General aviation market doldrums have continued into 2012 as billings dropped 8% and aircraft shipments dipped 2.1% in the first quarter, the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) reported last week.
Hawker Beechcraft (HBC) and the Sierra Nevada Corp. (SNC)/Embraer team competing once again for a contract to supply light-attack aircraft to Afghanistan may both have reasons for concern with the U.S. Air Force’s revised request for proposals. An amended RFP for the Light Air Support (LAS) program was issued on May 4 after the Air Force decided to restage the competition following its decision to terminate the $355 million contract awarded to SNC in December to supply 20 Embraer AT-29 Super Tucanos.
Rockwell Collins has begun modifying a Hawker Beechcraft King Air 250 for flight testing of the touchscreen embedded display system (EDS) versions of its Pro Line Fusion integrated avionics. The aircraft will fly later this year and supplemental type certification of the EDS as a display upgrade to Pro Line 21-equipped King Airs is scheduled for 2013. The system also has been selected as original equipment by an aircraft manufacturer in the turboprop/light jet segment.
BRUCE WHITMAN , president and CEO of FlightSafety International, was elected to the board of directors of the Corporate Angel Network. Whitman, who has served with FlightSafety since 1961, has more than 50 years of aviation industry experience. He was appointed to his current position in 2003.
PRATT & WHITNEY CANADA PT6A-38, -41, -42, -42A, -61, -64, -66, -66B, -110, -112, -114, -114A, -121, -135, and -135A series turboprop engines [Docket No. FAA-2012-0417; Directorate Identifier 2012-NE-11-AD; Amendment 39-17045; AD 2012-09-10] – requires removal from service of certain part manufacturer approval replacement Timken Alcor Aerospace Technologies Inc. (TAATI) first-stage sun gears and planet gears installed in the reduction gearbox. This AD was prompted by failures of certain first-stage sun gears manufactured by TAATI.
May 14—16 12th Annual European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE2012), Geneva, Switzerland, www.ebace.aero May 14—24th Annual Greater Washington Aviation Open, Lansdowne Golf Resort near Leesburg, Va., email [email protected], www.gwao.org June 7—National Business Aviation Association Business Aviation Regional Forum, Teterboro Airport (TEB), Teterboro, N.J., (202) 783-9000, www.nbaa.org
AgustaWestland has logged the first flight of the 4.5-metric-ton, light intermediate AW169 helicopter that it hopes to start delivering to customers in 2015. The first of four flight-test aircraft flew on May 10 at the company’s Cascina Costa plant in Italy. The AW169 was flown by AgustaWestland’s Chief Test Pilot, Giuseppe Lo Coco, Test Pilot Giuseppe Afruni, and Flight Test Engineers Massimo Longo and Stefano Rognoni. Two more prototypes are to fly this year, with a fourth next year in 2013. AgustaWestland aims for civil certification in 2014.
Hawker Beechcraft has secured initial court approval that the company says will enable it to continue its ordinary business while the company moves forward with its prearranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The court approval enables the Wichita airframer to pay employees, vendors and suppliers. The company is using $400 million in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing to meet its obligations.
The Senate could begin consideration this week of a bill pushed by general aviation manufacturers to authorize funding for the Export-Import Bank for three more years. The bill, which cleared the House last week, also would raise the Ex-Im Bank’s lending cap to $140 billion by 2014. The bill, a compromise negotiated by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), was hailed as a reasonable compromise by both sides of a long-running dispute over the bank. The bank’s charter is set to expire on May 31.
Max-Viz recently shipped its 250th forward-looking infrared Enhanced Vision System (EVS) for helicopters. The system helps provide improved vision at night, in bad weather and through smoke, smog and haze. The system is in service on helicopters used for emergency medical, military, Coast Guard and fire-attack purposes. Max-Viz increased shipments for helicopters by 35% in 2011 and expects as much as 50% growth this year.
A year after placing general aviation safety on its “Most Wanted List of Transportation Safety Improvements,” the National Transportation Safety Board is planning to take a more in-depth look at the causes surrounding a higher number of accidents during a two-day forum. Scheduled for June 19-20 in Washington, the forum will delve into a range of safety issues, from pilot training, performance and access to weather information, aircraft design and certification. Light-sport and experimental aircraft will also likely be covered as part of the forum.
