Embraer of Brazil is one of a number of international partners to join in a risk-sharing partnership on the new 22-passenger Sikorsky S-92 Helibus multi-role helicopter. First flight of the aircraft is scheduled for early 1998, with certification following two years later. Sikorsky believes there is a market for 5,000 S-92s through 2019-with 55 to 60 percent projected for military customers. Embraer will be responsible for a four-percent share of the projected $600-million program, including fuel system and sponsons.
The top two executives of Satellite Aero, an FBO at Wyoming's Jackson Hole Airport, signed an agreement in early June to purchase Western Aircraft, an FBO at Gowen Field in Boise, Idaho that is one of several divisions that financially troubled Morrison Knudsen Corporation has put up for sale. Besides providing line and maintenance services, Western Aircraft is an installation center for Saunders spar straps and Aviadesign hydraulic landing gear for Beech King Airs.
Amendments have been adopted that correlate certain FAR Part 25 large-aircraft airworthiness certification standards with similar standards in Europe's Joint Airworthiness Requirements (JAR Part 25). To provide guidelines for complying with the changes, the agency also revised AC 25-7, ``Flight Test Guide for Certification of Transport Category Airplanes.'' A similar set of FAR/JAR changes for smaller airplanes is in the proposal stage (B/CA, September 1994, page 15).
When you're considering an upgrade of your flight department management software, you'll hear many claims about competing products. Yet the top five or six management vendors evolved remarkably similar products even before they introduced graphical Windows, Mac and OS/2 editions of them. This resemblance is driven by the similar scheduling, tracking and reporting functions of most flight departments.
MovinCool is not only the name of this product, but also describes the way to use it. Just roll it whenever or wherever needed, and Nippodenso's portable air-conditioning unit will provide refrigerated air with no installation required. Choose from eight models offering per-hour cooling capacity from 10,000 BTUs ($2,600) to 60,000 BTUs ($8,600). Extension ducts enable the air to be directed to ground crews, cabin or cockpit. Nippodenso of Los Angeles, 3900 Via Oro Ave., Long Beach, CA 90810. (310) 834-6352.
Collins Avionics and France's Dassault Electronique signed a memorandum of agreement to jointly develop a line of ground collision avoidance systems (GCAS). The two companies are considering: an integrated GCAS and traffic alert collision avoidance system (TCAS), GCAS with an integral global navigation satellite system sensor, and a stand-alone GCAS. A prototype GCAS is scheduled to begin flight-testing late this year. Certification is expected in early 1997.
August marks the 50th anniversary of a controversial flight that not only was a milestone in aviation chronology, but also a dramatic event that irrevocably changed the course of history. Soon after the Boeing B-29 Superfortress named Enola Gay dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945, killing nearly half of the city's 300,000 people, it became apparent that aerial warfare-indeed, the world-would never be the same.
The Astra SPX has one of the most versatile and capable avionics suites ever installed in a business airplane. All too often, system sophistication can overwhelm the pilot with myriad functions and arcane operating controls. Breathe easy. The Astra SPX's Pro Line 4 avionics, in our opinion, is one of the most intuitive layouts we've yet seen. This is Pro Line 4 at its best.
A new airway between BOPAN waypoint and AJF VOR provides a route between Europe and the Arabian Gulf area. The following are phone numbers of international handling agents: Air Routing International, (800) 231-5787; AMR International Aviation Services, (800) 866-0295; Baseops International, (800) 333-3563; Corporate Aviation Services, (800) 554-1087; Jeppesen DataPlan, (800) 358-6468; Jeppesen United Kingdom, +44 (293) 546-446; Spectrum Air Services, (800) 876-8268; and Universal Weather&Aviation, (800) 231-5600.
Effective August 17, several subareas of the Class B Airspace for North Carolina's Charlotte/Douglas International Airport will be reconfigured, but the 10,000-foot upper limit will remain. The changes generally reduce the amount of Class B Airspace, but during the proposed rulemaking stage, the FAA rejected several requests from general aviation representatives and advocates that the ceiling be lowered to 8,000 feet (B/CA, May 1994, page 20).
David Wolf, flight department manager for Rocky Mount, North Carolina-based Hardee's Food Systems, is typical of some of the operators who are going beyond the limits of their management avcomps. Wolf's flight department uses a popular DOS-based business aviation management system. He has recently begun manually transferring data from his management system to a Lotus spreadsheet to generate other types of information for use within the flight department and to provide information for Hardee's CEO and CFO.
