Meridian, Teterboro, N.J., announced that Emil Iannone has been named director of Operations. Iannone returns to the company after a 13-year absence during which time he was a senior vice president with an investment banking firm in New York.
Even though an aircraft is just a collection of metal parts (and composites these days), pilots and maintenance technicians often form a close bond to their machine. During World War II, pilots and aircrews would name their aircraft and personalize them with nose art. Some gave their airplane names to remind them of loved ones back home, while others gave them unique monikers to represent the machines' unique personality.
BizJet International, a Tulsa, Okla.-based subsidiary of Lufthansa Technik, was to begin work this month on a Boeing Business Jet completion, its second for a Chinese customer. Earlier it delivered its a BBJ to Chinese Nanshan Group — the first private BBJ delivered to the Chinese market. Meanwhile, in Germany, the parent firm will shortly finalize its cabin installation work on two VIP completion projects from undisclosed customers in its Hamburg hangars.
San Antonio-based Gore Design Completions has won an international competition to complete two Boeing 787 head-of-state aircraft. “Winning this contract against tough international competition shows that GDC is truly a world leader in head-of-state and VIP aircraft completions,” said GDC general partner Mohammed Alzeer. “We are on track to deliver an industry record of four aircraft this year,” Alzeer added — three widebody Airbus A340s and one BBJ3. GDC is adding ERP (enterprise resource planning) and Catia software, he said.
Aspen Avionics, Albuquerque, N.M., announced the election of Dr. John B. “Jack” Mowell as chairman of the board. Dr. Mowell, a Tallahassee, Fla., resident, is a diversified business executive in the fields of aviation, the life sciences, and oil and gas.
NBAA recently topped 10,000 Member Companies for the first time in the association's 60-plus-year history. NBAA President and CEO Ed Bolen said that reaching that milestone “in difficult economic times” underscored the value of business aviation and his organization's advocacy. The 10,000th member is TCB Air, LLC, which operates a Beechcraft King Air C90A out of Kalamazoo/Battle Creek, Mich., International Airport. Two manufacturing companies own the plane and use it for staff transport.
Becker Avionics introduced its DVC6100 digital Voice Communication System for business and commuter aircraft — particularly the Beechcraft King Air 200 and 350 series. It provides flight phone service, intercom and cabin/passenger address capabilities and is offered as a retrofit or upgrade by several completion centers. The DVC6100 includes microphone/oxygen mask switching, audio output for CVR/DVR recording, flight crew satphone over headsets, and chime and warning tone generation.
International Bureau of Aviation, Surrey, U.K., announced that Ken Sewell has joined the group as head of Aircraft Transactions responsible for aircraft remarketing and associated transaction management across IBA's managed portfolio.
RBR Maintenance, Inc., Dallas, now has a Mobile Maintenance Service Team that can respond to aircraft operators in Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana and New Mexico with on-site, 24/7 service. The team can provide minor inspection, AOG service and light repairs. If the aircraft must be removed for repair, RBR can prepare the aircraft for a ferry flight back to its Dallas Love Field facility. The team consists of four fully trained technicians with extensive backgrounds with the Hawker, King Air and Citation product lines. RBR Maintenance, Inc.
The Learjet 75's Honeywell TFE731-40BR engines have essentially the same internal parts as the -20BRs that power the Model 45XR. To boost the -40BR's thrust to 3,850 lb. from 3,500 lb., virtually all that was needed was a 10% throttle push involving a software change inside the -20BR's digital electronic engine control. The -20BR already had the -40BR's 4,700-lb. thrust thermodynamic rating. That's what gave the -20BR such wide flat-rating margins.
True Blue Power, Wichita, Kan., is determined to reverse all the bad press surrounding lithium-ion batteries with its new low-weight, high-power-density technology for general and business aviation. “Every pound is worth a lot,” says Todd Winter, True Blue Power's president and CEO. A division of the Mid-Continent Instrument Co., True Blue is offering two main battery options to fixed- and rotary-wing turbine operators.
How can you protect yourself or your employer from the fate of Avantair's program participants? Begin with due diligence. “The structure of Avantair was very unusual in terms of their customer contracts and their capacity to deal with the situation they ultimately wound up in,” said Mike Riegel, president of Aviation IQ, a California-based consultancy. “Their contracts do not guarantee liquidity. All the major providers do. So this is obviously something to look at when considering a provider, especially one that is also operating a charter card program.”
