General Electric subsidiary Garrett Aviation Services will be the completion integrator for the Fairchild Envoy 3 and Envoy 7 aircraft, and will support both types after delivery. Envoy 3 completions will be done at Garrett's Springfield, Ill., plant; Envoy 7 completions will be done at a Garrett and/or Fairchild facility to be named later. ``With this agreement, we are also setting up a separate, dedicated corporate customer support organization inside Fairchild,'' says Joe Vreeman, the company's senior vice president of customer support.
Air carrier operations experts consider a turbine aircraft ``automated'' or ``advanced technology'' if it is equipped with EFIS (a glass cockpit) and an FMS of some sort. Early studies and piles of anecdotal accounts suggest that the transition from electromechanical instruments and traditional navigation gear has been not been altogether seamless.
Radio provider ARINC has entered a five-year agreement with JenaNet.com that will allow turbine fleet operators to check engine diagnostics in real time. Engine data downloaded from an aircraft will be sent to JenaNet's Fort Worth headquarters using ARINC's GLOBALink data communications system, analyzed and then presented to users via the Internet. Earlier this year, JenaNet.com was awarded a Technology Innovation Award by B/CA sister publication Aviation Week&Space Technology.
BMW/Rolls-Royce has introduced BR710 CorporateCare, a new cost-per-hour maintenance program for operators of the company's BR710 engines, which are found on Gulfstream V and Bombardier Global Express aircraft. Initial coverage is for five years under the new program, with options to extend or transfer coverage.
AMR's absorption of Business Express Airlines (BizEx) is progressing, with the regional carrier's move to American Airlines' terminals and ticket counters in late September. AMR acquired BizEx in March, and after some debate has reached agreements with unions representing its pilots, flight attendants and maintenance workers. All 1,300 BizEx employees were expected to be offered jobs within American, American Eagle or other divisions of parent company AMR, a company spokesman said.
Sporty's Pilot Shop is offering a 40-page paperback book titled In-Flight Icing to explain ice shapes and types, recovery techniques and limitations of ice-protection systems to pilots. The book also covers the meteorological and operational factors of icing and tailplane stalls. Authors are Porter J. Perkins and William J. Reike from the NASA Research Center in Cleveland. Price: $8.95 Sporty's Pilot Shop Clermont County Airport Batavia, Ohio 45103 Phone: (513) 735-9100; Fax: (513) 735-9200
Saying there are ``no easy answers,'' FAA Administrator Jane Garvey established a new Fractional Ownership Aviation Rulemaking Committee (FOARC) to determine the best plan for regulating fractional ownership companies. As fractionals have grown, so, too, has the debate over whether they should continue to be governed by FAR Part 91 regulations, or the more stringent Part 135.
Sens. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.) and Robert Bennett (R-Utah) of the U.S. Senate's Special Y2K Committee have proposed granting the FAA authority to ground nearly 2,000 on-demand charter operators that failed to respond to a voluntary survey on Y2K preparedness. ``It's simple,'' Dodd said. ``If you don't comply, you don't fly . . .
Airwolf Helicopter Co. says it is now the sole manufacturer and supplier of main-rotor drive shafts for the venerable Sikorsky S-58 helicopter. The company says more than 500 S-58s are still flying, and ``many more can be re-activated to service'' once new drive shafts are made available. Sikorsky built more than 2,200 of the piston- and later turbine-powered helicopters from the mid-1950s onward; the S-58 was replaced by the turbine-engine S-61. Middlefield, Ohio-based Airwolf also builds spray rigs for Robinson helicopters.
ARINC and British Telecom are partnering to provide high-speed data service for use in inflight entertainment systems and flight deck/cabin communications systems.
Our bodies are not unlike an aircraft from a mechanical point of view, especially when considering hydraulics, communications, fuel management and controlling the aircraft's various internal functions. Our bodies have a circulatory system with a pump, electrical circuitry (nerves) to every functioning part, a communication system (brain) to monitor and control, and a powerplant (muscles and cells) requiring fuel.
Ranger Aviation has completed a 14,000-square-foot corporate headquarters building and aircraft hangar, and is renting to six additional corporate tenants. Ranger plans to break ground this month for three 12,000-square-foot hangars, which will open by spring 2000. Each new hangar will accommodate 10 corporate aircraft. Although it has not signed with a fuel dealer yet, plans are in the works.
Safire Aircraft of West Palm Beach, Fla., is planning two new aircraft to be powered by the new Williams FJX-2 turbofan engine. The S-26 will be a twin-engine four- to six-seat business jet priced at $800,000; the single will be a $350,000, two-place ``personal aircraft'' powered by a single FJX-2. Performance of both aircraft is projected to be 330 knots in cruise, with an NBAA IFR range of 1,400 nm. The twin's cockpit will feature a three-panel LCD, along with a synthetic vision system to be specified later.
The trustee for the defunct Western Pacific Airlines has filed a federal lawsuit against Mercury Air Group, seeking to recover alleged ``preferential payments'' of approximately $11.4 million. This amount represents cash Mercury received for fuel purchases in the 90 days prior to WestPac's October 5, 1997 bankruptcy filing. Mercury describes the suit as ``without merit.'' WestPac allegedly owed Mercury more than $2 million for fuel when it ceased operations on February 5, 1998.
The Buescher Family Limited Partnership, owner of Grand Junction, Colo.-based West Star Aviation, has purchased the assets of Intercontinental Jet Corp. (IJC). Tulsa-based IJC specializes in factory-authorized service for the Mitsubishi MU-2-series aircraft, while West Star is known for its ``Dash 10'' conversion work on Cessna Conquests, as well as providing maintenance for Hawkers, Learjets and Citations. Additionally, ICJ has received STC certification for its AlliedSignal TPE331 Dash 10 conversion for the MU-2, of which 460 remain in operation worldwide.
Edited by Paul RichfieldBy Paul Richfield, in Atlanta
Thousands of business aviation professionals descended upon Atlanta in October for the NBAA's 52nd Annual Meeting and Convention, showcasing an industry at its peak. While the number of new programs and major deals announced was minimal, the overall atmosphere was one of a work in progress, with companies focusing on providing the myriad goods and services sold in the preceding months. NBAA President Jack Olcott saw the show as a unique opportunity for people from across the industry spectrum to
Gulfstream Aerospace's Long Beach completion center finished a record-breaking 18th aircraft of the year in September. The facility's previous record was 17 aircraft for all of 1998.
Schweizer Aircraft Corp. is expanding internationally with the appointments of Germany's Hahn Helicopter as a service center and Eli-Alpi of Italy as a distributor of its 300B, 300C and 330 helicopters.
John Rahilly has been named vice president of a newly formed technical services operations unit that will oversee the daily operations of various BBA businesses, including Signature's Regional Main- tenance Centers and Precision Avionics.
In a landmark decision that could help airports fight the spread of cellular telephone towers, Wisconsin's Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the city of Delavan's right to use local zoning ordinances to keep a paging company from replacing an existing tower with a taller one at the same site. According to the Wisconsin Aviation Bulletin, Judge Diane P.
Kenneth Weigand was elected chairman at the organization's recent annual convention in Williamsburg, Va. The organization also elected Harold E. Miller; Dr. John C. Eagerton, IV; Jack Ferns; and Demetrius Glass to one-year terms on the NASAO Executive Committee. Bart Welsh, Rudy Rudolph, Brian Weiler, Anthony J. Amato, Robert F. Juliano, Gary Adams, Anthony M. Culp and Elton E. Jay were elected as NASAO regional directors.
