Jim Wurth, a former Eastern Airlines pilot and Pratt & Whitney engineer, became interested in batteries when his MD-500 helicopter would not start after a night out in the cold in New Mexico years ago. He and a friend had camped in a remote area and faced a long walk out even to get cellphone coverage. Fortunately, a warming sun got them on their way that afternoon. But Wurth thought there had to be a better answer for batteries.
The world's biggest business aviation event has a new name. The US National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) announced today that the name for its largest annual U.S. event has been changed from NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention” to “Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition” (“BACE”).
Efforts to clear the hurdles to commercial-scale production of advanced biofuels are focusing on increasing yields from energy crops and reducing the costs of harvesting, transporting and processing the millions of tons of biomass required. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) plans to award $6 million in research contracts to enable delivery of lignocellulosic biomass, such as switchgrass, polar and waste wood, at the volumes and costs required for commercial-scale biofuel production.
I read with interest “Radar in Winter Ops” (November 2012, page 86). You cite the World War II experience of RAF Bomber Command. More recently, Vietnam-era F-105 Thunderchief crews used an Autonetics NASARR R-14A radar. This was a monopulse set with good air-to-air capability, but it was normally employed in the air-to-ground mode where the pilot could obtain contour mapping or terrain-avoidance as well as ground-mapping from 13 to 80 mi. ahead.
Hawker Beechcraft is proposing to pay Swiss plane-maker Pilatus Aircraft $7.5 million to settle a dispute over Hawker Beechcraft's production of the T-6/AT-6 military trainer. Hawker Beechcraft says the move is neither an admission that it is using “protectable intellectual property” of Pilatus, nor that it owes royalty payments. But Hawker Beechcraft says the proposed payment would be in its best interest because it would avoid a public dispute and prolonged lawsuit at a critical juncture of the company's bankruptcy proceedings.
Tom Myers Director, Marketing Aircell Broomfield, Colo. ( )
I really enjoyed “The Alabama Bet” in December. How cool is that about your son? Congrats, Pop! Also loved the words about Al Ueltschi, the man we called A-L-U. When I was with the ad agency years ago, FlightSafety was our client.
Hawker Beechcraft is furloughing about 240 workers on its T-6/AT-6 production line as it winds down the most recent Joint Primary Aircraft Training Systems (JPATS) contract. The company is in negotiations for Lots 19 and 20, Hawker Beechcraft says. “To allow this negotiation process to be completed and synchronize output to customer demand, the company is initiating a rolling furlough on its T-6/AT-6 production line in Wichita,” the company says in a statement.
Four minutes after taking off from Singapore's Changi Airport on Nov. 4, 2010, the flight crew of Qantas Airways Flight 32, an Airbus A380, heard two loud explosions from the left inboard engine while passing through 7,000 ft. overhead Batam Island in North Indonesia. At that point, a “black swan event” began to develop.
Cessna is releasing a series of service bulletins for the installation of Astronics Corporation's Max-Viz-600 enhanced vision system (EVS) on newer model Cessna 172 Skyhawk, 182 Skylane or 206 Stationair single-piston aircraft. The bulletins provide the factory provisions for retrofit of the systems on the aircraft. The retrofit has received both FAA and European Aviation Safety Agency approval. The Max-Viz systems are also offered as optional equipment on new Skyhawks, Skylanes and Stationairs.
Air medical services specialist Air Methods is expanding its scope with its acquisition of Las Vegas operator Sundance Helicopters for $44 million in cash. Sundance becomes a wholly owned subsidiary of Air Methods, and not only adds air tours to the Air Methods portfolio, but also a range of helicopter services supporting firefighting, natural resource agency operations, vertical lifts, aerial photography/motion pictures, newsgathering and aerial surveying.
What is the accepted generic label for a private aircraft? There are many terms associated with aircraft that are not used for commercial purposes. Your magazine has, I think, used them all: “business jet,” “bizjet,” “executive jet,” “private jet,” “private plane,” etc. Wikipedia says the generic is “bizjet.” However, I have recently discovered that “bizjet” is a registered trademark even though there are many websites that use it in their titles.
The Aircraft Electronics Association (AEA) has found that repair station executives are bullish on 2013 business prospects, with more than half the respondents to a recent AEA survey expecting revenue improvement in 2013. The survey generated 180 responses, the association says. Big-picture takeaways include a more bullish outlook than last year's survey, and a range of services driving the growth. AEA's survey results show that 56% of respondents expect business to increase in 2013, compared to 49% responding to last year's survey on 2012 prospects.
