Cincinnati-based nonprofit Impact Player Partners (IPP) is reaching out to business aviation for travel help at its seventh annual Impact A Hero weekend June 4-6 in Sugarland, Texas, as part of its efforts to help provide emotional and financial support for severely wounded and disabled veterans.
CLAYTON LACKEY was named line service manager for Tampa International Jet Center in Florida. He will be responsible for all day-to-day operations of the line department, including hiring, scheduling, planning, training and equipment. Lackey joined Tampa Jet in 2007.
Two new Bank of America Merrill Lynch reports are optimistic about business aviation’s continued recovery, based on recent financial results from Cessna and Bell Helicopter parent Textron and Gulfstream parent General Dynamics (BA, Jan. 31/3, 4). Analyst Ronald Epstein writes that revenue growth of 11.2% year-over-year in Textron’s fourth quarter comes as sales recover, particularly with commercial helicopters gaining traction.
FAA’s proposed rulemaking requiring safety management systems (SMS) to be implemented at all airports certificated under Part 139 is causing confusion and concern among airport directors regarding costs and training responsibilities. For example, when catering or fueling trucks drive onto the airside, who is responsible for training the drivers, airport directors ask. Airports with large numbers of general aviation pilots also would have to train each pilot on SMS.
FAA is giving JetBlue Airways $4.2 million toward equipping up to 35 of its Airbus A320s with automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) avionics in exchange for data on flights of these aircraft along the East Coast and to the Caribbean.
Planning, conceptual design, preliminary design, systems integration, wind tunnel model, testing (2 entries) and loads analysis done around 2 Williams FJ33. Work has been completed by leading FAA Designated Engineering Representatives in Wichita, KS USA. Next step is detailed structure design. (303) 859-4618 or [email protected] Click here to view the pdf
SimCom Training Centers has expanded its capacity to provide simulator training for widely used business aircraft types with the acquisition of PrestoSIM, located near Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport in Texas. The former PrestoSIM center provides training on the Cessna Citation 500 and Beechcraft King Air 200 series. SimCom plans to add training devices for the King Air C90A and B, Cessna 421, Piper Cheyenne and Cheyenne II, and turboprop-powered Twin Commanders. The King Air 200 and Turbo Commander simulators have been upgraded with 180-deg.
Wichita, Kan.-based Yingling Aviation has expanded its Aviator’s Attic shop into a website (www.aviatorsattic.com) that sells items in 18 different categories. The Aviator’s Attic has an online inventory of flight gear, pilot apparel, aviation books, videos and electronic devices. The website also includes aircraft and pilot supplies, flight planning and cockpit tools, radios and scanners, flashlights and flight cases.
Business aircraft retail transactions trended up in the fourth quarter of 2010, with a little more than 2.6% of the worldwide jet fleet and 2.5% of the worldwide turboprop fleet changing hands, a new report says. Fourth-quarter transactions were up over third-quarter transactions by 2.3% and 2% for jets and turboprops, respectively, according to the quarterly Market Update report released by aviation consultancy AMSTAT.
BOMBARDIER Regional Jet 700, 701, 702, 705 and 900 series airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2011-0031; Directorate Identifier 2010-NM-135-AD] – This proposed AD would require operators to conduct repetitive detailed visual inspections for corrosion and damage to the inboard and outboard piston axles, in accordance with the instructions of Bombardier Service Bulletin 670BA-32-023, Rev. C (dated Jan. 29, 2009). If any corrosion or damage were found, operators would need to repair it before further flight.
Carter Aviation Technologies has completed initial flight tests of its proof-of-concept Personal Air Vehicle (PAV), an aircraft that combines a rotor for vertical takeoff and landing with a propeller and wing for efficient high-speed flight. The “2+2”-seat PAV uses Carter’s slowed rotor/compound (SR/C) technology. The rotor is unpowered, as in an autogyro, but when spun up by the engine, the rotor enables a “jump” takeoff. On landing, the energy stored in the high-inertia rotor enables the aircraft to autorotate to a “zero-roll” landing.
The World Trade Organization (WTO) has issued the final ruling on the European Union’s claim that Boeing has benefited from illegal state aid for its commercial aircraft, upholding at least some of Brussels’ charges. The ruling, which will not be made public for several weeks, appears to follow the preliminary finding issued in September. The verdict, coming last week from Geneva, is only the latest in a series of milestones in the long-running subsidy dispute between the U.S. and the European Union.
