Northwest Airlink Business Express, as expected, will begin seasonal service between Northwest's Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) hub and Aspen/Snowmass, Colorado. The carrier will use a 69-passenger Avro RJ70 in the market. The carrier, which has three Avro quadjets, will offer two daily roundtrips beginning December 16 and running through March 31, 1996. The service could prove to be a shot in the arm for BizEx's jet operations, which are in the red.
The National Transportation Safety Board is focusing on propeller-blade fatigue in the August 21 crash of an Atlantic Southeast Embraer Brasilia near Atlanta. Five of 29 aboard perished. Investigators were looking for part of a blade the separated from the left engine while examining the 13-inch stub that remained after the airplane came down. They also were investigating why the aircraft did not continue to operate with its remaining good engine.
A Canadian firm has started marketing telephone systems designed to provide voice, fax and data services on business jets via American Mobile Satellite Corporation's AMSC-1 satellite. Cal Corporation of Ottawa, Ontario said its CalQuest phone services will be available in AMSC-1's coverage area, which extends from Alaska to the Panama Canal-including the Caribbean-and 200 miles off the North American coasts. The cost of phone equipment starts at $15,500.
Raytheon's Beech Aircraft has a long history with Collins Commercial Avionics, positioning the electronics firm well to be a key supplier for the Premier I. The challenge was to install new technology without driving up the cost. The solution was to design more functional integration into the displays and add more power to the well-proven, integrated avionics processing system (IAPS) that forms the central hub of the hub-and-spoke architecture of the Pro Line 21 avionics suite. (See Pro Line 21 report in this issue.)
There were two new turboprop sales to domestic customers reported in August, including one Raytheon Starship 1A and one Pilatus PC-XII. Last year, there were four new-turboprop sales listed for the same month. Resales totaled 25 compared to 74 the year before. July revisions affected neither the July nor year-to-date totals for new-turboprop sales. However, 54 additional resales posted brought the July total to 59. For the year, 32 new turboprops have been delivered to U.S. operators and 512 previously owned jetprops have changed hands.
Rejuvenating an aircraft's interior is an excellent way to increase its appeal, value and utility. A plethora of shops, ranging from big-name national chains to small specialty houses, tailor offerings to meet customer needs. Service facilities are reporting strong and stable business, and they say the number of new aircraft-and new aircraft models-portends healthy work loads for the foreseeable future. However, competition for your business remains keen.
Arthur E. Wegner, chairman and CEO of Raytheon Aircraft, and Roy Norris, president of Raytheon Aircraft, both beam when they discuss the Premier I, now the official name for the two-year-old PD-374 light-jet program. Their confidence is well- founded. The Premier I is the product of more extensive market re-search than any airplane in the firm's history. ``We've really concentrated on trying to understand the customer's needs,'' Wegner said.
During a ceremony at Marc Fruchter Aviation just prior to the opening of the 1995 Reading Aerofest at Pennsylvania's Reading Regional Airport in August, dignitaries from the state and the aviation industry honored Marc A. Fruchter with several awards for his company's service to the aviation community as well as for his contribution to the local community.
When engineer Sam Williams first envisioned a small, simple turbofan based on high-technology materials and manufacturing methods, no class of airplanes existed to provide a market for an engine generating less than 2,000 pounds of thrust. It was the mid 1970s, and few outside the defense industry had ever heard of Williams International, the Walled Lake, Michigan company that Williams had founded two decades earlier to build small gas turbines for missiles, drones and APUs.
A proposed Advisory Circular would clarify the definition of an owner- or operator-produced part and revise FAA definitions of approved parts, standard parts, surplus parts, rebuilt parts, altered parts and ``as is'' parts. Revised AC 20-62D also would update the criteria for the eligibility, identification and quality of replacement parts, and addresses the tracking of their airworthiness.
According to the NTSB, pilot error caused the November 1994 collision of a Cessna 441 and an MD-80 at Lambert/St. Louis Airport. The pilot of the 441 lined up for takeoff on the wrong runway (B/CA, April, page 82). But contributing to the accident, the Safety Board said, was the lack of ATIS and other ATC information regarding the occasional use of Runway 31 for departures. Also, the use of airport surface detection equipment (installed at Lambert, but not in operation at the time of the accident) ``could have prevented this accident.''
