FAA awarded a $1.1-million contract to Booze-Allen&Hamilton in connection with the agency's Challenge 2000 project, a comprehensive review of the FAA's regulatory procedures (B/CA, August, page 15). The well-known management consulting firm will help the agency determine what it will need to meet the challenge of regulating the industry as it enters the 21st century. The company is scheduled to complete its part of the review by the end of the year. Spring 1996 is the target date for completion of the entire Challenge 2000 project.
A proposed FAA rule would revise service difficulty reporting requirements for FAR Part 135 and 121 operators with the aim of improving the quality and dissemination of the data. The action was prompted by an internal review of the effectiveness of the reporting and by the air-carrier industry's concern over the quality of the information, said the FAA. Comments on the proposal are due November 13. For more details, contact the FAA at (202) 267-3797.
A Cinnaminson, New Jersey company has a novel approach to ``checking out'' FAR Part 135 air-taxi firms for potential charter customers-particularly corporate flight departments. Instead of waiting to be asked by a potential customer to perform a safety audit on XYZ Air Taxi Company and pay a single fee for a one-time evaluation by a consultant, Wyvern Limited sells a report consolidating the safety audits of a number of selected charter firms based throughout the United States.
Founding members of the new Southeastern Roundtable Safety Committee have scheduled their first meeting for April 23, 1996. Representatives of corporate flight departments based in Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama and the Carolinas are invited to attend. The aim of the group is to meet every six months to discuss safety issues of mutual concern. For more information, contact David Carlisle of SunTrust Banks' aviation department at (407) 237-4486.
A ``Land and Hold-Short Lighting System'' is now in use on Runway 22L at Boston-Logan International Airport. The system, intended to provide pilots with an easy identification of the hold-short point, consists of five in-pavement white lights arranged in a line across Runway 22L, parallel to and 250 feet from the centerline of Runway 27. The lights pulsate whenever simultaneous operations are being conducted on Runways 22L and 27. Logan's ATIS will inform pilots whenever the system is in operation.
Expansion-minded Gulfstream International will open a secondary hub at Birmingham, Alabama effective November 1. The Miami-based regional will offer four daily nonstops to Columbus, Georgia, and Mobile, Alabama; three daily one-stops to New Orleans and one weekend one-stop to Tallahassee, as well as three daily one-stops between Mobile, Alabama and Tallahassee, Florida.
December 31-TCAS: Turbine-powered FAR Part 135 aircraft with 10 to 30 passenger seats must have TCAS I systems installed. January 1, 1996-Alcohol testing: FAR Part 135 operators with 10 or fewer employees to whom alcohol-testing rules are applicable will have to be in compance. April 20, 1996-GPWS: All air taxi and commuter turboprops equipped with previously approved advisory systems and having 10 or more passenger seats have until this date to replace those systems with TSOed GPWS units.
United Kingdom's Civil Aviation Authority has approved Loral Data Systems' Fairchild A200S, a new solid-state cockpit voice recorder with a two-hour recording capability. Earlier, the system received TSO C123 approval by the FAA and was granted European EUROCAE ED-56A certification. Sarasota, Florida-based Loral says the A200S meets the international technical requirements for CVRs that must be incorporated in air carrier transports by March 1997.
Midwest Express Holdings has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering (IPO) of 5.140-million shares of common stock. Holdings is a newly formed Delaware corporation that will own both Midwest Express Airlines and its subsidiary, Astral Aviation, which operates as Skyway Airlines. Both are owned by Kimberly-Clark, which will retain approximately 20 to 30 percent of Midwest Express. Salomon Brothers, Goldman Sachs&Company and Robert W. Baird&Company are managing the underwriting group.
The Air Line Pilots Association unit at Delta, meanwhile, is seeking an injunction that would prevent the airline from turning over those jet routes to ASA. In a petition filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, the union said that Connection carriers traditionally have flown aircraft of 70 seats or less.
