As expected, Japan's Ishikawajima-Harima Heavy Industries (IHI) took a roughly 30-percent stake in the General Electric CF34-8C turbofan engine being designed for Canadair's new, stretched regional jet, the CRJ-X (B/CA, May, page 18). Under a recently signed agreement, IHI will design and manufacture 25 to 30 percent of the engine. IHI is one of Japan's largest engine makers, and already is a revenue-sharing partner in the GE90 airliner turbofan program.
You might call it ``everything you ever wanted to know about avionics from AAC to ZFW.'' Collins Commercial Avionics has published a 32-page glossary of acronyms and terms relating to the avionics business. If you're still guessing, you can obtain your own copy of the glossary by calling Collins at (319) 395-4085 or by faxing a request to (319) 395-2297. (AAC is Airline Administrative Communications, and ZFW is Zero Fuel Weight.)
NTSB sent the FAA 10 recommendations that would require air-tour operators to meet still more stringent requirements. At press time, the FAA had not responded, but the National Air Transportation Association claims tour operators are highly regulated now, and another layer of rules will ``suffocate'' the industry. The Safety Board based its actions on a study of 139 accidents from October 1988 to April of this year. Of the 722 persons aboard, 117 (16.2 percent) were killed.
One of Raytheon Aircraft's themes at Paris was focused on efforts to improve customer service. ``Because of the success we had achieved over the years, we were too set in our ways,'' said CEO Art Wegner. ``The company had become internally focused rather than concentrating on the needs of our customers.'' He said the head of customer service and support functions would now report directly to the executive office. Wegner claimed, ``This is the first step in creating a customer-service operation that is second to none in the industry.''
We hope FAA Administrator David Hinson and members of his traveling party had the opportunity to talk with lots of 19-seat aircraft operators while visiting the Regional Airline Association convention in San Antonio in mid May. And we hope those FAA officials were paying attention later the same week while attending a public hearing in Anchorage, Alaska to hear what people think about the DOT/FAA proposal to require FAR Part 135 operators to meet Part 121 standards.
The concept of CRM training originated in NASA human factors studies, concluding, among other things, that ``captains have failed, sometimes at critical points in the flight, to take advantage of important resources that are available to them. . . .'' Thus, it is important to know and manage the resources that contribute to flight safety.
Brian Barents, Learjet's president and CEO, doesn't pull any punches when answering questions about the Learjet 60's early production-model problems. ``The good news is that we've already addressed the problems operators have identified.'' Barents said that the firm delivered 22 Learjet 60 aircraft in 1994, and he expects to exceed that number this year. One of the reasons for his confidence is Learjet's aggressive stance on product improvement. Specifically, Learjet now offers these upgrades: Group I (No Cost)
Martin Harwit, beleaguered director of the National Air&Space Museum, resigned in May, citing what he termed the ``controversy and devisiveness'' that resulted from the museum's preparation for the display of the Enola Gay, the B-29 that dropped the first atomic bomb on Japan. Veterans protested the museum's plans to display the aircraft along with a description they felt did not give sufficient weight to Japanese aggression and did not reflect the anticipated number of Allied casualties if it had been necessary to launch a land invasion of Japan.
From a recent issue of the New York Times: The scene is a small foyer outside the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf-Astoria. The occasion is the American Heart Association's annual benefit dinner-dance. Says man in formal dinner suit, puffing on a cigarette: ``You know what I did when they prohibited smoking in planes?'' Queried woman in ball gown, puffing on a cigarette: ``No, what did you do?'' Retorted man in dinner suit: ``I bought my own airplane; now I have no problem.''
The Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) still is plagued by delays that are likely to put off commissioning more installations until year-end. About 320 of 537 systems have been installed, but only two-at Montrose, Colorado and Grand Canyon, Arizona-have been commissioned. Delays are attributed to problems with obtaining long-line communications, a National Weather Service moratorium imposed due to technical problems, and an FAA agreement with ATC controllers not to install ASOS at airports with control towers.
The facts of this accident were pretty uncomplicated. On June 18, 1994, at about 0625 hours, a Transportes Aeros Ejecutivos, S.A. (TAESA) Learjet 25D (XA-BBA) crashed 0.8-nm south of the threshold of Runway 1R at Dulles International Airport (IAD) in Chantilly, Virginia, during an ILS approach in Category III-level IMC. Two crewmembers and all 10 passengers were killed. The airplane was destroyed by impact.
AlliedSignal says its new RDR 2100 vertical-profile weather radar system, introduced at the Paris Air Show, features four times longer magnetron life, greater capability, longer range and six times more power than the system it replaces. The vertical-profile feature of the RDR 2100 can be viewed separately or simultaneously in a split-screen mode. Shipments of the RDR 2100 are expected to begin in August. The new RDR 2100 retails for $46,500.
