Project Phoenix has delivered its first Phoenix CRJ to a Macau-based businessman. The delivery took place on Aug. 24 at the Flying Colours Corp. completion facility in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada.
ICAO members have reached agreement on environmental targets for the global aviation sector, although it is setting higher fuel efficiency standards than industry was proposing. After a high-level meeting in Montreal that ended Oct. 9, ICAO released a declaration of environmental goals for aviation, including a 2-percent annual improvement in fuel efficiency through 2020. This target is higher than the 1.5 percent proposed by the International Air Transport Association and other aviation industry groups.
In an attempt to bolster its user base, NetJets is advertising the availability of “pre-owned” fractional ownership shares in publications such as The New York Times and Wall Street Journal, explaining on its Web site, that, “When a NetJets owner upgrades from one aircraft type to another or when an owner leaves the program, a pre-owned share may become available for resale.
EADS and Eurocopter have signed a cooperation agreement with the sovereign wealth fund SAMRUK-KAZYNA to create a public-private joint venture in Kazakhstan to develop helicopter services. The project includes both European and Kazakh partners. The signing took place during the recent official visit of French President Nicolas Sarkozy to Kazakhstan. The joint venture will transfer skills to local partners to develop an indigenous helicopter service industry in Kazakhstan.
The U.S. Air Force and U.S. Navy conduct “functional check flights” to determine whether an aircraft, engine, accessories or equipment works according to established standards. Some of the situations requiring a check flight include: After completion of aircraft rework; After the installation or reinstallation of an engine, propeller, propeller governor, major fuel system component, helicopter drive train, transmission or gearbox; When a fixed flight surface has been installed or reinstalled;
The FAA’s Customer Service Initiative is dead. Long live the Consistency and Standardization Initiative. FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt announced a new focus on improving the agency’s response to public safety complaints and internal whistle-blowers, as well as remedying its notoriously inconsistent interpretation of agency regulations and policies. The FAA’s new Consistency and Standardization Initiative (CSI) began life as the Customer Service Initiative in 2004.
The White House nominated Erroll G. Southers as the next TSA administrator and assistant Homeland Security secretary. This selection had been widely anticipated for weeks, but the White House was waiting until Congress returned from its late-summer break to make the announcement. Senior lawmakers have apparently been briefed and have given their approval. Southers is assistant chief of the Los Angeles World Airports Police Department’s Office of Homeland Security and Intelligence.
American Eurocopter was selected to provide three new helicopters to Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C. The EC135s will be delivered later this fall and customized specifically for the MedCenter Air program at Carolinas Medical Center.
A United DC-8 left New York’s Idlewild Airport on Sept.18 on the first coast-to-coast scheduled flight. It took five hours. Weather delayed the return trip, with UAL President W.A. Patterson aboard, which took six hours. Initial flight of Omega’s first production twin-engine BA-12D took place Sept. 11 at New Bedford Municipal Airport in Massachusetts.
As NASA prepares to shut down and raze wind tunnels used to test aircraft and space capsules for nearly eight decades, some are questioning whether the space agency is abdicating its role in the development of aeronautics, according to Aviation eBrief. The pending demolition is the latest in a series at Langley Research Center, Va., one of three NASA facilities with wind tunnels. At its height, notes the Hampton, Va. Daily Press, Langley had more than 50.
The Phenom 300 is fitted with two 3,360-pound-thrust, FADEC-equipped PW535E engines that provide competitive takeoff field performance and the capability to climb directly to FL 450 at MTOW. The engine is a close relative of the PW535 fitted to the Citation Encore/Encore+, so it has been well proven in line service.
That photograph on your driver’s license is probably your least favorite likeness, but the chances are it never affected you the way Joshua Doyle’s did. His driver’s license portrait changed his life.
The CEO and the chief financial officer of Honeywell Aerospace have left the company for greener pastures. Honeywell Aerospace CEO Rob Gillette left to head First Solar, an Arizona-based manufacturer of solar and photovoltaic modules, Honeywell said in a statement. CFO Bob Hau is leaving to be CFO of Lennox International, a Texas-based heating and cooling equipment manufacturer, that company announced. Honeywell has appointed Tim Mahoney to lead its aerospace division. Mahoney was formerly chief technology officer of Honeywell Aerospace.
Amid a round of layoffs at Cirrus Aircraft, the company confirmed that co-founder Alan Klapmeier was no longer involved with the company. Klapmeier had not come to terms with Cirrus on a plan to acquire the Cirrus Vision Jet program, and he left when his contract as board chairman expired in August.
The Aircraft Electronics Association believes that the FAA potential rulemaking requiring repair stations, air carriers and manufacturers to develop and implement safety management systems (SMS) is imposing a significant additional burden without any financial, administration or administrative benefit to AEA members. The association is encouraging its members and the aviation industry to respond in that tenor to the FAA call for public comments. Read the AEA regulatory update and commentary at the association’s Web site. The comment deadline is Oct. 21, 2009.
Universal Aviation China’s Jimmy Young provided the following country data for operators headed to the Peoples Republic of China. Commonly Used International Entry and Exit Points for China Northeast Region: ARGUK POLHO INTIK NIXAL AGAVO Southeast Region: LAMEN SADLI BEKOL TAMOT SIERRA SICOU Southwest Region: TEBAK KATBO SAGAG LINSO Northwest Region: PURPA REVKI SARIN GOPTO MORIT Popular Tourist Airports Not Open to Foreign-registered Aircraft ZULS Lasa Gongga Airport
Peter Smales, a former executive director of group sales and managing director (Europe) for ExecuJet, has returned to the United Kingdom to head a new business sales and services company, Indigo Lyon, which is headquartered in Windsor, Berkshire, England. The privately owned, limited liability company will specialize in international sales of fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft and also be involved in spare parts brokerage, consultancy, program planning and execution management.
Denver International Airport (DIA) is jumping on the green bandwagon with a plan to build a solar electricity system to power its fuel farm. The airport is asking the Denver City Council for approval to build the $7 million photovoltaic project. The system would sit on nine acres north of the airfield and would generate 1.6 megawatts of power, enough to provide 100 percent of the airport’s fuel farm electricity consumption.
College Park (Md.) Airport, the country’s oldest continually running airport, turns 100 on Oct. 8. The airport was created in 1909 when the Wright brothers, who had been contracted to provide training for U.S. Army officers to fly their military flyer, selected as their training field a site near College Park, home of the Maryland Agricultural College, now the University of Maryland, in College Park.