The under $4-million Premier I, the first business jet designed by Raytheon Aircraft, is scheduled to fly in late 1997 and receive FAA single-pilot approval in late 1998. Formally introduced at the NBAA convention in September, the Premier I is a six passenger, 11,450-pound aircraft that will be powered by two Williams-Rolls Royce FJ44-2 turbofans rated at 2,300 pounds-thrust each.
Japanese auto manufacturer Toyota, in partnership with Hamilton Standard, hopes to receive FAA certification by the end of the year of an aircraft version of the V-8 engine that powers Toyota's luxury car, the Lexus. The 360-hp, water-cooled engine features twin turbochargers and a dual-channel full-authority digital engine control (FADEC). Hamilton Standard is supplying the FADEC in addition to a four-blade, composite propeller. Most recently, the engine has been flying as the right-side powerplant on a Cessna 340 testbed aircraft.
Another try at certificating a P&WC PW305-powered Falcon 20 retrofit is under way. If all goes as planned, Greenwich Aircraft Corporation (GAC) of Sausalito, California will receive FAA approval of the modification in 1997, and GAMCO of Saudi Arabia and BizJet International in Tulsa will perform customer conversions. An earlier attempt at a similar program, led by the now-defunct Volpar Aircraft of Van Nuys, California, failed five years ago to achieve certification after more than 50 hours of flight-test in a PW305-powered Falcon 20.
The U.S. Department of Commerce selected Sam Williams, Ph.D. to receive its 1995 National Medal of Technology. Dr. Williams was honored for his ``unequaled achievements as a gifted entrepreneur, risk-taker and engineering genius in making the U.S.A. number one in small gas-turbine-engine technology and competitiveness, and for his phenomenal leadership and vision in revitalizing the depressed United States general aviation, business jet and trainer jet aircraft industry.'' The award is scheduled to be presented to Dr. Williams at White House ceremonies this month.
British, French and Italian civil-aviation authorities have certificated the new 46- to 50-passenger ATR 42-500. At a cruise speed of 305 knots, the -500 produces a lot more ``umph'' than earlier models. It is powered by Pratt&Whitney Canada PW127E turboprops, with six-blade Hamilton Standard Ratier 568F propellers.
One of the most effective ways to modernize an aircraft-and preserve its value-is by refurbishing the cockpit. Upgrading to new avionics and other instrumentation can pay off in reduced crew workload, enhanced safety, additional capability, improved dispatch reliability, increased efficiency and higher resale value.
Delta Connection Atlantic Southeast Airlines-in a competition that saw two British Aerospace subsidiaries pitted against one another-has selected the 88-passenger BAe 146-200 quadjet as its first jet aircraft. The carrier will place four in operation on December 1, and a fifth on February 1, 1996. It holds options on an additional 15, which would place a value of $160 million on the deal. Sources tell B/CA that ASA obtained extremely good five-year lease rates on the aircraft-as low as $60,000 per month, and perhaps much lower.
Twelve RAA associate members have been named to the trade group's new Associate Member Council (AMC). During the RAA's annual spring meeting in San Antonio, the AMC was voted into existence expressly to: -- Provide a source of specific expertise for the RAA on technical matters; -- Provide a forum to voice associate-member interests and concerns to the RAA board of directors and President's Council; -- Provide resources to assist in developing industry positions on issues; and
The latest members of the top management team at The New Piper Aircraft include Larry Bardon as director of marketing and sales. Bardon was previously with Pilatus Aircraft's U.S. office. Dan Elliott, most recently with Rohr Industries and a 13-year Piper veteran, returned to Piper as manager of manufacturing. And Margaret Napolitan left a four-year hitch at the NTSB to join Piper as manager of air safety. The New Piper Aircraft, Incorporated emerged earlier this year from Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. (See also this month's Observer.)
Society of Automotive Engineers, at the request of the FAA, has formed a task group to write a ``recommended practice'' for measuring the intensity and flash rates of strobes. The group includes members from lighting manufacturers, the FAA, trade organizations and the scientific community. A draft report is scheduled to be available in July 1996. The report will contain guidelines on when strobes should be repaired or replaced, among other recommendations.