The Gulfstream V has reached that satisfying point in the development of every new aircraft where it is taking recognizable shape. On May 31, the first G-V fuselage was joined. (See photo.) In July, the Vought-manufactured wing set and Fokker-built empennage were scheduled to have been mated to the fuselage, and the BMW/Rolls-Royce engines are scheduled to be mounted by early September in preparation for the aircraft's rollout prior to the NBAA annual convention in Las Vegas, September 26-28.
FAA is conducting a ``comprehensive review'' of its regulation and certification capabilities. The agency's goal is to determine what it will need to do ``to overcome the increasing challenges of regulating the aviation industry and certificating rapidly changing technologies as America enters the 21st century.'' An industry/agency task force chaired by Barry Valentine, FAA assistant administrator for policy, planning and international aviation, will direct the review, dubbed ``Challenge 2000.'' Spring 1996 is the target for its completion.
The new Canadair Special Edition (SE) is a transatlantic corporate version of the Canadair Regional Jetliner offering a full-fuel, non-stop range of 3,000 nm. Canadair says the aircraft can carry five passengers and a crew of three from Jeddah to London, or eight passengers from Jeddah to Stockholm. The SE features a maximum gross weight of 53,000 pounds to enable the aircraft to incorporate an additional 4,000 pounds of fuel stored in two new auxiliary tanks located aft. The tanks are designed and installed by PATS, Incorporated of Columbia, Maryland.
NTSB's ``Most-Wanted'' list of safety improvements has grown to 17 items with the addition of a proposal that commuter-airline rules be upgraded to the same safety standards as major carriers'. The Safety Board dropped two aviation issues from the list: brake-wear limits on transport aircraft and structural-fatigue testing. Besides commuter-airline safety, the ``Most-Wanted'' list also calls for improving flight data recorders and reducing runway incursions.
Bombardier Regional Aircraft Division and de Havilland Aircraft popped their new Dash 8 quiet interior at the Paris Air Show in June and, as expected, have spurned Active Noise Control (ANC) as ``inadequate.''
SoftComm Products' new Model C-45M ``Prince'' headset weighs less than 11 ounces and features eight built-in adjustment points so that every user is a ``perfect fit.'' Oversized earseals surround the ears and block out sound. The adjustable earcups are filled with a foam material yielding an average noise-reduction rating of -23 dB. SoftComm says Prince's advantages are its three-way articulating fulcrum, contoured mike boom, the RF immune microphone and heavy-duty gold-plated plugs attached to 70-inch cables. Price: $98. SoftComm Products, 2310 S.
In sharp contrast to the Clinton administration's proposal to corporatize the FAA's ATC system, Representatives Jim Lightfoot (R-IA) and John Duncan (R-TN), the chairman of the House Aviation Subcommittee, introduced legislation recently to remove the FAA from the DOT and restore it to independent-agency status. This joint action replaces the legislation previously submitted by Lightfoot alone. Business-aviation trade advocates have expressed support for an independent FAA.
Cessna Aircraft filed a formal protest with the U.S. government's General Accounting Office over the Pentagon's decision to award the Joint Primary Aircraft Training System (JPATS) to Raytheon Aircraft Company. The company asserts, ``It appears that the ground rules changed significantly during the bid process from a best-value-based Request for Proposal to a lowest cost/price decision.
It has been a long time coming-the 70-passenger de Havilland Dash 8-400 high-speed turboprop. The announcement of its official launch at the Paris Air Show in June could only be called anti-climactic. The selection of an engine that manufacturer Pratt&Whitney Canada said would never be built had been made. The market and engineering studies started by previous de Havilland owner Boeing needed only to be updated.
While cruising at 53,000 feet, the flightcrew enjoys lunch in the cockpit. Vibration-free and with hardly any noise, everything on the aircraft is under control. Suddenly there is a bang, fog and numbing cold. Either the aircraft has lost a door seal, an outflow valve has gone full open, a rate-limiting valve or a window has failed, or an engine has experienced rotor burst and parts have penetrated the pressure vessel.
The formation of Aero International Regional (AIR) has inalterably changed the architecture of regional aircraft manufacturing. Pending approval by the European Commission and the U.S. Justice Department-which is considered likely-the ATR partnership of France's Aerospatiale and Italy's Alenia, and British Aerospace units Avro Aerospace and Jetstream Aircraft, will become one.
