Executive Helicopters won a power line inspection contract in Ireland and has added an AS355N equipped with a five-axis gyro-stabilized Sony HD camera with an onboard camera control unit and a Canon HJ 17X zoom lens with a 2X extender to its fleet.
Remember all the “slow-tation” jokes that taunted Cessna decades ago? Company Chairman Russ Meyer II put an end to those when he announced the Citation X program at the 1990 NBAA convention. The CE750 would be able to cruise as fast as Mach 0.90, making it possible to fly six passengers from New York to Los Angeles in just over four and one-half hours.
Solairus Aviation has added an Austin, Texas-based Bombardier Challenger 604 to its charter fleet, and an Oakland, Calif.-based Challenger is undergoing the company's conformity procedures before being cleared for charter operations. The company has already added a Gulfstream GV, a Gulfstream GIV and a Hawker 800SP to its charter fleet so far this year.
The Legacy 650's engines are the latest variants of the Rolls-Royce (nee Allison Engine) AE 3007 family. Rated at 9,020 lb. thrust for takeoff up to ISA+15C, the A2 features a 38.5-in., 22-blade wide-chord, compound swept fan that has the same outer diameter as the 24-blade fan of the A1E that powers the Legacy 600, but it has more surface area because it has a slimmer hub.
Cessna's management changes followed the release of Textron's first quarter 2011 earnings, disclosing that Cessna posted a $38 million loss during the first three months of the year as compared to the $24 million lost in first quarter 2010 — which was then believed to be the trough of the market. Textron Chairman and CEO Scott Donnelly had called the financial results “disappointing” and stated, “We are taking necessary actions to restore our profitability.”
Eurocopter's 1,000th helicopter from its Dauphin family was delivered April 20 to India's Pawan Hans Helicopters Ltd., which operates the world's largest civilian fleet of this twin-engine, medium weight rotary-wing aircraft. Pawan Hans' milestone helicopter is an AS365 N3 version, configured for offshore oil and gas drilling missions, and it brings the Indian operator's fleet to a total of 35 Dauphins.
A time long ago, but not so far away, I was paging through a favorite magazine when my eyes fixed on a gorgeous photo that filled me with desire. No, not Penthouse, nor Playboy. Not even Sports IIlustrated's bikinied babes issue. I was poring over Boy's Life, the official publication of the Boy Scouts of America, and was simply transfixed by a hatchet.
The NATA has released its new fact book, “General Aviation in the United States,” which provides an in-depth review of NATA membership segments and other significant components of the general aviation and airline services industry. The fact book is free and can be viewed and downloaded at www.nata.aero/factbook.
Hawker Beechcraft Acquisition Co. (HBAC) said business and general aviation aircraft deliveries were 45 aircraft in first quarter 2011 versus 34 in first quarter 2010. Backlog increased by $122 million versus fourth quarter 2010 with new orders of $714 million and cancellations of $33 million. The company reported net sales for the three months ended March 31, 2011, of $558.4 million, a modest decrease of $9.8 million compared to the same period of 2010.
Gulfstream Aerospace has expanded its Airborne Product Support (APS) program with the addition of a backup G100 aircraft to provide aircraft-on-ground support. In addition to two aircraft, Gulfstream has dedicated four flight crews, a full-time manager and nine technicians to APS.
Aircraft owners looking to sell their airplanes are not the only ones being adversely impacted by depressed aircraft valuations. Original equipment manufacturers continue to be affected as well. For example, when Hawker Beechcraft reported its first-quarter financial results, the company noted “continuing weakness in the general aviation market” and cited aircraft pricing as a continuing problem, both for used and new aircraft.
JetFlite International (JFI), an aircraft management and charter provider based in Long Beach, Calif., has added a Challenger 601 to its charter fleet. The aircraft is based at the JetFlite International facility in Farmingdale, N.Y.
Jet Aviation's St. Louis facility has developed an extension for the right-hand table on the Dassault Falcon 7X to make the surface more conducive to working and dining.
Hawker Beechcraft's facility consolidation and restructuring continues on track, and Chairman Bill Boisture estimates that the company will have closed down 1 million sq. ft. in Wichita and Salina by year's end. This represents about one-third of the company's space in those locations. Hawker Beechcraft continues to ramp up in Chihuahua, Mexico, where its employment is expected to double from 500 to 1,000 by year's end.
