Business & Commercial Aviation

J.M.
Photograph: Gray clouds and occasional rain do not slow the pace of the Paris Air Show. The Paris-Le Bourget International Air&Space Show bills itself as the world's largest and most important aerospace exhibition, a claim that is hard to dispute. The biennial event throws open its doors again this month, with the promise of more than 200 aircraft on display and dense crowds packing the 210,000 square feet of exhibit space in the enormous halls.

Staff
Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries is developing an eight-passenger, twin-turbine helicopter. A prototype of the 8,000-pound RP-1 is scheduled to make its first flight in 1996 and enter service in 1998. The RP-1 will compete in an already crowded market that now includes the Eurocopter 365 Dauphin and BK-117, and the Sikorsky S-76. In fact, Mitsubishi's flying test bed for RP-1 engines, transmission and rotor system is based on the S-76.

L.M.
Photograph: Bradford Lindley, a pilot for General Electric Company, listens for breathing during a test measuring his CPR skills. Maybe your flightcrews are prepared to administer first aid in flight, but could crewmembers cope with a sudden cardiac emergency? Could they save a life? To be a truly safe operation, learning to resuscitate someone whose breathing or heart has stopped is essential. One company to consider for training flightcrews in basic CPR and use of the automatic defibrillator is J. Hare Safety&Survival Systems of Jamaica, New York.

Staff
Le Bourget's location is one of its beauties. The airport, which was established on the distant outskirts of Paris as a military airfield in 1917 during World War I, has no scheduled commercial traffic and is almost exclusively used for business flights. An occasional military aircraft drops in, heading for the small military enclave on the west side of the airport, and a commercial charter flight stops by now and then.

Staff
Development of low-octane unleaded avgas has been boosted by Cessna's decision to equip its new singles with engines that can run on unleaded 82 octane, even though efforts to produce high-octane unleaded avgas to replace 100LL have been unsuccessful to date (B/CA, February 1993, page 20). Phillips 66 expects to receive FAA approval for an 82UL avgas later this year. Meanwhile, Cessna has started flight testing a prototype of the updated Model 172 that it intends to start manufacturing in 1996--exactly a decade after production was suspended.

Staff
The following is a quiz, reprinted from the FAA Aviation Safety Journal, designed to test your knowledge of the new airport signs. (The answer key follows.) (1) Holding-position signs have a: (A) White inscription on a red background (B) Black inscription on a yellow background (C) Yellow inscription on a black background (2) Taxiway-location signs have a: (A) White inscription on a red background (B) Black inscription on a yellow background

R.B.P.
Many of the over 350 business aircraft pilots and managers attending the 22nd NBAA Annual International Operators Conference (IOC) in Dallas in April had a surprise in store for them. They learned that the implementation program to reduce vertical separation from 2,000 to 1,000 feet in the North Atlantic was already under way.

Staff
After taking 77-year-old Allison private from General Motors in a management buyout, the Indianapolis-based engine manufacturer's leadership surprised the aviation community late in 1994 when it abruptly sold out to British engine builder Rolls-Royce for $525 million. The U.S. government approved the merger in March.

Staff
The special flight restrictions for operating above the Grand Canyon will likely be extended for another two years. The restrictions were enacted four years ago and have previously been extended to allow time for the National Park Service to complete a study involving aircraft overflight impacts in the Canyon. Recommendations from the completed study were sent to the FAA, which said extending the restrictions gives it ample time to review the studies.

P.E.B.
Photograph: Orenda believes that over the next 10 years, more than 5,000 aircraft will be candidates for its V-8 engine retrofit. The Orenda Division of Hawker Siddeley Canada hopes the claimed combination of strong, high-altitude performance of its engines and low maintenance and acquisition costs, will help them turn a marketing corner. Specifically, the division is looking for the company's line of aviation-oriented V-8 engines to capture a segment of the market that heretofore has been dominated by small turboprop engines.

Staff
The regional airline industry continued its steady growth during calendar 1994, with traffic up 13.3 percent over 1993, and more than 50 percent in the last three years. Regional airlines generated 12.02 million revenue passenger miles during the year, boarding a record 57.1 billion passengers. That is an 8.3-percent increase over 1993's 52.7 million enplanements, and a 54.1-percent jump over 1991's 7.8 million RPMs.

Staff
When all is said and done, the ``aviation business'' is really a part of the ``communication business.'' B/CA's readers use airplanes safely and efficiently to bring people together so they can effectively exploit all the advantages of face-to-face contact.

By TORCH LEWIS
Raytheon's blockbuster pronouncement that it plans to buy E-Systems for ``about $2.3 billion in cash'' was the big, big aviation news in April. Raytheon's ownership of Beech and Hawker, though, makes it B/CA news. Concurrent with the news of the impending purchase of E-Systems was the overshadowed release that Raytheon/Beech plans to construct a new business jet, starting with ``a clean sheet of paper.''

