Viking Air flew the prototype DHC-6 Twin Otter Series 400 for the first time on Oct. 1. The British Columbia-based company is returning the 19-passenger Twin Otter to production after a 20-year gap, with customer deliveries to begin next summer.
The proposed merger of Condor, Germanwings and TUIFly Germany is off. Condor owner Thomas Cook has decided to pull out, saying “the opportunity was not attractive” and “Condor is a strong and profitable business with significant potential on a stand-alone basis.” In providing an outlook on current trading, Thomas Cook also says Condor has been able to keep load factors at around 87%, albeit thanks to a 9% reduction in capacity. Moreover, the travel company also says it has benefited from the collapse of XL Airlines.
Gerald Goguen has become executive vice president of Greenwich (Conn.) AeroGroup Inc. He was senior vice president-global customer relations and business strategy for Dassault Falcon Jet.
Your article “Sea Change” (AW&ST Aug. 18/25, p. 81), brought to mind a situation that highlights the problem of stimulating students to pursue science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). In the past few years, I have been a science fair judge in an elementary school outside Fort Wayne, Ind. It is exciting to have third graders explain the scientific method and the projects on which they have spent a lot of time. I was always impressed that the school had a full-time science teacher and laboratory for students in Grades K-5.
This all-new kneeboard is a reliable inflight organization tool. The interior features numerous pockets, including: two zippered storage compartments, two mesh pockets, elastic straps for E6B storage, clear chart pocket and two pen loops. Also included are an aluminum clipboard to keep track of flight plan forms and weather printouts. The clipboard features a IFR placard with such information as cruising altitudes, flight plan sequence and other related data. When folded, a handy exterior pocket has room for sectional or low route charts.
A controversial Homeland Security Dept. plan requiring airlines to collect biometric data from foreign nationals as they depart the country has been put on hold. The stopgap appropriations measure President Bush signed into law last week withholds funding for the plan, called US-EXIT, until the GAO can review two tests—one where the airlines collect the data and one where Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents collect it.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection says Global Entry kiosks are expected to open at Los Angeles, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta, Chicago O’Hare and Miami international airports by the end of the month. Some 3,500 U.S. citizens or permanent residents have registered for the Global Entry program, which permits them to insert their passports or permanent residents’ cards into kiosks and provide fingerprints to avoid the lines at regular passport control.
An unprecedented five engine makers are fighting for a share of the emerging 10,000-lb.-thrust (10K) business jet market and, despite two airframe-engine decisions already, it seems the battle is only just beginning.
Boeing is likely outsourcing because its labor is not cost-competitive with foreign workers and if the company doesn’t outsource, it will not be competitive globally (AW&ST Sept. 15, p. 24).
Pressure-indicating film aids in manufacturing processes as well as in R&D endeavors. This unique thin plastic-like sensor film, placed between any two contacting or impacting surfaces, aids in characterizing tactile pressure contact between mating surfaces. Immediately upon pressure being applied, the film records the precise pressure distribution and magnitude that occurs by changing color, according to the company. Conceptually similar to Litmus paper, the color that pressure-indicating film turns is directly proportional to the amount of force applied.
Japanese police forces are buying 16 more AgustaWestland helicopters. The order, valued at around €100 million, covers 14 AW109 Power and two Grand rotorcraft. They will supplement 16 AW109 Powers in service, and the five more due to be delivered this year. The new helicopters are to arrive starting next year at a rate of 4-5 helos per year.
NASA is facing major disruption to its planned space shuttle and Ares 1-X test flight schedule triggered by a system failure on the Hubble Space Telescope, and will not know the full extent of the delays until Goddard Space Flight Center engineers complete health checks of a replacement part.
In the past I have expressed frustration over the Defense bureaucracy’s priorities and lack of urgency when it came to the current conflicts. For too many in the Pentagon, it has been business as usual, as opposed to a wartime footing and wartime mentality. When referring to “Next-War-itis,” I was not expressing opposition to thinking about and preparing for the future. It would be irresponsible not to do so —and the overwhelming majority of people in the Pentagon, the services and the defense industry do just that.