The SJ30 light jet, now known as the SyberJet, and which is undergoing significant improvements, was launched by Ed Swearingen back in the 1980s. The prototype first flew 22 years ago. Over the decades it's had a variety of names — mighty Gulfstream briefly promoted it as the “Gulfjet” before withdrawing from the program — and owners, including Swearingen Aircraft, the Jaffe Group, Sino Swearingen and Emivest, all of which either lost interest or came to financial grief, with the last named actually going bankrupt in 2010.
Some military airborne interceptor operations will come under FAA air traffic control starting Feb. 1, 1964. FAA/military officials agreed air defense activities should be conducted within the ATC system reducing midair collision hazards.
The making of light aircraft is about to undergo a complete rethinking. The U.S. Congress has overwhelmingly approved bill — likely signed into law by now by President Obama — that calls on FAA to adopt new Part 23 certification standards by the end of 2015. The move is an endorsement of recommendations from the Part 23 Reorganization Aviation Rulemaking Committee and centers on the concept of “consensus standards.” The ARC's goal was to double general aviation safety while cutting the costs of certification in half.
APG Avionics and Sandel have announced an agreement for APG Avionics to install more than 30 units of Sandel's HeliTAWS on helicopters being flown for the United Nations. Effective Dec. 1, 2013, the U.N. mandated all helicopters flying under its flag to install helicopter terrain awareness and ground-proximity warning systems. In order for these Russian Mi-8 helicopters to comply, they must be equipped with the Sandel ST3400H. APG will provide installations for the systems by year-end.
The fire-related survival aspects in the loss of a Beechcraft King Air 100 (C-GXRX) on Oct. 27, 2011, especially concerned TSB investigators. Spilled jet fuel burned after ignition during the crash sequence. However, arcing electrical elements kept the fire going even after the engines had stopped. A fire was concentrated on the right wing and in the areas where the aircraft's electrical-system wiring was routed.
Embraer Executive Jets President Ernest Edwards is planning to hand over the reins of the organization he helped build into one of the largest business jet manufacturers to longtime employee Marco Tulio Pellegrini. Edwards announced here that he was planning to retire at the end of the year and put his suitcases in a place where he wouldn't have to move them for a long time. Pellegrini currently is the senior vice president and COO for Executive Jets.
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize winning biographer of Lyndon Johnson, the Kennedys, Roosevelts Teddy and Franklin, and Abraham Lincoln, said in a recent interview that her years-long research involves poring over her subjects' letters, speeches, notes and diaries. And, she adds, that kind of close analysis of original documents will be a problem for those historians of the future since the emails, blogs and social media postings favored today by tomorrow's lions will simply disappear in the electronic evanescence.
Constant Aviation, Cleveland, Ohio, announced the John Wasmund has joined the company as avionics sales manager. Lance Lajara was named regional sales manager responsible for selling maintenance, avionics, interior modifications/refurbishments, arts and composite/accessory services for customers based in the Central U.S.
I would like to extend my sincere thanks for receiving Business & Commercial Aviation monthly. I read “Emergency Divert” (September 2013) with interest. This and also most of the articles provide us with good information. Previously I worked for Myanma Airways as senior cabin crew. In 1994, I joined Air Mandalay as traffic manager at Yangon Mingaladon Airport, and then became Sales, Ticketing and Reservation Manager at Head Office. My colleague and I started Auto Net Travels in 2000.
Colt International's online flight planning (OFP) is a “one-stop shop for all your flight planning needs,” according to the company. OFP allows operators to file domestic flight plans for free; click, drag and drop to build graphical routes; build itineraries; secure regulatory requirements; ensure trip quality with visual display of trip tasks; and modify trip details.
You could almost hear a collective gulp within the business aviation community last August when a U.S. Bankruptcy Court ordered Chapter 7 liquidation of Avantair, the Clearwater, Fla.-based fractional aircraft ownership program.
The first Cessna CE680A Citation Latitude prototype is slated to fly in first quarter 2014, according to Scott Ernest, company CEO and president. Developed as a derivative of the Citation CE680 Sovereign, the Latitude is the first Citation in three decades to have a fuselage diameter larger than that of the Citation III. It offers passengers 6.0 ft. of headroom with a flat floor and 6.4 ft. of cabin width. It will be able to depart a 4,030-ft. sea-level runway, and fly five passengers 2,500 nm and cruise as fast as 440 KTAS.
Bombardier is increasing the maintenance intervals across all its business jet programs and, at the same time, is launching the Challenger 605 MAX upgrade program to improve reliability. The interval evolution is based on experience and “strictly on findings as we inspect the airplanes,” says Bombardier Customer Services Vice President Andy Nureddin. The changes to the maintenance programs and all associated documents will be applied to the Learjet 40, 45, Challenger 300, 604, 605 and Global programs.