A group of about two dozen Bombardier production workers held the winning ticket for a $50 million Canadian Lotto Max lottery drawing held Jan. 28. The Bombardier employees reportedly all work together on the Q400 production line in Toronto. According to Canadian news reports, the lottery drawing was still being sorted out last week as the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp. determined how many of the Bombardier workers held a stake in the winning ticket.
Eurocopter is looking at the emergent wind-farm market as sustaining growth in new platforms orders, even as it expects continued orders from the long-important oil and gas sector. “Renewable energy, wind farms, are in the future,” says Markus Steinke, managing director of Eurocopter U.K., which expects 20 helicopters to be involved in wind farm support in the U.K. by the end of the decade.
At the request of numerous general aviation, manufacturer and repair station organizations, FAA last week extended the comment deadline until March 7 on a notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) that would require Part 121 holders to adopt safety management systems (SMS). FAA published the NPRM Nov. 5 and originally called for the comment period to close Feb. 3.
May 10-12, 2011 Washington, D.C. Washington Marriott at Metro Center Air Transportation Modernization Conference Join us in 2011 as we align NextGen stakeholders to accelerate NAS modernization. www.aviationweek.com/events Click here to view the pdf
Sabre Travel Network’s GetThere travel and collaboration management service has named JetUs as its preferred vendor for GetThere customers interested in booking private jets. JetUs is a web-based reservation system that offers real-time availability to business jet service. JetUs customers receive multiple quotes, see aircraft photos and can review safety and quality ratings. Customers can purchase and manage trip details, including catering and baggage handling.
Esterline CMC Electronics recently signed a memorandum of agreement with Star Navigation Systems Group to jointly establish an integrated, turnkey aircraft data monitoring and reporting system for original equipment manufacturers (OEM). The system will be based on CMC’s PilotView electronic flight bag (EFB) capabilities and Star’s STAR-ISMS inflight safety monitoring system software. The system, which will include various applications and aircraft integration services, will be offered to OEMs and certain customers in the business jet and air transport market.
Industry groups last week praised the creation of a new Unleaded Aviation Transition Aviation Rulemaking Committee (ARC) that will provide recommendations regarding the development and use of an unleaded avgas. The General Aviation Avgas Coalition requested the creation of the ARC, and Rob Hackman, VP of regulatory affairs for the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, says, “This is a much-needed step in the process that will ultimately determine how the aviation industry reaches an unleaded fuel solution.”
Charles Kaman, who founded Kaman Aircraft Corp. in 1945 and led the company for 55 years, died Jan. 31. He was 91. Born in 1919 in Washington, he began his aviation career in 1940, working with Igor Sikorsky. Kaman began developing his own ideas on ways to make helicopters easier to fly, and in 1945 he formed what is now known as Kaman Corp. in Bloomfield, Conn., to expand upon those ideas, using $2,000 invested by two friends.
Titan Airways is adding an Avro RJ100 regional jet to its charter fleet. The aircraft will join Titan’s London Stansted-based fleet of 12 aircraft and initially will be used on the airline’s U.K. Ministry of Defense contract to provide passenger and freight capacity.
Feb. 9-10—14th Annual FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference, Walter E. Washington Convention Center, Washington, D.C., (703) 264-7500, fax (703) 264-7551, www.aiaa.org Feb. 9-11—National Business Aviation Association’s 22nd Annual Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference, Savannah, Ga., (202) 783-9000, www.nbaa.org Feb. 13-17—21st Annual American Astronautical Society/American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics’ 2011 Space Flight Mechanics, Loews New Orleans Hotel, www.astronautical.org
Cessna Aircraft was the recipient of a 2010 Clean Air & Sustainability Award during Wichita’s Regional Energy Summit in late January. Wichita and the Metro Air Quality Improvement Task Force selected Cessna for its efforts to improve and preserve air quality in the four-county metro area and for incorporating sustainability measures in company operations. In 2008 Cessna established an Environmental Strategy Council that set energy- and waste-reduction goals and started a number of environmental programs to reach those goals.
Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. has closed on an equity investment that gives the helicopter maker a minority stake in Eclipse Aerospace and will closely tie Sikorsky to many facets of Eclipse’s operation.
