While most engine makers generally support a few hundred users of their products, Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) supports the maintenance needs of a hugely diverse set of over 10,000 operators, 90% of whom have only one or two aircraft.
In the wake of June's Paris air show, both Airbus and Boeing issued victory statements detailing orders, options, commitments and letters of intent reportedly signed during the five-day event. Both rivals claimed they achieved or surpassed their most optimistic sales predictions, disseminating robust releases to the media. And, once more, the press corps—in most cases without the required restraint—agreed to the rules of the game, although that was largely meaningless.
Airbus and Boeing led the news, but perhaps the biggest surprise at June's Paris air show as Bell Helicopter's decision to power its new light single with a Turbomeca engine. To fly in 2014, the long-awaited JetRanger replacement will be powered by a 450-550-shp Arrius, the first new Bell to have a French engine.
Five years after General Electric launched its initiative to penetrate the small turboprop market with the acquisition of Czech engine maker Walter and the development of the H80, the company is midway through its first full year of production and poised to bolster its line-up with studies of additional variants.
Carbon in its many forms is transforming manufacturing, from electronics to structures. Aerospace uses carbon in fiber form, but new nano-structured materials are emerging that promise improved properties and expanded applications.
If mandatory federal spending cuts put in place this year carry over into fiscal year 2014, the FAA should not be expected to come through as unscathed as it did this year, a top Senate staffer warns. “Everybody expects we’re going to have another critical point in September” once Congress gets back to work after a summer break and the Oct. 1 start of fiscal 2014 looms, says Senate aviation subcommittee staff member Rich Swayze. As far as FAA’s budget is concerned he notes, “I’m not sure it’s going to be as easy as it was in June.”
Whether it is the Airbus A380 or Boeing 787, program issues leading to delays and redesigns have some in the aerospace industry arguing that traditional systems engineering is broken. But Dassault Systemes attributes the problem to design tools that have failed to keep pace with program complexity.
Lax security controls could allow hackers to access personal information in the records of hundreds of thousands of pilots in the FAA’s aircraft and airmen registry databases, says to a new audit report by the U.S. Transportation Department’s Office of Inspector General (OIG). The audit also reveals incomplete information in thousands of pilot and aircraft registration records.
The FAA yesterday published a rule simplifying drug and alcohol testing program requirements for commercial certificate holders with separate tour operations, eliminating the need to have dedicated testing programs for each. The rule, effective Sept. 14, gives Part 121 and 135 operators the option of having a single testing program to cover both its commercial operations and Part 91 air tour businesses.
Walking through the Paris air show last month, I was struck by the large number of companies exhibiting under one regional or cluster umbrella. There were, to mention a few, Aerospace Valley, Rockford Area Aerospace Network, Monterrey Aerocluster Mexico, Isle of Man Aerospace Cluster, Aero Montreal, Skywin Wallonie and Northwest Aerospace Alliance. Such groupings have a basic economic rationale: They allow small suppliers to be present at a show without bearing the full costs of renting their own stands in an exhibit hall.
$765,900, $7.14, £1995 ($3,076)—Prices, respectively, for a 2013 Beech Bonanza G36 equipped with air conditioning; June's per-gallon average for avgas in the Eastern U.S.; the peak-hour landing fee for a Citation Bravo at London City Airport. 382—The number of Bombardier business jets ordered or optioned by VistaJet and NetJets since December. Value: $14.2 billion.
Efforts to reshape and morph the avionics and air traffic management portfolios of Thales Aviation Solutions could put the U.S. arm of the French company in a better position to win work on upcoming FAA and Boeing platforms. The evolution is part of a broader company review launched by Thales Chairman and Chief Executive Jean-Bernard Levy after he stepped into the top position in December. Levy asked executives to come up with ways to increase growth and profitability, in part by creating value for customers.
Having recently flown for the first time in a Robinson R22—a gift flight from my AH-64 student-pilot son—I am now viscerally informed as to just how diminutive a best-selling flying machine can be. With a cabin measuring 3.6 ft. across, rising not quite 6 ft. tall from skids to its cabin top, and weighing in at a max gross of 1,370 lb., or roughly equivalent to a well-stocked freezer, it is a decidedly compact, no-frills machine for two. Which is exactly what a lot of vertically minded people wanted.
When Innovative Solutions and Support signed on with Eclipse Aviation in 2007 to replace the original semi-completed cockpit in the Eclipse 500 very light jet, the primary means of navigation and weather for many pilots in the nascent fleet was a Garmin GPS496 portable on the dashboard.
An NTSB “go-team” from the agency's Washington headquarters is conducting an on-site investigation of the July 7 crash of a turbine-powered de Havilland Otter that claimed 10 lives during a failed takeoff from Soldotna Airport in Alaska. The charter flight, operated by Rediske Air Inc., of nearby Nikiski, was bound for a lodge across the Cook Inlet when the accident occurred. Soldotna is on the Kenai Peninsula, about 80 mi. southwest of Anchorage.
LONDON — Oil and gas operators could return their Eurocopter EC225s to service within weeks now that the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has certified fixes to the bevel gear vertical shaft, a critical component in the main gearbox that drives lubrication pumps.
Al Bateen Executive Airport has announced that its Fixed Based Operator (FBO) DhabiJet has begun offering fuelling services to all visiting aircraft at Al Bateen Executive Airport.
The FAA’s Aviation Safety division has a shrinking staff due to federal budget cuts, and so it is betting on less manpower-intensive risk-based surveillance programs to help inspectors keep tabs on aviation businesses.
House and Senate lawmakers, though nearly $1 billion apart on their recommended fiscal 2014 FAA budget, are in agreement on a number of priorities, including support for the transition to an unleaded aviation gasoline and funding for FAA’s certification and inspection workforce.
Avidyne has earned an FAA supplemental type certificate for installation of its DFC90 autopilot on Cirrus SR20 and SR22 aircraft equipped with the Aspen Avionics Evolution Pro EFD1000 primary flight display (PFD). The DFC90 is a plug-and-play retrofit for existing STEC55X systems in Cirrus SR20s and SR22s; it also covers the upgrades from STEC System 20 and System 30 autopilots found in some earlier Cirrus aircraft. Avidyne initially gained approval of the DFC90 in SR20s and SR22s fitted with its Entegra PFD.
Like the U.S., Canada has committed to identifying an alternative fuel to 100LL avgas for general aviation use, as part of the Canadian government’s Clean Air Agenda. The National Research Council Canada (NRC) last month formally launched a concentrated research effort to find and test potential replacement fuels. An alternative avgas is vital to ensuring the long-term operational viability of piston-powered aircraft, says Jerzy Komorowski, general manager of the NRC’s aerospace division.
