On April 11, the Georgia Aviation Hall of Fame will enshrine the following people at its annual banquet at the Century of Flight Hangar at the Georgia Museum of Aviation. (Contact Nicole Bissette at (478) 328-0704 for reservations and information.)
Piper Aircraft selected Western Aircraft as the airplane manufacturer’s dealer for new aircraft sales in Alaska, northern California, Oregon and Washington. The company will sell the full Piper product line, including the new Piper Altaire single-engine jet. Western Aircraft, part of Greenwich AeroGroup, is based at Gowen Field in Boise, Idaho.
Piper Aircraft is exiting the light sport aircraft (LSA) market with the termination of its business relationship with Czech Republic-based Czech Sport Aircraft. The company had announced plans in January 2010 to enhance and market Czech Sport Aircraft’s LSA as the PiperSport, but Piper cited “differences in business philosophies” in its decision to end the partnership. Piper had established a new company, PiperSport Distribution, to provide a stand-alone distributor network to market the Czech-built aircraft.
AgustaWestland delivered two AW139 medium twin engine helicopters to the Cyprus Ministry of Justice in December to perform law enforcement, border patrol and search and rescue missions. Three more AW139s are to be delivered to the Cyprus Ministry of Defence for search and rescue and utility-EMS duties in the Cyprus Flight Information Region (FIR).
Cessna Aircraft Co. delivered two Grand Caravans to Russian operator AirGEO. The aircraft will be based at Krasnoyarsk Yemelyanovo Airport in Siberia and support the community with passenger and cargo transportation as well as special missions. Alexander Mamaev, general director and owner of AirGEO, said: “Until now, our fleet has consisted entirely of helicopters, so these aircraft represent a breakthrough move into fixed-wing operations for us. We fully expect the two Caravans to be the first of many fixed-wing aircraft in our fleet.”
The relatively large size of long-range, widebody airliners affords operators the flexibility of providing various types of crew rest areas. The FAA’s crew duty and rest NPRM recognizes that different types of onboard crew rest areas afford different sleep opportunities on long-range aircraft. Even so, the FAA proposes to limit credit for sleep opportunity based upon the quality of the rest facility, recognizing that a private room at a ground layover point provides the best quality crew rest.
The third in a series of Aéro-Montréal’s biennial forums is scheduled for Dec. 5-6, 2011. Its focus will be on small/medium enterprise (SME) firms working in partnership with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to “develop a stronger culture of innovation.” The last International Forum on Innovation in Aerospace was held in 2009 and addressed numerous themes pertinent to aerospace clusters, how they are positioned in a global context and how to share best practices.
A new VIP version of the Dornier 328 has been launched by Germany’s 328 Support Services, the type certificate holder for the twinjet regional airliner. The 328DBJ made its debut at MEBA. It replaces the Envoy version of the 328 and will be the standard for all future VIP conversions, says 328 Support Services. Features of the 328DBJ’s “higher-spec, new-generation” interior, developed in cooperation with U.K.-based ctm design ltd., with a new galley and redesigned ceiling and sidewall panels that include electric window blinds and slim-line passenger service units.
Two powerplant manufacturers have come to dominate the field among the super midsize jets: Pratt & Whitney Canada and Honeywell. The PW300 family numbers nearly 3,000 in service and has about seven million hours in the logbooks on the Galaxy/Gulfstream G200 and Hawker 4000, while the HTF7000 posts dispatch reliability numbers north of 99% in the Challenger 300 and will power the new Gulfstream G250 and Embraer Legacy 450 and 500.
Embraer delivered the first Legacy 650 to Lord Alan Sugar’s Amsair Aircraft Ltd. The aircraft will be operated by Titan Airways Executive, a VIP charter company based at London Stansted Airport, the company announced, Nov. 22. The following day, the Brazilian planemaker announced construction had begun on a new manufacturing facility in Évora, Portugal. The 330,000-sq.-ft. facility will produce complex composite airframe structures and components. Completion is scheduled for the end of 2011, with production expected to start in 2013.
In the first quarter of this year, the Falcon 900LX is slated to be the first Falcon Jet equipped with second-generation EASy II avionics. All Falcon 900LX aircraft on the assembly line are being upgraded with second-generation advanced graphics modules with more processing power to handle an optional synthetic vision system function that will be part of EASy II.
The Middle East market for business jets is beginning to show signs of recovery as confidence starts to return. Dassault has a growing fleet of Falcon business jets in the region, which it plans to grow by 30% over the next three years, thanks to a solid aircraft order book from regional buyers. Dassault Falcon sold 14 aircraft in the Middle East in the last two years and has a backlog of 15 additional aircraft to be delivered to regional buyers by 2013.
