Jet Aviation made another key appointment—naming industry veteran Charles Krugh to run its St. Louis facility—as the company works to bolster its management and iron out issues in its completions business. Krugh will serve as senior vice president and general manager, effective today (Aug. 8), of the St. Louis center, which was formerly known as Midcoast Aviation.
Roger Whyte, a business aviation veteran who has substantial knowledge of the Asian market, has been tapped by the National Business Aviation Association to help prepare for its 2012 Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition (ABACE2012). In his role as NBAA special counsel to NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen, Whyte will help lead the development process for ABACE2012, which will be held next March 27-29 at the new Hawker Pacific Business Aviation Service Center on Shanghai’s Hongqiao Airport.
Aug. 11-13—Eighth Annual Latin American Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition, Congonhas Airport, Sao Paulo, www.abag.org.br/labace2011/ Aug. 12—Aeropodium’s Third Annual Business Aviation in Latin America Summit, Congonhas Airport, Sao Paulo, www.aeropodium.com/conferenceprojects Aug. 13-17—American Association of Airport Executives’ 53rd Annual Northeast Chapter Conference, Sheraton Atlantic City (N.J.) Convention Center Hotel, (609) 641-3833, www.necconference.org
Flying Colours Corp., the Ontario-based interior completions specialist, says it is experiencing increased demand for mid-size business jet refurbishments, particularly from North American operators and Bombardier Challenger 300 and 604, Dassault Falcon 900 and Hawker 800 owners.
The Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture show last month wrapped up with a 1.3% increase in attendance to 541,000. EAA President and CEO Rod Hightower says the attendance figure “came in almost exactly where we thought it would.” The weeklong event, held July 25-30, drew more than 10,000 aircraft to Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wis., 2,522 showplanes and 803 exhibitors. Registered international attendees numbered 2,098 from 68 nations. EAA AirVenture 2012 will be held July 23-29.
Hawker Beechcraft Corp.’s (HBC) second-quarter deliveries, which were down by 10 units overall, were “significantly disrupted” by a software issue with the Hawker 4000’s avionics suite, along with supply issues with its King Air line, HBC Chairman and CEO Bill Boisture said last week.
Industry billings plunged 22.3% to $7.3 billion in the first half of the year, reflecting the general malaise that continues to plague the business aircraft market, according to the most recent shipment report released by the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. In the first six months of 2011, aircraft shipments fell 15.5% to 791. This is down from the 936 aircraft delivered in the first half of 2010.
About 4,000 FAA workers and up to 70,000 construction workers were set to go back to work after the Senate Friday approved the House-passed short-term extension of FAA’s authorization. But when Congress returns the first week of September, lawmakers will have just 10 days to pass a new extension.
RAY KAESS was named quality inspector for Twin Commander Aircraft. Kaess is responsible for inspecting vendor parts. He previously spent 25 years at Parker Hannifin’s Electronic Systems Division facility, where he served as an inspector, quality supervisor and quality engineer.
The first production Gulfstream G280 is getting its interior installed at the company’s Dallas center and is to be delivered later this year, shortly after the new twinjet receives its certification. G280 s/n 2004 was flown to Dallas late last month, says Gulfstream spokesman Jeff Miller. The mid-sized aircraft is manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries in Tel Aviv. The first three aircraft are involved in certification flight testing and have accumulated 1,500 flight hours to date.
Beechcraft Barons and Bonanzas can now be fitted with LED landing, taxi position and anti-collision lights, thanks to an aftermarket package being offered by Hawker Beechcraft Global Customer Support (GCS). Designed in conjunction with Astronics LSI, these lights have no glass filaments to break, are shock- and vibration-resistant, and consume substantially less energy, according to GCS. The solid-state LED lights also are highly reliable, with a mean time between failure of more than 8,000 hr.
BAE Systems’ portfolio of aircraft and its associated asset management business have been sold to Falko Regional Aircraft Limited. However, the manufacturer of the BAe 146 and Avro RJ regional jets and ATP and Jetstream turboprops “will continue to provide the full range of total support solutions to existing and future operators of the in-service fleet of these BAE Systems aircraft.” These services include continuing airworthiness support, spares and logistics support, rate-per-flying-hour spares programs, technical support services and modifications.
TRISTAN CRAWFORD joined aviation consultancy Oriens Advisors. Crawford will help grow the company’s operations. He formerly was divisional operations manager for QinetiQ.
DOUG DILLON was named director of Lean Six Sigma for PAS Technologies. Dillon will be responsible for optimizing a lean product environment at the company’s facilities in the U.S., Singapore, Ireland and Romania. He has 17 years of operations and efficiency experience, most recently as senior manager, Six Sigma for ATK Lake City Army Ammunition Plant.
KEVIN JENKS has joined the aviation marketing firm Greteman Group as marketing director. Jenks, who formerly worked for a Colorado-based company, is based in Wichita, where he will work with a range of Greteman clients. Jenks served in sports broadcasting from 1997-2001 and then partnered on a corporate recruiting venture.
FAA implemented changes, as expected, last week to the Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program, enabling flight-tracking programs to display real-time movements of business aircraft. The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), which had administered the BARR program to protect tail numbers for 3,000 operators, immediately began receiving calls from members who discovered that subscribers to the flight-tracking programs could track their movements, notes Doug Carr, vice president of safety, security and regulation for NBAA.
NEIL KUNYCKY was appointed sales director for the Northeastern U.S. for Hawker Beechcraft. Kunycky, who will be based in Bedford, Mass., will be responsible for Beechcraft sales in New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. He further will oversee Baron and Bonanza sales in eastern Canada. Kunycky has 30 years of business aircraft sales experience, most recently as sales director for Bombardier Aerospace.
Mahindra Aerospace, the aviation division of India’s Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., held discussions last week with aircraft part manufacturers in Europe and the U.S. for a stake purchase.
Jet Aviation Zurich has expanded its maintenance capabilities to cover the Cessna Citation CJ4. The facility recently amended its Citation Cessna authorized service center to include both base and line maintenance on CJ4 business jets. With the recent service center agreement expansion, Jet Aviation Zurich is authorized to support the entire Cessna jet family. The service center supports turboprops and small and medium-sized business jets from facilities that include 53,820-sq.-ft. of hangar space.
Pinnacle Aviation, in Scottsdale, Ariz., has expanded into Texas with the addition of a Dallas-based Falcon 2000 to its charter fleet. Pinnacle operates a fleet of light, medium and large jets in Arizona, in addition to a Challenger 604 in Honolulu and a Citation CJ3 in New Jersey.
Business aviation advocates were relieved that last week’s votes on the debt ceiling excluded user fees and changes to corporate aircraft depreciation schedules, but they warn that such tax changes still may lie ahead.
ANDRE MOREIRA was named quality engineer for Dallas Airmotive do Brasil. Moreira will work with the Brazilian Agência Nacional de Aviação Civil (ANAC) and will be responsible for managing quality standards and technical communications with Dallas Airmotive technical teams worldwide. Moreira recently graduated from Federal University of Minas Gerais with a degree in mechanical engineering with an emphasis on aeronautics and served as an intern for Dallas Airmotive do Brasil.
In a surprise move, Larry Flynn has been named to succeed Joe Lombardo as president of Gulfstream Aerospace. The appointment, announced Aug. 5, takes effect in Sept. 1. Meanwhile, Lombardo will continue in his role as executive vice president of General Dynamics’ Aerospace Group, which includes Jet Aviation, as well as Gulfstream. Lombardo has held that corporate position since 2007.
