The windshield of a Hawker Beechcraft C90, N2057C, shattered as the aircraft was climbing to flight level 250 near Evansville, Ind., on Feb. 9. The aircraft had departed from the University of Illinois-Willard Airport near Champaign/Urbana, Ill., on a Part 91 instructional flight to Orlando Sanford International Airport in Florida. Once the windshield shattered, the pilot descended and landed without further incident, the National Transportation Safety Board says.
Rolls-Royce is projecting modest revenue growth in 2011 and “good growth” in underlying profits after delivering strong operating results in 2010 that were tinged by ₤56 million in costs linked to a Trent 900 uncontained engine failure last year. Some repercussions of last year’s Qantas QF32 incident could still be felt in 2011, the company reports. Overall, Rolls-Royce reported revenue of ₤11.1 billion, up from ₤10.4 billion the year prior, and a growth in the order book to ₤59.2 billion. The underlying profit was up to ₤955 million, ₤40 million above 2009 levels.
Aviation services company Hawker Pacific is expanding its business aviation base in the Asia-Pacific region with the development of a new $11.6 million customer sales and service center at Seletar Aerospace Park in Singapore. Hawker Pacific will relocate its regional headquarters, currently at East Camp, Singapore, to the larger facility.
ExecuJet Malaysia has signed its first aircraft under management since announcing the joint venture with Malaysia’s D’Nest Aviation in September. A Gulfstream GIV SP will be based out of Subang International Airport in Kuala Lumpur. The aircraft is privately registered and was sold and signed to ExecuJet for full management in January. It is the company’s second aircraft under management in the Asia region, with a Gulfstream GV currently under management in Singapore, and managed in Sydney by ExecuJet Australia.
U.S. aircraft shipments were down significantly in 2010 to an estimated 1,254 units, while billings for those shipments dropped to an estimated $8.1 billion, FAA says in its annual forecast released last week. The estimates came as both Hawker Beechcraft and Bombardier last week each reported lower deliveries in 2010, and Hawker Beechcraft Chairman and CEO Bill Boisture warned that the company will have to keep down production to create a “scarcity” that will help improve pricing.
Passur Aerospace was selected to provide its FBO Fuel Portal and Best Prospect Reports tool for the Eastern Aviation Fuels fixed-base operation network. The Passur FBO Fuel Portal software provides real-time flight, customer, and airspace status for customer service, line operations, and marketing through visual flight tracking and web dashboards. The FBO Best Prospect Reports are targeted lists e-mailed to participating FBOs daily, weekly, or monthly to help with marketing efforts.
The Department of Transportation has decided to allow the business aviation community to weigh in on the Block Aircraft Registration Request (BARR) program before imposing controversial limits that would have gone into effect last week. The agency initially indicated plans to implement changes to the BARR program beginning Feb. 15. The changes, which the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) had called “onerous limitations” to BARR, involved a security-related eligibility requirement for participants (BA, Feb. 14/6).
China’s Minsheng Financial Leasing Co. Ltd (MSFL), already the major Chinese buyer of business jets for its home market with 32 aircraft delivered or ordered to date, plans to do the same with helicopters. MSFL will vigorously expand into helicopters, with 20 orders planned for this year, VP Zhang Bo told an international finance conference in London last week.
QBE the Americas has created a U.S.-based general aviation underwriting operation headquartered in Atlanta. The new operation was created to expand the company’s global aviation activities. The operation will be run by William McGloin, Roger Ridings, Michael Clark and Russell Walker.
Hawker Beechcraft is continuing to make adjustments to keep production at a low rate to help combat soft pricing that is resulting in loss-making aircraft, Hawker Beechcraft Chairman and CEO Bill Boisture told analysts Friday. Soft pricing contributed to an operating loss of $363 million for the company’s business and general aviation segment, and $173.9 million for the company overall in 2010.
Charter and management company Executive Jet Management (EJM), working with Jeppesen, secured FAA’s first approval for use of the iPad for aeronautical charting in all phases of flight. The approval followed three months of testing and 250 flight trials that included a successful rapid decompression test to 51,000 ft. and non-interference testing.
