CIT Group, Inc., New York, N.Y., announced that is has promoted three member of its commercial airline marketing team at CIT Aerospace: Volker Fabian has been promoted to vice president and senior regional director for Asia and the South Pacific; Gwyn Scourfield is vice president and senior regional director for Europe, Africa, India and the Middle East; Mark L. Ebanks is vice president and regional director for The Americas.
Dennis Blackburn, president of Corporate Concepts International (CCI) - a leading aviation services company with more than 30 years experience in aircraft acquisitions, sales, evaluations and consulting - believes the worldwide corporate aircraft market "remains healthy, although it has slowed in the first part of 2008."
CRS Jet Spares, a business aviation aftermarket support facility, announced that it has recently parted out a Premier aircraft thereby providing component and structural items for operators. This inventory includes items such as Rockwell Collins displays, computers, pumps, leading edges, actuators, oxygen mask, inverters, seats and much more.
THE AIRLINES WERE ON the hot seat in Washington last month for several instances of failing to comply with Airworthiness Directives in a timely manner. But the entire aviation community had to shudder about the possible implications of some of the congressional rhetoric expounded during a 10-hour hearing before the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
FirstFlight, Elmira, N.Y., has named Stephen J. Meyer as senior vice president of sales. Other new members in the charter sales department are Seth Rothman, Anthony Johns and David Logalbo.
A s a key emerging safety technology in 21st century avionics, few developments can equal Synthetic Vision Systems (SVS), which provide a virtual VFR window on the outside world in conditions of visual obscuration or darkness, thus providing unprecedented situational awareness. Using SVS, pilots can spot terrain and obstacles, among other potential hazards, long before they might have otherwise placed their aircraft in jeopardy.
FAA Assistant Administrator Dan Elwell, the aviation authority's honcho for aviation policy, planning, and environment, presented a perspective on carbon trading in his testimony before the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming on April 2. "As ICAO recognized in its work, an emissions trading system is only one approach, and it remains the decision of a state whether to employ such a measure," Elwell said. "Market-based measures can reduce emissions at lower costs."
This is for Mrs. Bill Garvey: Your husband could have inserted my name in his February Viewpoint ("She Knows Her Way Around," page 9) about GPS since I, too, am directionally challenged and decided a nüvi is just what my husband needed for Christmas. (You get the picture. In fact, my husband can find his way out of a dark field in a foreign country, blindfolded.) So, the gift arrived just in time for our 2,002-mile "great circle" route for the holiday.
*Agusta A109E and A119 helicopters - Inspect for interference between the hydraulic lines and the tail-rotor control rod assembly. If interference is found, replace the hydraulic lines. *Bell 214B and B-1 helicopters - Inspect each pylon support spindle assembly for corrosion, nicks, scratches, dents or cracks and replace any unairworthy spindle before further flight.
"When everything old is new again . . ." That's what seems to be today's mantra in business jet charter when David Esler's "New Business Plans for Charter" (January 2008, page 40) is compared with industry history. The original VLJ, Bill Lear's 12,499-pound Lear Jet 23 is now 45 years old. It was an FAR Part 23 "Everyman's Jet," with an eye toward single-pilot operation. The year was 1963.
Just three years ago Embraer announced plans to become a major player in the business jet market and introduced the Phenom 100 very light jet and Phenom 300 light jet. Since then the company has logged orders for hundreds of Phenoms. The manufacturer expects to win certification of the smaller Phenom 100 in the second half of this year and deliver 10 to 15 of those aircraft to customers before year-end. The company's total firm backlog has grown from $14.8 billion at the end of 2006 to $20.3 billion at the end of March.
The nitpickers are here again! Regarding Mike Gamauf's interesting "Radome Repairs: More Than Skin Deep" (January 2008, page 67) there is little doubt that the first use of weather radar in airline operations was in 1947 by the U.S.-backed Peruvian International Airways in service between Lima and New York on their C-54s. After PIA folded in late 1948, four of their six aircraft finished up with the French carrier UAT, about a year later.