Staff
The Washington, D.C. think tank called the Heritage Foundation has proposed yet another solution to the much-debated future of ATC and the FAA: shut down the DOT and most of its agencies, including the FAA. The Foundation maintains that many of the former DOT functions, such as ATC, should eventually be privatized. Already under consideration, of course, are President Clinton's idea of consolidating the DOT and spinning off ATC, and general aviation's push for the FAA (with ATC) to remain a government agency--but independent of the DOT.

Staff
Besides sleep debt and physical exertion, the following is a list of the other numerous causes of fatigue, many occurring simultaneously. Note that many are controllable, and every effort should be made to minimize the effects of these factors that can debilitate us: Noise and vibration. Self-medication, especially antihistamines. Hangover, even 12 hours after the last drink. Illness, such as a simple flu or cold. Hypoglycemia. Hypoxia, present above 5,000 feet on long trips.

Staff
Revised TSOs have been proposed for flight data recorders (FDRs), cockpit voice recorders (CVRs) and airborne weather radars with forward-looking wind-shear detection capability. The new TSOs specify the revised minimum performance standards that each of the systems must meet in order to be identified as TSOed. For more information on the proposed TSOs, contact Bobbie J. Smith at the FAA's Airworthiness Branch in Washington, D.C. Phone: (202) 267-9546.

Staff
Cyril E. King International Airport in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands will soon have its first full-service FBO since 1992, when the airport was expanded and recommissioned. The board of directors of the U.S. Virgin Islands Port Authority selected Sr. Croix-based Bohlke International Airways to operate a full-time, full-service FBO at St. Thomas. Line services will expand gradually as the company begins in January 1996 to build toward full-service capability.

Staff
Enhanced Vision System and Synthetic Vision System are two terms that currently roll off the tongues of many technocrats in the aviation industry. These two terms often are used interchangeably, although, in a pure sense, they are quite different concepts.

Staff
A new noise ordinance at California's Long Beach Airport permits limited operations by most business jet models. The new noise policy follows several years of legal wrangling and out-of-court negotiations between the aviation industry and the airport authority (B/CA, March 1990, page 24). Provisions of the policy set noise limits for day, evening and night, and establish a ``noise budget'' for aircraft operations. Also, the policy sets up a GA noise committee to work with airport officials to ensure compliance with the ordinance.

R.B.P.
A presentation about fatigue and flight-deck management on long-haul corporate aircraft flights was a new element on the agenda of the NBAA's 22nd annual International Operators Conference (IOC) held in Dallas in April. As usual, the always-important reports from international operators on ATC and other operational conditions around the world topped off the gathering.

By David Esler
As part of its dowry, Allison Engines was able to present merger suitor Rolls-Royce with a new type certificate for the turbofan engine that will plug a hole in the low end of the British manufacturer's product line. Earlier this year, Allison was awarded FAA type approval for the AE 3007C engine that powers Cessna's 0.9 Mach mid-size Citation X business jet. (And, of course, Allison now is a member of Rolls-Royce's family.)

Staff
The number of VHF communications channels could be increased from the present 760 to more than 2,000 by reducing the ``width'' from the current 25 kHz to 8.33 kHz. Use of these so-called ``triple-split'' VHF transceivers as a short-term solution to help overcome radio frequency congestion problems was one of the recommendations issued from ICAO's Special Communications/Operations Divisional Meeting in Montreal, Quebec, Canada this spring. A longer-term solution will require introduction of datalinks for routine air/ground communications.

Staff
``Nav Canada'' is the private corporation being formed to take over the country's Air Navigation System from the Canadian government on or about April 1, 1996. Nav Canada is to be a nonprofit corporation, with funds coming from user fees--many of them to be increased. A 15-person board of directors will have four representatives from commercial aviation, one from GA, three from the federal government, two from unions and four from such professions as law, accounting and engineering. The board will appoint a CEO (B/CA, November 1994, page 58).

Staff
The flight-test program for the Gulfstream G-V will involve four aircraft, with the first to fly in November. Flight-test aircraft No. 2 is scheduled to fly in mid-December; No. 3 at the end of January 1996; and No. 4 in April 1996. Certification should follow six months later. All four G-V test aircraft will eventually be used as demonstrators and will be available for purchase.

Staff
Alliance Engines, the newly formed venture between Duncan Aviation of Lincoln, Nebraska and KC Aviation of Appleton, Wisconsin, plans to start offering repairs and overhauls on AlliedSignal APUs this month in recently acquired facilities in Maryville, Tennessee. The company expects to extend repair and overhaul services to AlliedSignal TPE331 turboprops in July and to TFE731 turbofans in October. Alliance has promised to cut costs and turnaround times for overhauls and repairs on AlliedSignal engines (B/CA, December 1994, page 66).