STEFAN BENZ was appointed vice president of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) sales for Jet Aviation’s Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) and Asia group. Benz has an extensive background in the aerospace industry, most recently as general manager of sales, marketing and business development at Ruag Aerospace. He began his aviation career with Daimler-Benz Aerospace before holding a number of marketing and regional strategy positions with EADS. He also has served with MTU Maintenance Hannover.
MICHAEL LEDERER has joined TWC Aviation as director of aircraft sales and acquisition. Lederer has nearly 30 years of experience helping clients acquire and sell aircraft. He formerly was a sales executive at Bombardier Aerospace.
Hawker Beechcraft Corporation has named Jim Holcombe vice president of Beechcraft marketing. Holcombe will be responsible for global marketing and branding of the company’s Beechcraft products. He assumes the role alongside 21-year HBC veteran Ron Gunnarson, VP of Hawker marketing. He was previously executive VP of sales and marketing and COO for Piaggio America and the senior VP of marketing for Gulfstream.
FAA last week forecast that despite three years of decline, the general aviation market should experience slow but stable growth over the next 20 years, with the fleet size increasing 0.9% per year and operations climbing 2.2% per year over the forecast period.
The National Business Aviation Association’s 22nd Annual Schedulers & Dispatchers conference, held Feb. 9-11 in Savannah, Ga., drew 2,272 attendees versus 2,284 in 2010, who by all accounts gave the meeting high grades. The exhibit floor was pretty much sold out (more than 360 exhibitors), and exhibitors told Aviation Week that they were able to make the right contacts.
General aviation advocates are pleased the Obama administration’s budget request did not include user fees, even as it seeks to step up investment in the Next Generation air transportation system (NextGen). The administration last week unveiled an $18.66 billion fiscal 2012 budget request for FAA, including a boost in funding for NextGen modernization and a recommendation for the addition of 106 new safety inspectors and data analysts.
Feb. 21-23—MIU Events’ Second Annual Indian Business Aviation Expo, Shangri-La Hotel, New Delhi, +44 (218) 332-2211, www.miuevents.com Feb. 21-24—National Air Transportation Association Spring Training Week, Las Vegas, (703) 845-9000, www.nata.aero Feb. 23–24—National Business Aviation Association’s 19th Annual Leadership Conference, San Diego, (202) 783-9000, www.nbaa.org Feb. 24-26—22nd Annual Women in Aviation International Conference, Grand Sierra Resort, Reno, Nev., www.wai.org
JOHN BURNUM was named director of business development for Business Jet Access. Burnum, who has 22 years of aviation services experience, is responsible for sales and marketing for the aircraft maintenance services business. He formerly was regional sales manager for King Aerospace, and also has held management positions with Gulfstream Aerospace and the former K-C Aviation.
Embraer’s Phenom 100 and 300 executive jets have been certified by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation of Indonesia. Indonesia is now the first country in the Asia Pacific region to have the Phenom 300 light jet certified and increases the list of the Phenom 100 certificates to 21 agencies worldwide.
HAWKER BEECHCRAFT Model 400A and 400T airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2010-0954; Directorate Identifier 2010-NM-078-AD; Amendment 39-16596; AD 2011-03-12] – Conduct a detailed inspection for proper sealant of the left and right pylon firewall structures and take corrective actions before further flight, per the instructions of Hawker Beechcraft Mandatory Service Bulletin SB 54-3946, Rev. 2 (dated February 2010).
BOMBARDIER Regional Jet Series 100 and 440 airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2010-1113; Directorate Identifier 2010-NM-121-AD; Amendment 39-16603; AD 2011-04-03] – Revise the “Airworthiness Limitations” section of the maintenance program by incorporating tasks that require a functional check of the wing leading edge thermal switches and an inspection of the wing anti-ice duct piccolo tubes.
DASSAULT Falcon 50 airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2011-0042; Directorate Identifier 2010-NM-267-AD] – This proposed AD would require operators to paint the pipe ends of the emergency brake system No. 2 and related unions, in accordance with the instructions of Dassault Service Bulletin F50-515 (dated Oct. 12, 2010). This proposed directive supersedes AD 2010-24-08 but retains its requirements, which are to ensure that emergency brake system number 2 is correctly installed before further flight.
