification process is the 150-hour function and reliability regimen, which officials hope to begin this week and complete in May.
Warning that the FAA reform legislation introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) would have "absolutely devastating consequences to our industry," Cessna Chairman Russ Meyer urged attendees at last week's National Air Transportation Association convention to lobby their elected representatives to oppose the bill.
Grimes Aerospace, which named Michael DuBose president last fall after the departure of Paul Gralnick (BA, Oct. 23/176), added the titles of chairman and chief executive to DuBose this month. DuBose joined the Columbus, Ohio manufacturer of aircraft lighting, fluid control and computer microprocessor-based avionics systems in early 1995 as senior vice president and chief financial officer. Before that, he held management positions with SAI Corp., Rockford Corp., Dalmo Victor, Inc., General Instrument and General Electric.
NEW PIPER AIRCRAFT appointed two new international distributors - Hangar Uno S.A. in Argentina and ITC-Aerospace, Inc. in Japan. Hangar Uno, located at Aeropuerto International Don Torcuato in Buenos Aires, will provide complete Piper service. The company, established in 1987 as a helicopter sales and service facility, will open an expanded facility in the fall.
A repair station owner in Augusta, Kan., was convicted of making false statements regarding the repair of aircraft parts, four of which were repaired for the Federal Aviation Administration, according to Department of Transporation Inspector General Mary Schiavo. Robert Douglas, owner of Aeroflow, a licensed repair station, was sentenced to two years in prison for each of two false statements, the IG said. He also was ordered to make restitution of $15,018 to the federal government, of which $13,000 will go to FAA, for the sale of four air flow control valves.
FLIGHTSAFETY INTERNATIONAL received a one-year contract from the Federal Aviation Administration for initial and recurrent training of EMB-120 pilots. FlightSafety will provide Level C simulator and in-flight training at its Houston facilities.
RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT plans to deliver the first Beechjet 400A with a redesigned interior next month. The new interior, announced during last fall's National Business Aircraft Association convention in Las Vegas, Nev., includes improvements to both the cabin and cockpit. Raytheon Aircraft said the interior "was redesigned to maximize passenger and crew comfort while reducing cost of operation by improving accessibility to system components within the cabin to minimize downtime during inspections."
JOSEPH BENERO, the long-time aviation insurance executive, will retire as executive vice president of the American Eagle Group at yearend. Benero, who will serve in a consulting capacity with the company upon retirement, helped develop and implement marketing and management policy and handled many of the company's special aviation accounts since joining American Eagle in January 1991.
The U.S. Air Force last week selected Rockwell International over a team of Lockheed Martin and Hughes to build its newest Global Positioning System satellites, a program estimated to be worth about $3.6 billion. Rockwell's Downey, Calif.-based Space Systems Division will design, develop, build and integrate the 33-satellite GPS constellation and unique ground control software. Much of the software work will be done by Rockwell's team member Computer Science Corp., El Segundo, Calif., a Rockwell spokesman said last week.
SIGNATURE FLIGHT SUPPORT appointed Bryan Burns general manager of its Washington, D.C. National Airport flight support operation. Burns replaces Robert Mitchell, who retired in March. He previously was director of operations for Midcoast Aviation, where he was responsible for ramp and line services, customer service and property management.
ENSTROM Model F-28A, F-28C, F-28C-2, 280, and 280C helicopters (Docket No. 93-SW-26-AD; Amdt. 39-9539; AD 96-06-02) - supersedes an existing AD that requires initial and repetitive visual inspections of the upper swashplate bearings for corrosion, and replacement of defective upper swashplate bearings with airworthy bearings.
BILL LEWANDOWSKI was named manager of FlightSafety International's Training Systems Division in Winter Park, Fla. Lewandowski previously was the computer instructional technologist at FlightSafety's Gulfstream Center in Savannah, Ga.