As part of its negotiation of the type-certification basis for the G-V, Gulfstream Aerospace conducted a cost-benefit analysis of the 16-g seat rule as it applies to business jets. The company calculated a ratio ranging between 0.011 and 0.41, depending on whose cost figures are used. The FAA, like other federal agencies, is required to do a cost-benefit analysis of all of its significant proposed rules. The acceptable cost-benefit ratio is held to be one-to-one.
A proposed noise-compatibility program for Saipan International Airport in the Northern Mariana Islands has been submitted to the FAA. The agency is scheduled to approve or disapprove the proposal under FAR Part 150 guidelines on or before September 25. To obtain more information and to submit comments, contact David J. Welhouse at the FAA in Honolulu. Phone: (808) 541-1243.
Schweizer Aircraft is making inroads into the helicopter-training market with its 300CB, an approximately $184,000 basic model with which the company hopes to capture a share of a market dominated by Robinson Helicopter's R22. The Elmira, New York company introduced the 300CB at this year's Helicopter Association International Meeting (B/CA, March, page 20). Helicopter Adventures, one of the largest helicopter-training schools in the United States, has begun taking delivery of 10 300CBs, and most of them will replace Robinson R22s.
Canadian manufacturer Bombardier announced at the Paris Air Show that it will proceed with development of the 70-passenger de Havilland Dash 8-400 regional- airliner derivative of the 50-passenger Dash 8-300. Development of the -400, which had been in the proposal stage since the mid 1980s, is scheduled to culminate in certification in late 1998. The twin-engine Dash 8-400 will be powered by the new P&WC PW150, a derivative of the PW100 turboprop family.
The FAA has awarded more than 114 STCs to Sabreliner and Midcoast since late 1977. The following sampling gives a good idea of the companies' diverse capabilities in avionics, systems and cabin-interior modifications and retrofits. Date Aircraft Component 12/29/77 Sabreliner 60 VLF/Omega 9/28/78 Sabreliner 60 Aisle facing seat 9/28/78 Falcon 20C, D, E, F Autopilot static port systems 10/27/79 Sabreliner 40 FCS
A draft notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) to allow passenger-carrying IFR flights in primarily single-engine turbine airplanes (such as the Cessna Caravan, Socata TBM-700 and Pilatus PC-12) was recently completed by the Aviation Rulemaking Advisory Committee of FAA/industry representatives. The draft is similar to a Canadian rule adopted two years ago (B/CA, July 1993, page 22). A publication date for an NPRM was unknown as of press time.
``Absolutely there is a market for a small jet, but it must be much cheaper than the 50-passenger [Canadair] Regional Jet,'' says Michael Boyd of Colorado-based Aviation Systems Research Corporation. From past studies he has done for other manufacturers, Boyd believes there is a market for 600 to 800 airplanes over the next 10 years. He cites the heretofore hush-hush 35-passenger Fairchild 35, a study initiated in 1989 by the previous owners of the San Antonio manufacturer.
Photograph: During AHS ``Forum 51,'' Bell hosted a briefing on its new Model 407 at its research facility at nearby Arlington. Affordability has been a concern since the very beginning of rotorcraft development, so it's not surprising it was the chosen theme of the American Helicopter Society's ``Forum 51'' held in early May in Fort Worth. If helicopter manufacturers want to reverse the declining trend in sales, both acquisition and operating costs must be pared, said AHS Chairman C. Thomas Snyder of NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, California.
When the FAA adopted a new regulation governing aircraft seat construction and testing in 1988, few in the industry foresaw major problems with the rule.
Almost from the moment Orville and Wilbur first fired up the hand-built piston engine mounted on the lower wing of their Flyer biplane, pilots and mechanics have longed to know what was going on inside their aircraft's powerplants and systems.
Increasingly, internationally recognized standards for the manufacture and preparation of products for use in maintaining and servicing aircraft has received serious consideration in the aviation industry. The ISO 9000 quality standards have recently received considerable attention in the air-transportation community, and the several ISO standards-9001, 9002 and 9003-often have been compared to U.S. FARs and standards the JAA is developing in Europe.
The Professional Aviation Maintenance Association (PAMA) relocated its headquarters to Washington, D.C. on June 1, and appointed a full-time executive director to oversee PAMA activities.
After a gestation period going back to mid 1991 and several false starts, Sikorsky Aircraft announced in Paris that it definitely plans to build the 19-passenger S-92 Helibus medium-lift helicopter (B/CA, September 1991, page 30 and April 1994, page 22). With the help of several international partners, including Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Brazil's Embraer, and firms in China and Spain, Sikorsky hopes to fly the aircraft in 1998 and certify it in 2000. G-IVB IS IN A GULFSTREAM HOLDING PATTERN
