Chinese business aviation used to suffer from the Singapore Syndrome, says David Dixon, a 22-year veteran of the industry here. Business jet manufacturers, caught in the classic bind of having few local sales and therefore little interest in setting up support facilities that would promote sales, assured their Chinese clients that they could have their aircraft serviced in Singapore.
Johan Bank has become vice president-engineering of KLM Engineering and Maintenance. He was director of maintenance, repair and overhaul for KLM Engine Services.
Sometimes being an outsider can prove beneficial. You get to look at something with a fresh perspective and discriminate between the positives and negatives as you learn the details.
Three types of paints and coatings are gaining significant traction in the aviation sector: solar-reflective, base coat/clearcoat and non-chromium-based. So says Brandon Hunt, director of the Advanced Coatings Lab at the National Institute for Aviation Research, which is operated in conjunction with Wichita State University.
Sharon B. DeVivo (see photo) has been appointed president of the Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology in New York, effective July 1. She has been senior vice president and had been vice president-academic and student affairs. DeVivo will succeed John C. Fitzpatrick, who plans to retire.
Recent guidelines put forward by U.S. and European regulators to enable passengers on approved carriers to use their personal electronic devices (PED) during all phases of flight have been warmly welcomed by wireless inflight entertainment (IFE) and connectivity providers. Allowing passengers to use their smartphones and tablets gate to gate “fuels the trend very positively” for the wireless IFE market, says Norbert Mueller, vice president of Lufthansa Systems’ BoardConnect unit.
•Robinson Helicopter Co. has delivered its 500th R66, just 3.5 years after the FAA awarded certification to the five-place helicopter, the Torrance, Calif., manufacturer’s first turbine-powered machine. •Officials of SyberJet, the latest iteration of the SJ30, a light-jet project that seemed permanently stalled since its launch in the 1980s, are planning a grand opening ceremony May 1 at its completions and delivery center in Cedar City, Utah.
Jose Ruiz, Jr., has been named vice president/chief information officer of Aerojet Rocketdyne, Sacramento, Calif. He was vice president-information technology for Raytheon Intelligence and Information Systems, Aurora, Colo., and had been CIO at the Northrop Grumman Corp. for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency.
Dirk Reich has been named president/CEO of Luxembourg-based Cargolux. He succeeds Richard Forson, who was interim CEO and remains senior vice president/CFO. Reich was executive vice president of Kuehne & Nagel International. Marcel Funk has been appointed senior vice president-flight operations and Onno Pietersma senior vice president-maintenance and engineering.
Since Beijing Capital International Airport is overloaded with commercial flights, there is not much doubt that a business aviation facility in the vicinity would be beneficial. And if all goes well, by year-end China’s first bizav airfield should be under construction at Sanhe, to the east of Beijing. But whether many—or indeed any—other Chinese cities need such airfields yet is questionable. Some in the industry even reject the common complaint that business aviation in China is constrained by a lack of fixed base operators (FBO).
Chile’s military is considering an improvement to its transport forces, opening the door for manufacturers to propose fixed- and rotary-wing assets. The country’s terrain is diverse, including the high altitudes of the Andes, deserts to the north, glaciers in the south and a 4,000-mi. coastline. Santiago is considering its options for assured access to remote areas, especially to ensure government responsiveness to natural disasters such as earthquakes.
With a new generation of satellites coming, ushering in greater bandwidth capacity and new surveillance capability, Iridium Communications is aiming for an increasing share of the aviation market. But rather than compete for a piece of the airline-passenger connectivity business, the satellite operator is focused on satcom applications beyond the cabin.
Testing, Testing The FAA is taking a measured approach to a U.S. congressional mandate to issue drug and alcohol (DA) testing program requirements for certain foreign repair station employees, seeking industry input on what a rule should include before releasing a draft proposal.
Qatar has become the new darling of the defense contractors after announcing plans to spend 87 billion riyals ($23 billion) on new equipment for its armed forces.
The biggest new entrant in the Chinese business aviation industry is a rejuvenated established player. Minsheng International Jet is being built up from Citic General Aviation with the aim of making it the largest operator in the sector in Asia, partly thanks to its association with sibling Minsheng Financial Leasing.
One year after rolling out a Ramp Line Operations Safety Assessment (R-LOSA) program to its six largest bases, JetBlue Airways is implementing changes in procedures and processes that are reducing risk and increasing awareness of the human element in ramp operations.
The International Air Transport Association (IATA), taking the lead among industry organizations that can help institute change, plans to create a task force on how aircraft tracking should be improved to make it more difficult for airliners to disappear.
Embedded inflight entertainment (IFE) systems have become synonymous with long-haul air travel, providing a welcome distraction to passengers seated in tight quarters for many hours
V incent Sandoval (see photo) has become group president of Circor Aerospace & Defense, Burlington, Mass. He was president of TransDigm Group Inc.’s Semco Instruments subsidiary and had been an executive at the Parker Hannafin Co. Sandoval succeeds Michael Dill, who has resigned.
Boeing has revealed the air-launched microsatellite vehicle it is developing for the Defense Advanced Research Project Agency’s (Darpa) Airborne Launch Assist Space Access (Alasa) program. Conventional boosters comprise a stack of stages, each with its own engines and fuel tanks, but in Boeing’s Alasa design, the engines are moved to the forward end of the 24-ft.-long launch vehicle.
A recent U.S. Export-Import Bank press release touting financing of Brazilian carrier Gol’s engine maintenance contract with Delta Air Lines—which is suing the bank over financing of Boeing widebodies for some Delta competitors—turned some heads. Among U.S. MRO providers, it should have—but not for political reasons.