The next year looms as a critical period for the effort to implement NextGen. While some of the core programs are on track to achieve major deployment milestones, the FAA will need to show that it has solved policy and technology headaches that still could stymie progress. The target date for full implementation is 2025, and two of the crucial foundation systems are scheduled to be largely completed by the end of this year. Succeeding with these will boost confidence that other NextGen goals can be achieved as planned. NextGen was launched in 2004.
Banyan Air Service and VisionSafe have entered into an agreement, naming Banyan an Emergency Vision Assurance System (EVAS) Sales and Service Center for the Southeast United States. EVAS is an FAA tested and certified system available for all turboprop and jet aircraft that displaces smoke enabling pilots to see the flight path and instruments during an emergency.
Eclipse Aerospace remains on track to bring new Eclipse 550 very light jets to market in July, Chairman and CEO Mason Holland says. The company in June restarted the production line that had been shuttered for nearly 4 yr. Eclipse executives, who bought the program out of bankruptcy in August 2009, have maintained that they have had the resources to resume production, but first wanted to realign the supplier team and wait for the market to improve before building new aircraft. The company has remained cautious, as orders and the market slowly improve.
Sterling Partners, a Chicago-based private equity company, acquired an established aviation-maintenance college and plans to build partnerships with airlines, aircraft manufacturers and MRO providers, enhance the school's Tulsa, Okla., campus and open new campuses. “We're particularly excited about the opportunity to develop deeper partnerships with the industry,” says Jason Rosenberg, a principal with Sterling Partners.
In November 2007, TAG Holding of Geneva stunned the business aviation community when it agreed to pay the FAA a then-record settlement of $10 million to end an enforcement action. A month earlier, the FAA had issued an emergency suspension of AMI Jet Charter, one of the largest and most reputable charter and management firms in the U.S. at the time. TAG Holding had held a 49% stake in the outfit for which TAG Aviation USA had acted as the broker. The FAA asserted that TAG actually controlled the certificate holder, in violation of federal regulations.
U.K. air accident investigators have widened their search into the root cause of gearbox failures that forced the crews of two Eurocopter EC225 helicopters to ditch into the North Sea last year. In late 2012, investigators from the U.K. Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) linked their probes into two controlled ditchings of EC225s — one operated by Bond Offshore in May and a second operated by CHC Scotia in October. The rest of the North Sea EC225 fleet was grounded in the U.K. and Norway following the incidents.
Captains have been flying Boeing jetliners since the first Model 707 was delivered in 1958. The Seattle-based airframe manufacturer has built 15,000 commercial jets, close to three-quarters of the world's commercial jet fleet. The first prop-liner pilots who made the transition to the new generation of jet transports faced many challenges, including adapting to a class of aircraft that flew at nearly double the speed and twice as high as the Douglas DC-7s and Lockheed Constellations they were succeeding.
A primary advantage of a helicopter — its ability to land at places other than airports — is also its greatest nemesis. There are gotcha's galore: thin unseen wires around a landing zone; a skid-grabbing snow crust veiled by a layer of powder; a brown cloud suddenly blotting out all visual references just as you begin a low hover above a worksite.
Bombardier's Business Aviation division enjoyed gains across the board with orders jumping 80% in 2012. Bombardier received 343 net orders in 2012, compared with 191 a year earlier. Bombardier's business jet deliveries, meanwhile, were relatively flat in 2012 at 179 aircraft. The manufacturer delivered 163 aircraft in 2011, but that only reflects activity of the final 11 months (an accounting change to a calendar fiscal year shortened the 2011 reporting time frame). The 2012 deliveries were actually at about the same pace — only slightly increased from 2011.
HeliFlite has purchased its third Sikorsky S-76 helicopter in executive passenger configuration. The purchase is the second aircraft acquired in 2012 by the 14-yr.-old company. The HeliFlite fleet now includes four Bell 430 and three Sikorsky S-76 executive helicopters. HeliFlite exclusively operates twin-engine and dual-piloted cabin-class aircraft, equipped with state of the art avionics.
I would like to thank you for “Post-emergency Procedures in Oceanic Airspace” (September 2012), an excellent story. Jetflite is doing a couple of North Atlantic crossings per year. So, it's not so routine for us as it is for the scheduled carriers. Of course we are doing in-house training to be current in the NAT area. I feel that your article would be very useful for recurrent training. Training Manager
