Dennis Andersen, president of Florida Jet Sales, Inc. of West Palm Beach, Fla., feels confident enough in the market for previously owned turbine-powered airplanes that he has begun to inventory aircraft again. “I am sticking my toe back in the water,” he said in late November 2009.
Forecast International of Newtown, Conn. predicts that a total of 11,277 business jets, worth an estimated $197 billion, will be produced in the 10-year period from 2009 through 2018. According to the survey, announced in November, “The Market for Business Jet Aircraft,” production is expected to total approximately 825 units in 2009, followed by 738 units in 2010 and 716 in 2011.
Hawker Beechcraft is the newest broker/dealer member of the National Aircraft Resale Association (NARA). In addition, three new associate members — Avtrak, LLC, the Law Offices of Christopher B. Younger and Rolland Vincent Asso-ciates, LLC — recently joined the organization. NARA now has a total of 32 broker/dealer members and 48 associate members.
An IS&S AdViz glass cockpit retrofit for Citation 500, 550, S550 and 560 aircraft is now certified and available for installation at Cessna-owned Citation service centers. The AdViz package, developed by Innovative Solutions & Support of Exton, Pa., is available in two or three 10.4-inch screen configurations. Options include Jeppesen e-Charts, XM Satellite Weather, and the display of enhanced vision systems and wide area augmentation system data.
An IBM 650 data processing system is tried out at the FAA’s Indianapolis air route traffic control center. The 650 edits and error checks flight-plan messages and passes them electronically to the Ramac 650, which prints flight progress strips.
Dassault Falcon announced it was laying off 150 employees and another 55 contract workers at its completion center in Little Rock, Ark., to align work force levels with lower sales and production rates. In April the French manufacturer cut 44 positions in its Teterboro, N.J., organization and in Little Rock. The Little Rock center already had cut 140 contract positions since the beginning of 2009. Dassault also laid off 35 employees at the Wilmington, Del., service center last November.
Yes, it’s a tax. Yes, it’s confusing. Yes, it’s been poorly managed. But in the European Union, it’s the law. And if you operate an aircraft into, out of or within European airspace, you must comply. Europe’s Emissions Trading Scheme, or ETS, is one result of a European environmental policy that attributes climate change to the by-products of human activity, with special focus on so-called “greenhouse” gases such as methane and carbon dioxide.
The FAA has issued an Approved Model List - Supplemental Type Certificate for three Garmin collision avoidance system models, including the 12-mile-range GTS 800 and 40-mile-range GTS 820 traffic awareness systems and the GTS 850 TCAS I, the company announced Dec. 9. This first AML-STC covers mostly light piston-engine aircraft, STCs covering higher-end aircraft are expected in the future for the GTS 850 TCAS I.
On a routine flight to an oil platform in the North Sea, the Eurocopter Super Puma helicopter carrying 16 oil-rig workers from Aberdeen Airport, Scotland, encountered low clouds at an altitude of 3,000 feet above sea level. About six nm from the rig, the crew was preparing for descent when a bright flash accompanied by a loud bang occurred. Moments later, the passengers and crew began to feel a vibration through the aircraft, rapidly getting more intense. The vibration became severe and the crew declared a mayday with a planned diversion to a nearby oil platform.
The FAA has convened an independent panel to review the agency’s telecommunications system following the Nov. 19 outage that delayed more than 800 flights. The FAA’s Telecommunications Infrastructure (FTI) system provides 24/7 communication support for the National Airspace System. The panel will deliver two reports to Administrator Randy Babbitt. The first will focus on the November outage and will suggest any immediate changes that need to be made to the FTI system, management procedures, or oversight.
In its Business Jet Update for October 2009, UBS said business jet takeoffs and landings for the month were about 17 percent above their March low and unchanged from September, which was “particularly strong.” Moreover, the bank’s investment research monthly said year over year growth “can turn positive before the end of 2009” and forecast 8- to 10-percent cycle growth in 2010 “including 12- to 14-percent growth in the first half.” The report noted, however, that October’s cycles were 4 percent lower than the previous year’s and 25 percent below the 2007 peak, and “While o
The Curtiss SB2C Helldiver got a bad start with the U.S. Navy during World War II but went on to vindicate itself. Although more than 7,100 were built, only four survive, according to Edward Vesely. And he should know because he’s a rare bird indeed, holding all the proper paperwork to pilot the flying example of its kind at air shows and exhibitions. During his day job, he sells aircraft for Welsch Aviation at its Houston office.