Beech King Air 350 cockpits now can be upgraded with Rockwell Collins’ Pro Line 21 integrated display systems (IDS). The avionics maker recently won an STC to install IDS in the twin turboprop while retaining the aircraft’s existing APS-65 autopilot and Pro Line II radios and sensors.
Israel is under one of the world’s busiest bird migration paths. “We were aware of birds out there, but the scale was completely unknown,” Asaf Agmon, head of the Israeli Air Force Association’s Fisher Institute for flight security, told Reuters. Israel has developed a ground observer corps, equipped with binoculars and telescopes, deployed about every 1.5 mi. across the width of the nation, during the August to October migration period.
While the operating conditions in New Zealand are similar to those in North America, operators must resign themselves to paying for everything — all forms of aviation infrastructure. Here are some sample fees, all converted to U.S. dollars: Typical Landing Fees at Auckland International Airport Global Express/G550 $455.70 Falcon 900 $166.20 Challenger 604 $163.00 Typical Navigation Charges, Airways Corp. of New Zealand, Global Express, Sydney to Auckland En route Oceanic $508.82
“We can put a positive spin on it, saying that inventory is drying up, or activity is building . . . but most of the pre-owned market remains price-sensitive,” declared Vref Publisher Fletcher Aldredge in the most recent edition of his quarterly newsletter, Market Leader.
Sad news for Concorde devotees. “Concorde 216,” British Airways Concorde G-BOAF, made the very last Concorde flight on Nov. 26, 2003, when it was ferried from Heathrow to its birthplace at Airbus’ Filton plant near Bristol, England. Alpha Foxtrot will not be reopened to the public when it comes out of a maintenance and preservation program this winter. But it will be returned to outside display at the airfield until a permanent home can be found, preferably where it can be preserved indoors.
Jet Aviation Basel won a contract to complete a VVIP Boeing 747-8 cabin for an undisclosed Middle East customer. Jet Aviation says it is the first completion center to be contracted to outfit a cabin interior for one of the eight VIP B747-8 aircraft sold to date. The Basel completions center will build a full-size cabin model of the aircraft so the client can experience a 1:1 view of the cabin interior during the decision-making process.
Hawker Beechcraft will halt Hawker 400XP production for 2011 and 2012 in favor of an upgrade program for existing Beechcraft/Hawker 400A/XPs. Bill Boisture, chairman and CEO of the Wichita manufacturer said Nov. 12, ”We think the market will remain relatively depressed, compared with historical markets, for 12 to 24 months,” adding that pricing on new aircraft has become difficult. The company has “worked our inventory on that product down” and decided that, rather than restocking and selling the airplane, Hawker would defer production and sales, he says.
It is a rare opportunity for investigators to interview surviving passengers who observed their pilot’s actions during an accident sequence that destroyed their aircraft, killed the pilot and seriously injured others. But such was the case with the U.K. Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) study of circumstances surrounding the loss of a Raytheon Beechcraft Super King Air 200 that crashed into a shallow lagoon immediately after departure from North Caicos Airport, Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI), British West Indies, on Feb. 6, 2007.
Elliott Aviation has added an Astra 1125SP jet aircraft, based at Forest City, Iowa (FXY), to its charter certificate. The company operates a fleet of 15 jet and turboprop aircraft at its locations at Quad Cities International Airport (MLI) in Moline, Ill.; Eppley Airfield (OMA) in Omaha, Neb.; Des Moines International Airport (DSM) in Iowa; and Flying Cloud Regional Airport (FCM) in Eden Prairie, Minn.
The DOT inspector general called for better oversight of airport grants after an audit revealed that about $161 million of the U.S. government’s Fiscal 2008 payments to Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grantees nationwide were improper, at least in terms of documentation. “FAA’s risk-based approach to AIP grant oversight is inadequate and does not effectively prevent or detect improper payments,” the inspector general says.
Piper Aircraft has received a contract for six Piper Seminoles valued at $3.9 million from Airline Transport Professionals (ATP), a nationwide firm that specializes in airline pilot training and pilot career development. The airplanes will be delivered to ATP this year. ATP will use the aircraft for flight training it provides under Mountain State University’s ATP pilot operations degree program. The aircraft will increase ATP’s training fleet to 87 Piper Seminoles. ATP also operates 50 Cessna 172s, five Diamond DA40s and a CitationJet.
Susan Friedenberg leads a very busy life teaching and mentoring corporate cabin attendants and is well known in business aviation. But in 2009, when she posted a Memorial Day tribute to her father, World War II vet Bernard Friedenberg, on the NBAA bulletin board, she had no idea that she would set in motion a chain of events that would evoke such a dramatic demonstration of the generosity of the business aviation community.
