The FAA will ask its Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee (ARAC) to look at engine bird ingestion requirements, a task it will describe in detail by mid-March in the Federal Register. Separately, the FAA will also ask ARAC to examine issues related to transport aircraft performance and handling characteristics. At an ARAC meeting March 5 in Washington, the panel also reported that a working group is nearing completion of proposals for rudder reversal training, but is still evaluating proposed rule changes for rudder-related aircraft structure and systems.
KEN ASO was appointed senior vice president, corporate strategy and customer development for Standard Aero. Aso will oversee long-term global strategic planning for the company’s products, services, customer support and sales support. He formerly has served with Oliver Wyman, a global management and strategy consulting firm. He also has held roles with Boston Scientific Corp., Bain & Company and Qwest Communications.
AgustaWestland is testing a fan-in-wing, tilt-rotor demonstrator as a technology incubator for advanced rotorcraft concepts. Measuring several meters in wingspan, the “Project Zero” subscale demonstrator has been developed and flown in secret since 2011 at AgustaWestland’s Cascina Costa facility in Italy. Revealing the initiative at Heli-Expo, newly-installed CEO Daniele Romiti says the unconventional vehicle represents how the manufacturer is “thinking today of how we could fly tomorrow.”
RICH BARLOW was named northeast region manager for Constant Aviation. Barlow joins Constant Aviation with more than 30 years of aviation experience, the majority spent in maintenance, repair and overhaul sales. He most recently served as regional sales manager for Hawker Beechcraft, where he was responsible for the Northeast region.
REIMS AVIATION Model F406 airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2012-1274; Directorate Identifier 2012-CE-042-AD; Amendment 39-17359; AD 2013-04-02] – requires inspection of the nose landing gear (NLG) attachment bracket, and depending on the findings, replacement with a serviceable bracket made of steel. This AD results from mandatory continuing airworthiness information issued by the European Aviation Safety Agency, which cites reports that some of the NLG attachment brackets were made of aluminum alloy instead of steel.
The Chinese parent of U.S. light helicopter company Enstrom is plowing $10 million into new infrastructure to help the manufacturer boost production levels.
Beechcraft has once again opted to protest its loss of the U.S. Air Force Light Air Support (LAS) contract to a Sierra Nevada/ Embraer team. The LAS contract is worth up to $950 million. Once the protest is filed with the Government Accountability Office, auditors have up to 100 days to review the case and make a determination.
Despite broader economic woes and a continuing climate of fiscal uncertainty, this year’s Heli-Expo convention set another record for attendance with well more than 20,393 visitors at the show. The record marks the sixth consecutive year of growth. Matt Zuccaro, president of Heli-Expo organizer Helicopter Association International (HAI), says for the past five years “it has been trending up each year and exceeding attendance from the previous year.” Some 730 exhibitors booked 1 million sq. ft.
FAA is scaling back its long-term general aviation outlook, but still forecasting brisk industry growth that will be driven by higher corporate profits and increased worldwide gross domestic product.
IMP Group Limited (IMP), the Canadian conglomerate that owns Canjet, Innotech Aviation, Execaire and Pacific Avionics, among other companies, continues to expand its aviation portfolio with the acquisition of Toronto-based Image Air Charter. IMP purchased all of the issued and outstanding shares of Image Air Charter. The company, which has 60 employees, manages a fleet of 20 aircraft. The acquisition will bolster Execaire’s charter and management services, the company says. Execaire employs 290 workers and has a managed fleet of 53 aircraft.
FAA is coming under increasing pressure to look for alternatives to its plan to implement rolling furloughs of its 47,000 workers and shutter nearly half of the nation’s air traffic control towers, with two key Republican lawmakers questioning whether the agency has explored all its options before “punishing employees and the traveling public.”
The Federal Communications Commission has extended until April 1 its request for comments period on potential plans to ban the production, sale and, eventually, use of emergency locator transmitters (ELTs) that rely on the 121.5 MHz frequency. FCC in January released a proposal considering “whether to prohibit the certification, manufacture, importation, sale or use of 121.5 MHz ELTs, and, if so, under what timetable.” FCC solicited input from manufacturers, importers, sellers and users on the burdens of such actions.
Boosted by buoyant sales of the R44 and turbine-powered R66, Robinson is ramping up production to 13 helicopters per week at its Torrance, Calif. manufacturing site. The rate increase means overall annual production could come close to 600 in 2013, exceeding the record-setting 517 helicopters made in 2012. “The economy has been quite a challenge, but interestingly enough it hasn’t impacted us. We’re just carrying on doing our thing,” says company President Kurt Robinson.
Scott’s – Bell 47 (SB47), a Minnesota-based upgrade and modification specialist, has launched a program to restart production of an all-new variant of the venerable Bell 47 light utility helicopter.
FlightSafety International is teaming with National Airways Corp. in Johannesburg, South Africa, to offer Pratt & Whitney Canada engine maintenance training for technicians in South Africa and the surrounding regions.
AGUSTA Model AB412 and AB412 EP, and BELL Model 412, 412CF, and 412EP helicopters with certain Dart high gear aft crosstubes [Docket No. FAA-2013-0145; Directorate Identifier 2012-SW-059-AD] – proposes to require adding a life limit of 10,000 landings to the crosstube and removing from service any crosstubes with more than 10,000 accumulated landings. This proposed AD is prompted by five separate reports of crosstube failures. The actions in this proposed AD are intended to prevent failure of the crosstube and subsequent collapse of the landing gear.
Eric Byer, who served as vice president of government and industry affairs for the National Air Transportation Association (NATA), was named senior vice president of Obadal, Filler, MacLeod & Klein, where he will help expand the firm’s association management practice and its internal and external communication activities. In his new role, Byer will also serve as vice president of communications, policy and planning for the Aeronautical Repair Station Association.
Cessna continues to progress on its plan to bring six new or updated aircraft to market this year, rolling out the new Citation Sovereign and completing the first flight of a production TTx single-piston aircraft. The Sovereign, which sports new avionics and winglets similar to the new Citation X, comes off the assembly line just four months after Cessna unveiled the follow-on business jet at the National Business Aviation Association’s annual meeting and convention in Orlando, Fla. last fall.
The National Transportation Safety Board, which has kept general aviation safety on its Most Wanted List since 2011, is meeting this week to discuss five key areas aimed at reducing the number of GA accidents: reduced-visual reference; aerodynamic stalls at low altitude; pilot inattention to indications of mechanical problems; risk management of aviation maintenance technicians and risk management for pilots. The safety board will consider the issuance of five safety alerts on these areas.
JASON WEISS was appointed vice president of operations for Flexjet. Weiss has more than 13 years of aviation experience, including five as vice president, crew resource planning for NetJets. He also has served in senior operations positions at Air Wisconsin and Atlas Air. In his new role, Weiss will manage Flexjet’s flight operations, training, technical operations, operations analysis and fleet management, the owner operations center and procurement.
MARK WILSON has joined West Star Aviation as Gulfstream/Challenger technical sales manager at its East Alton, Ill. base. Wilson has more than 30 years of aviation industry experience both in manufacturing and maintenance. He has held technician, lead, manager and supervisor roles for companies including Boeing, Gulfstream and Lockheed Martin.