GE Aviation PBN Services deployed the first public-use Required Navigation Performance (RNP) procedure in Alaska at Deadhorse, May 5. The satellite-based instrument approach will increase approach options into Deadhorse while reducing fuel burn, CO2 emissions and flight time over currently published approaches. Deadhorse is more than 200 mi. north of the Arctic Circle and is an important staging point for personnel and equipment bound for Alaska's Prudhoe Bay and North Slope oil operations. The airport has approximately 189 arrivals per week.
In the April 2011 Readers' Feedback (page 12), Kevin Curran voices important safety concerns in a letter titled “Caring About Aviation Safety.” Many of these concerns spring from the article titled “A Failed Culture of Safety” by Richard Aarons, which was printed in this magazine in February 2011 (page 53). As someone who has worked for more than 10 years for the Quest Diagnostics Flight Department, perhaps you would listen to a different view of our organization.
This summer, Rockwell Collins is expected to announce the details of its plan to incorporate software elements derived from unmanned aerial systems (UAS) into its Pro Line family of avionics — a technological convergence that could eventually and significantly alter the course of aircraft control.
Jack Pelton suddenly retired as chairman, president and CEO of Cessna Aircraft, parent Textron announced May 2. Textron Chairman and CEO Scott Donnelly stepped in to lead Cessna until a successor is found, the company said in its announcement. Textron did not cite specifics on Pelton's surprise departure, but quoted Donnelly as saying, “Under Jack's leadership, Cessna achieved many significant program and product milestones and strengthened its position as a thought leader in the aviation industry.
GAMA plans to continue to work with FAA on improving the Organization Delegation Authority (ODA) and other designee processes. GAMA met with FAA in April and has had an ongoing dialog about making the designee processes more efficient. Both FAA and industry officials believe this is particularly important as the agency grapples with resource limitations, which have created a backlog in certification processing. FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt continues to warn that tight budgets could exacerbate the situation.
Hawker Beechcraft Global Customer Support (GCS) is accelerating development of its Hawker 400XPR, a re-engined version of the Beechjet, by adding a second aircraft to the test program. The second airplane will be used primarily to develop and certify various avionics upgrade options. A number of variations of Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21 avionics are planned for the 400XPR. Hawker Beechcraft says customers can choose a baseline three-display system or a more advanced four-display system, along with other enhancements to meet their operational needs.
Competition among transatlantic range business jets heated up when Embraer delivered the first Legacy 650 in December 2010. The new variant of the EMB-135BJ has an eight-passenger range of more than 3,800 nm, enabling it to fly nonstop from London to New York, perhaps even Paris to New York with favorable winds, weather and air traffic conditions. That range also bridges routes from Dubai to London, São Paulo to Miami or Singapore to Sydney. With one refueling stop, it can fly between New York and Shanghai, Dubai or São Paulo.
ITT Corp. has finished more than 300 of the 794 planned ADS-B ground stations, a keystone of the NextGen ATC system. The program has deployed ADS-B at key sites in Alaska; the Gulf of Mexico; Louisville, Ky.; and Philadelphia. Air traffic controllers at Houston and Philadelphia are already using ADS-B to track and separate aircraft independent of radar. The FAA selected ITT in August 2007 as the prime contractor for the ADS-B ground stations — to build, install and maintain the nationwide network, Glen Gibbons writes in Inside GNSS.
According to China's “People's Daily Online,” China will further open its airspace in the next few years, aiming to completely open all of its low-altitude airspace by 2015, said Li Jiaxiang, director of the Civil Aviation Administration of China.
At an NBAA International Opera–tors Conference a few years ago, a long-range business jet captain delivering a presentation on flying the North Atlantic Track System (NATS) related a hair-raising anecdote. “We were on our way to Europe, high up in the flight levels,” he said. “It was a gorgeous morning, bright and clear, smooth as silk. We were monitoring the instruments, making our position reports to Shanwick Control, when overhead, a thousand feet above, came a Boeing 747-400 overtaking us.
FAA released an “Information for Operators” (InFO) document, encouraging business and corporate aircraft operators to implement a safety management system (SMS). The April 11 InFO also outlines International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) SMS requirements for operators of large aircraft (those weighing more than 12,500 lb.). The release of the InFO was driven in part by ICAO requirements for noncommercial operators of large aircraft to implement an SMS program by Nov. 18, 2010.