Purdue University secured a $1.35 million U.S. Air Force grant for a new facility to test aircraft engines and develop alternative fuels. The National Test Facility for Fuels and Propulsion, to be housed in the Niswonger Aviation Technology Building at the Purdue Airport, is slated to open in late 2010 or early 2011. The facility will test hardware in engines and aircraft, and accumulate fuel sustainability and emissions data.
A European research project suggests that a crosswind could increase runway capacity by dissipating wake turbulence more quickly, reducing the spacing demand between the preceding and following aircraft. The Dutch National Research Laboratory (NLR) says that a summary of their research findings shows that a seven-knot crosswind could reduce the wake vortex separation requirement by 30 to 60 seconds. The studies were conducted in simulators and the NLR says field testing is needed to validate the concept.
Pilots climbing into the CJ4 may not recognize it as a member of the CitationJet family because the flight deck redesign has been so thorough. Four, eight-by-ten inch portrait-configuration AM-LCD screens dominate the instrument panel. The stand-alone radio tuning units have been eliminated, along with the glareshield-mounted annunciator light panel and flight guidance system controls buried in the center console.
Rockwell Collins received FAA certification of its HGS-6605 Head-Up Guidance System as a head-up display for Bombardier’s Challenger 605 business jet. The HGS-6605 can display the 605s Enhanced Vision System images along with flight symbology using active-matrix liquid crystal display technology.
The used jet inventory is declining, a JP Morgan analyst reported in its Business Jet Monthly update. The inventory — the number of jets for sale in proportion to the active fleet — decreased 10 basis points (bps) to 13.2 percent in November 2009. This compares with declines of 30 to 50 bps in the three preceding months, JP Morgan noted. Inventories and inventory turnover rates remain near five-year highs, and industry experts concede it will take a long time to sell off the large number of previously owned business airplanes still on the market.
These graphs are designed to illustrate the performance of the Citation CJ4 under a variety of range, payload, speed and density altitude conditions. Do not use these data for flight planning purposes because they are gross approximations of actual aircraft performance.
GE Aviation’s wholly owned subsidiary, GE Aviation Czech s.r.o., is beginning certification testing of its new H80 turboprop engine, which will produce up to 800 shp. The engine is targeted at utility, agricultural and, business and general aviation aircraft. Component testing of the H80 engine has been underway for several months, and GE has recently started aeromechanical and performance testing on the powerplants. Certification is expected in early 2010 with entry into service on the Thrush 510 cropduster.
“A bottom has been reached, and for some airplanes . . . a bounce,” declared Publisher Fletcher Aldredge in the fourth quarter edition of his Vref Market Leader newsletter. “More than a year of falling prices and lowered expectations have pulled the real buyers off the sidelines and into the market,” reports Aldredge. “Activity continues to improve almost industry-wide. Low offers keep coming in. However, on most airplanes, the sellers sense the worst just might be over, and the bottom is no longer made of quicksand.”
Regarding “Midnight Sun” (Flight Log, November 2009, page 72), as Ernie Gann often wrote, if fate intervenes, that’s the way it goes. But if you survived, you had to have some “good luck.” I totally enjoyed Richard Van Gemert’s P5M-2 article; that was one ordeal I’m sure he’s happy to be around to write about.
Technical and operational standards for automatic dependent surveillance — broadcast (ADS-B) equipment have been approved, paving the way for April 2010 publication of the FAA’s final rule mandating ADS-B equipage in controlled airspace by 2020. Standards body RTCA has now approved the minimum operational performance standards (MOPS), and the FAA has already signed the related technical standard orders (TSO), said Vincent Capezzuto, FAA director of surveillance and broadcast services.
Supposedly on his first day at AlliedSignal, Larry Bossidy conducted face-to-face introductions at headquarters with the understandably nervous group of executives awaiting the new CEO. However, one vice president stood out as being particularly friendly and familiar, volunteering sports anecdotes and assessments of teams and players with the new boss, a former college ballplayer. Moving on, Bossidy, legendary for his all-business-all-the-time focus, turned to an aide and said, “Fire that guy; I never want to see him again.”
