FERNANDO LACERDA DA SILVA was named sales director of new aircraft for Bombardier. Da Silva will be responsible for sales in Brazil. He has a 25-year sales career, including 12 years of Latin American business aircraft sales experience.
Sen. James Inhofe’s (R-Okla.) quest to provide pilots with a stronger ability to defend themselves against enforcement actions took a step forward with the June 29 U.S. Senate passage of the “Pilots Bill of Rights.” The bill, S.1335, requires the FAA to present a pilot all relevant evidence in an enforcement action within 30 days and removes the “special statutory deference” as it relates to the National Transportation Safety Board appeals of FAA actions against airmen.
The U.S. business aircraft fleet marked a “big improvement” in the number of accidents, but not fatalities through the first half of the year, according to safety expert Robert E. Breiling Associates of Boca Raton, Fla. The growing international fleet, meanwhile, improved both in terms of accidents and fatalities, Breiling says.
FAA has extended the comment period until Aug. 17 for a proposed policy clarification on the use of non-citizen trusts to register aircraft in the U.S. FAA on Feb. 9 released the proposed clarification, which would tighten the reporting and information gathering requirements for non-U.S. citizen trusts. The clarification was released following a nearly two-year dialogue with the industry on how to improve the accuracy, transparency and timeliness of aircraft registrations involving non-U.S. trusts.
BOMBARDIER CL-600-2B19 (Regional Jet Series 100 & 440) airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2012-0639; Directorate Identifier 2012-NM-005-AD] – proposes requiring operators to inspect the horizontal stabilizer trim actuator trunnions and upper and lower pins for gouges, scratches and corrosion, replacing those components, if necessary. This action is designed to prevent failure of the pins and trunnions, consequent disconnection of the horizontal stabilizer and subsequent loss of control of the airplane.
Industry advocates reiterated their opposition to recent Internal Revenue Service guidance expanding the applicability of the passenger ticket tax and are urging the agency’s chief counsel to ensure the tax is not retroactively imposed.
EUROCOPTER FRANCE AS350B, AS350BA, AS350B1, AS350B2, AS350B3, AS350C, AS350D, AS350D1, AS355E, AS355F, AS355F1, AS355F2, AS355N and AS355NP helicopters [Docket No. FAA-2012-0631; Directorate Identifier 2011-SW-021-AD] – proposes requiring recurring inspections for cracks of the Aerazur emergency-flotation-gear attachment brackets. If any cracks were found, operators would need to replace a cracked bracket with an airworthy one so as to prevent failure of the emergency flotation system and loss of float stability in the event of a water landing.
ACI Jet Centers this month began assessing a nickel fuel surcharge to offset costs of ongoing Proposition 65 litigation by the Center For Environmental Health (CEH) over the sale and distribution of leaded aviation gasoline in California. ACI joins other fuel providers, including Signature Flight Support facilities, which have assessed the fuel surcharge. In addition, the National Air Transportation Association also has appealed to members to fight the lawsuit filed against avgas providers last fall.
Airbus recently celebrated the 10th anniversary of the opening of its first U.S. engineering center in Wichita. The company’s first engineering and design facility outside of Europe, the Airbus Engineering Center in the Old Town section of the city formally opened on June 10, 2002, staffed by approximately 30 engineers dedicated to wing design for the Airbus A380. Today, the company has expanded into a second facility in Wichita, and more than 350 engineers are performing design and stress work for wings and fuselages on all new and existing models of Airbus aircraft.
Setting a standard for aircraft carbon dioxide emissions was never going to be easy. It requires the aviation community to agree on a single measure of fuel efficiency—a parameter at the core of competition between manufacturers.
A country that has never built a business jet, and until a few years ago had almost none of them in its skies, is on track to having two types of executive aircraft rolling off assembly lines within 18 months.
As aerospace and defense suppliers head to this year's Farnborough air show, two of their biggest customers present a stark picture of an industry going in two directions. Boeing Commercial Airplanes is hoping to roll out big orders for its reengined 737 MAX narrowbody jet at the show, further proof of airlines' seemingly insatiable appetite for more efficient aircraft.
As U.S. Air Force Lockheed Martin C-130s resumed attacks on wildfires in Colorado and Wyoming, the first fatal crash for the USAF in 40 years of supporting the U.S. Forest Service brought the danger inherent in the aerial firefighting mission into sharp focus.
Embraer's foray into executive aviation is about to pass a significant milestone with the first flight of its Legacy 500 super midsize jet (above). Unlike the Legacy 600/650, which is derived from the ERJ 135 regional jet, the Legacy 500, and the Legacy 450, a shorter sibling also under development, are clean-sheet designs specifically intended for VIP service.
Operators of the G650, Gulfstream Aerospace's new 488 KTAS, 7,000-nm-range flagship, will first start flying their aircraft this summer, based upon flight-test program progress and operators' scheduled completion of initial G650 training at FlightSafety International in late August. Virtually all FAA-required certification flight tests had been completed in June except for 300 hr. of function and reliability flight-testing that is now in progress. This paves the way for FAA type certification in July or August, followed by entry into service in September, operators say.
Bankrupt business aircraft manufacturer Hawker Beechcraft is reportedly in exclusive talks with Chinese manufacturer, Superior Aviation Beijing Company, to sell the company.
While Hawker Beechcraft’s (HBC) preliminary reorganization plan filed June 30 details an exchange under which HBC’s creditors would take ownership of the company, executives told employees July 2 they are keeping all options open, including a potential sale.
Anticipating regulations clearing the use of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in U.S. airspace, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) is hoping to set a baseline of standards with the release of an “Unmanned Aircraft Systems Operations Industry Code of Conduct.” FAA is under congressional mandate to create a plan that would integrate UAS into national airspace by Sept. 30, 2015. The deadline is one of a series regarding UAS that FAA must meet for the gradual integration of the systems.
The $105 billion highway funding bill, which cleared Congress June 29, includes a compromise on a provision that industry leaders feared could have devastated the air tour industry, but did not provide relief on the so-called fuel fraud jet fuel tax. The Helicopter Association International, which appealed almost daily to members to contact Congress, says, “Common sense prevailed and lawmakers listened” when passing the highway authorization bill. “We could not have asked for a better outcome,” says HAI President Matt Zuccaro.
Following a boom in commercial aircraft orders in 2011, a year which saw the launch of the Airbus A320 NEO and the Boeing 737 MAX, the aerospace industry is now faced with having to deliver a huge backlog.
Qatar-based private aviation services provider Rizon Jet has seen traffic increase threefold at its one-year-old VIP terminal at London's Biggin Hill airport.
The Pacific Northwest Aviation Association, NorCal Business Aviation Association, Teterboro (N.J.) Users Group, Tampa Bay (Fla.) Aviation Association, Kansas City Business Aviation Association and Eastern Regional Helicopter Council are among local protectors and promoters of general and business aviation operators and airports throughout the U.S. And their number is growing steadily.
Africa's first full-motion helicopter flight simulator has been commissioned by Eurocopter in South Africa. The simulator, designed to train pilots and flight engineers operating Super Puma and similarly compatible civil and military helicopters including the South African Air Force's (SAAF) Oryx , is located at the SimAero training center adjacent to the O.R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.