Want to learn more about the DERs and their responsibilities? FAR Part 183.29 provides the regulations governing their selection and certification. The FAA also has a Web site where you can download a list of all DERs, along with their specialties and endorsements. Visit: www.faa.gov/other_visit/ aviation_industry/designees_ delegations/designee_types/der/
The National Aircraft Resale Association (NARA) is scheduled to hold its spring meeting from Thursday, May 8 through Saturday, May 10 at the Ritz-Carlton Golf Resort in Naples, Fla. The annual membership meeting is slated to take place on Thursday from 9 a.m. to noon, with the broker/dealer meeting to be held from 12:30 to 3:30 p.m. and the board of directors meeting to be conducted from 4 to 5:30 p.m. An evening reception will follow.
Rockwell Collins plans to purchase Athena Technologies, Inc., a privately held company that develops and provides flight and navigation controls primarily for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. David Vos, Athena Technologies' founder and CEO, said, "This new relationship with Rockwell Collins provides an exciting and enabling platform to leverage Athena's successful navigation and controls systems to play a leading role in the future convergence of manned and unmanned aviation.
Rolls-Royce BR725 powerplants, rated at 16,100 pounds of thrust for takeoff to ISA+15°C, will power the G650, preserving the 50-year partnership between Gulfstream and Rolls-Royce. The engines will be fitted with a new, 50-inch diameter, 24-blade swept airfoil fan, 10-stage axial flow compressor with improved aerodynamics and with five blisk rotors to reduce weight, low emissions combustor adapted from the BR715 and improved efficiency two-stage high- and three-stage low-pressure turbine sections with better blade tip clearance control.
Bombardier Aerospace announced March 13 that the government of Iraq has placed a firm order for six CRJ900 NextGen airliners, which will be placed in civilian airline services in the Middle Eastern nation. The transaction includes options on four additional CRJ900 NextGen aircraft. Based on the list prices, the value of the firm contract is approximately U.S. $239 million. If all options are exercised, the contract value could rise to approximately U.S. $400 million.
*Business Jet Access, Love Field, Dallas, announced the appointment of David Martin as chief inspector for the aircraft and charter management divisions.
Ranger Aerospace, a private equity consolidator specializing in investments in the rotorcraft services industry, has teamed with Heli-X for the acquisition, refurbishment and resale of turbine-powered high-end helicopters. Heli-X (Helicopter Exchange, Ltd.) is a DFW-based helicopter sales and brokering company with expertise in rotorcraft appraisals. Under the arrangement, Heli-X will source helicopter transactions, which Ranger will finance. Additionally, Ranger's helicopter overhaul and completion subsidiaries will refurbish the project helicopters.
Flight Display Systems is offering Ellipse TV, the first airborne satellite DirecTV system designed to work with a variety of airplanes including Gulfstreams, Challengers, Learjets, Hawkers, Pilatus aircraft and most turboprops, according to the company. The radome is mounted a minimum of 10 inches above the fuselage to permit free flow of air below the radome. This cuts down on lift and drag. The airflow is back to its original flow three inches after it passes the back of the radome.
*Grob Aerospace, Zurich, Switzerland, appointed Ulrich Gehling as managing director of Grob Aerospace GmbH, Germany. Dr. Andreas Strohmayer remains as joint managing director.
At the NBAA Schedulers & Dispatchers Conference in Savannah in January, Chuck McKinnon, who at one time ran IBM's flight department, shared some of his experiences with the attendees until time ran out. Here's what McKinnon would have said if he'd had time to finish:
The new Stanley-Proto Aerospace Ratchet has been engineered to satisfy the unique work requirements of aircraft maintenance technicians, according to the company. The ratchet can be used on different types of aircraft fasteners. Its head, or drive plug, includes a vertical through-hole where users can insert a hex key for the installation of frangible collars on threaded pins -- a common fastener system in airframe work. It also can be fitted with conventional sockets for use with hex head nuts and bolts.