Europe’s business jet fleet total is down and likely to remain diminished for possibly another year due to slow new aircraft sales and used bizjets sold out of Europe to buyers on other continents, aviation consultant Brian Foley says. During the past 12 months, 50 European business jets – about 2% of the total fleet – were sold to buyers on other continents. Outside Europe, the fleets have grown an overall 3%, Foley says. A vast majority, 79%, went to buyers in North America, mostly in the U.S. and Canada. Africa customers took the next highest total, 7%.
FAA must ensure it does not create additional segregated or restricted airspace as it establishes test sites for unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association says. AOPA told the agency in comments that any UAS test site must “do no harm” to existing national airspace users.
Cessna, hoping to begin shipment of green Citation Sovereign aircraft for completion in China by the end of 2013, expects its joint venture with China’s Chengdu Aircraft Company will complete and deliver eight-ten Sovereigns per month, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch analyst Ronald Epstein. Government officials and small and medium-sized business owners are the anticipated customer base for the Sovereign, Epstein says. He adds that transfer of technology to China, however, will not occur until Cessna and its Chinese counterpart jointly design a new aircraft.
BOMBARDIER Model CL-600-2B19 (Regional Jet Series 100 & 440) [Docket No. FAA-2011-1224; Directorate Identifier 2011-NM-175-AD; Amendment 39-17021; AD 2012-08-04] – requires installing a new or serviceable air data driven generator (ADG) generator control unit (GCU). This AD was prompted by reports of the ADG failing to power essential buses during functional tests, due to the low threshold setting of the circuit protection on the ADG’s GCU preventing the ADG from supplying power to the essential buses.
Stevens Aviation is expanding its Broomfield (Denver) facility, saying the extra space is necessary to keep up with growing demand. The company is increasing its hangar size at Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (BJC) to 20,000-sq.-ft. “Over the last several months we continually ran out of space for aircraft in the hangar,” says Randy Smith, general manager of the Broomfield operation. “The new [hangar] location allows us to handle the current growth with room for more.”
Hawker Beechcraft’s Hawker 400XPR engine test article completed its first flight. The first flight keeps the Hawker 400XPR upgrade program on track for certification in September. The Hawker 400XPR is equipped with new Williams International FJ44-4A-32 engines and offered with optional Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 avionics.
United Technologies Corp. (UTC) named company veteran Mick Mauer to succeed Jeffrey Pino as president of its Sikorsky Aircraft unit. Pino is retiring July 1, but will work with Mauer in the next few months on the leadership transition. After that time Pino, who joined Sikorsky in 2002 after spending 17 years with Bell Helicopter, will continue to serve as a consultant. Mauer joined UTC in 1989 at the corporation’s Otis Elevator business. Maurer moved over to Sikorsky in 2000 as vice president, enterprise planning and development.
Dallas Airmotive is acquiring tooling and inventory from Mesa, Ariz.-based Consolidated Turbine Support, in a move that will expand its field service support for the Honeywell HTF7000 engine.
Hawker Beechcraft is hoping to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection by the end of the year under new ownership through a restructuring plan that would eliminate $2.5 billion of the company’s debt and $125 million in annual interest expenses.
Gama Support Services continues to expand its rapidly-growing U.S. maintenance, repair and overhaul business for corporate aircraft. The company, which has Part 145 repair stations in Bridgeport, Conn., Teterboro, N.J. and West Palm Beach, Fla., has expanded authorizations over the past three years to perform base and line maintenance on most models of Gulfstream, Falcon, Bombardier, Cessna and Hawker aircraft. Gama is also focusing on adding technicians at West Palm Beach to provide “concierge”-level service.
Shortcomings in FAA’s program to delegate certification activities are hampering the agency’s oversight of aircraft manufacturers, the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (OIG) has found. FAA needs to provide better guidance and take a more active role steering participants in its Organization Designation Authorization (ODA) program, Jeffrey Guzzetti, assistant inspector general for aviation and special programs, says in recent testimony for a House aviation subcommittee hearing on aviation safety.
LILLIAN ZARRELLI RYALS was appointed vice president and deputy general manager of the Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD), the federally funded research and development center that MITRE operates for FAA. Ryals has 30 years of aviation sector experience and has been leading CAASD’s work in air traffic management, communication navigation and surveillance, system operations, safety, and security for the FAA. In her new role, she will focus on strategic planning, sponsor and stakeholder engagement and program oversight.