Fuji Heavy Industries is adopting production techniques from its Subaru car division to cut costs and help break into business jets and win a share of the 737 and A320 replacement programs. A head-to-head competition with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries looks likely, with Fuji stating its strategy is to specialize in wing production. Mitsubishi is also aiming to become a wing specialist, as well as a builder of complete aircraft (AW&ST Sept. 15, p. 28).
The more than $630-billion stopgap spending bill Bush signed last week includes $487.7 billion to fund the Defense Dept. through the end of Fiscal 2009. The continuing resolution (CR) crafted by Congress keeps most other federal government agencies at current spending levels—which in most cases is that of Fiscal 2007—through Mar. 6. But the current CR has Fiscal 2009 monies for defense, homeland security, military construction and veterans affairs.
Steve Taylor (see photo) has been named vice president-aircraft management sales for the Western U.S. for Executive Jet Management of Cincinnati. He was the international operations and special programs manager.
Airports operator BAA is challenging a recent report from the U.K. Competition Commission. It says it will sell Gatwick but is fighting to keep its other properties in London and Scotland. BAA says the commission’s findings include “significant flaws” and fail to take into account BAA’s capacity planning and development as well as its plans for airport expansion in the southeast.
As its machinists strike neared the one-month mark last week, Boeing picked up 13 orders, including nine for 767s for All Nippon Airways (see p. 60). United Airlines ordered two 737s as did an unidentified buyer, and Boeing sold one 747 BBJ. It now has 623 net orders for the year: 470 737s, 20 767s, 78 787s, 52 777s and three 747s.
A second prototype Sukhoi Su-35 (Su-27SM2) flew for the first time on Oct. 2 from the Komsomolsk-on-Amur production plant in Russia’s Far East. Deliveries of the Su-35, the second variant of the Su-27 Flanker to bear this number, are due to begin to the Russian air force in 2011. They will provide an interim capability upgrade until the air force’s PAK FA fifth-generation fighter program is ready to enter service, after 2015.
The No. 2 Embraer Phenom 300, now in certification flight testing, represents part of the $1 billion that the company is investing to populate the business aviation market with five new models, ranging from the purpose-built Phenom 100 VLJ to the 19-passenger Lineage 1000 (see p. 74). The Brazilian manufacturer entered the business aviation market in 2000 with the Legacy 600, an executive version of its ERJ 135 regional jet, of which more than 100 are in service. Embraer photo.
JetBird, a startup European charter operator, says it has secured financing in the form of a $14.4-million equity investment from an unnamed, family-owned Middle Eastern trading group and a loan from the Royal Bank of Scotland for pre-delivery payments on its first 25 Phenom 100s. The Ireland-based company plans a 2009 launch with a fleet that will eventually total 100 Embraer Phenom jets, 53 of which are on firm order. Meanwhile, Jet Republic, another new European operator based in Portugal, has begun selling jet cards in 25-hr. blocks.
The U.S. Army might increasingly abandon some of its largest legacy systems as it devotes nearly $45 billion in plus-ups to its Future Combat Systems (FCS), according to a pending Program Objective Memorandum (POM) for fiscal 2010-15. Whether Pentagon leaders approve the funding push for FCS remains to be seen, but the FY10-15 POM continues to demonstrate the Army’s unwavering commitment to fielding its entire FCS program. The Aug. 5 “pre-decisional” document calls for $1.3 billion in cuts to Stryker procurement and $2.07 billion to Abrams tank upgrades.
The FAA will revise, and may have to reissue, its multimillion-dollar mandate for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast avionics after reviewing scores of changes suggested by aircraft operators and industry experts.
Late last July, this reporter became the first journalist to fly the Phenom 100. And as soon as the electrical power came on, it was apparent that the very light jet (VLJ) benefited from Embraer’s considerable experience as a seasoned jetliner manufacturer. Accompanied by senior flight test pilot Antonio Braganca Silva and flight test engineer Maximillian Kleinubing, we embarked upon a 2-hr. 44-min. evaluation flight in EMB500 serial No. 500-801, Embraer’s first flight-test aircraft.
Greg Meals and Ron Larson have been appointed maintenance service managers and Al Diaz and Steve Nifong service supervisors at the Dallas facility of West Star Aviation Inc.