At press time, Tucson-based Universal Avionics Systems' latest flight management system, the UNS-1C, was due to receive certification this month. The system is an ``all-in-one'' box that fits into the same space as a UNS-1M navigation management system. However, the UNS-1C has all of the capabilities of the UNS-1B-Universal's most powerful, two-box FMS that uses both a control display unit (CDU) and a 2MCU remote computer.
In a related development, the first flight of the new ATR-400 took place in mid-July. The -400 is identical to the -500 with the exception of powerplants. The -400 is powered by a smaller, 2,200-shp PW121A and is designed for those operators that want the new interior and operating weights, but not the higher speed and performance. It offers the same Hamilton Standard six-blade propellers as the -500. The aircraft will replace the older ATR 42-300. The aircraft will be available in spring 1996.
Midcoast Aviation (St. Louis)-The FBO has announced three personnel changes: A promotion for Gary L. Driggers to executive vice president and chief operating officer, and for Kurt F. Sutterer to vice president and general manager. Also, Jerry L. Leath, the company's president, has assumed the additional duties of CEO.
It's telling that despite the failure of the FasTrack system, SimuFlite has not entirely rejected using computers to enhance its offerings. The company is again investing heavily in developing state-of-the-art multimedia classrooms that initially will be used for its new Gulfstream IV and Canadair Challenger courses.
The type of Hamilton Standard propeller that broke off in the crash of an Atlantic Southeast Embraer EMB-120 on August 21 and that is now the subject of FAA-ordered inspections and possible replacement has been implicated in other accidents and incidents over the last few years. The FAA order covers more than 8,500 props installed on de Havilland Dash 8s, ATR-42s and -72s, ATPs, Saab 340Bs, CASA CN235s and Canadair CL-215Ts, in addition to some 300 EMB-120s. Any blades found to have certain anomalies must be permanently removed from service.
Jetair Leasing Limited (West Sussex, UK)-Adam West, Jonathan Clements and Richard Suter have joined the sales team of this diverse management, charter, and aircraft sales and leasing company.
Swiss regional Air Engiadina has ordered a fourth 30-passenger Dornier 328 and placed an option for a fifth. The company was launch customer for the new aircraft, which has been in scheduled service since October 1993. Delivery of the new aircraft will occur this fall.
A requirement for separate instrument ratings for single-engine airplanes, multiengine airplanes and other aircraft types is one of several significant revisions contained in the proposed rewrite of pilot certification and training requirements of FAR Parts 61, 141 and 142 (B/CA, September, page 21). Other important proposals include a change in instrument currency requirements, the addition of human factors and wind-shear training and the requirement of only a third-class medical in applications for advanced pilot ratings. Comments are due December 11.
Like so many issues regarding medical certification-especially with the hoopla about the new changes to the FAA's medical standards-several misperceptions exist about blood pressure and certification. These misperceptions lead to unnecessary delays in returning to flying and do little to reduce the threat of the certification process.
Canadian government aviation officials used their speaking engagements at the Canadian Business Aircraft Association's annual meeting in early August as a launching platform for several policy changes. And two of those changes upset many attendees.
In the near future, Beech 1900D and Boeing 737-300 simulator training will be offered to airlines and corporate flight departments by FlightSafety International and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University at a facility to be built on the school's Daytona Beach, Florida campus. Training is scheduled to begin in spring 1997. Early in September, FlightSafety and Embry-Riddle signed an agreement to establish a ``flight simulator education, training and research facility'' to serve airline, government and corporate customers.
A NASA Boeing 757 successfully demonstrated a triple-channel autoland approach on the third day of trials aimed at evaluating GPS landing systems. Collins supplied the prototype GPS used in the Boeing-sponsored trials, and Germany's DASA supplied the differential ground station. The GPS receiver, navigation computer and ILS receiver emulation are in one line replaceable unit; a datalink receiver and data recorder are housed in separate units.
