The Cessna 425 Conquest II is the latest turboprop aircraft to be retrofitted with the Alliant integrated flight deck, following receipt of an STC for the installation earlier this year. The retrofit combines Avidyne's Envision series of integrated flight deck products and S-TEC's IntelliFlight 2100 digital flight control system.
The G650's cockpit will look a lot like today's PlaneView flight decks, having four, 14-inch, landscape configuration displays in the instrument panel, a triple-wide, but slimmer center console and standard head-up display system. The basic system is based upon an advanced version of the Honeywell Primus Epic with standard 3-D synthetic vision system (SVS) backgrounds for the PFDs, triplex FMS, 3-D automatic scanning RDR 4000 weather radar and update digital flight guidance control panel in the glareshield.
At 1340 PST, a Cessna 340A, N354TJ, was destroyed when it collided with mountainous terrain while maneuvering near Cabezon, Calif. The private pilot and his three passengers were killed. The personal cross-county flight originated from Bermuda Dunes Airport (UDD), Palm Springs, Calif., at about 1330, with a planned destination of Chino Airport, Calif. It was VFR at the nearest official reporting station; instrument conditions prevailed in the accident area. No flight plan had been filed. After becoming concerned that the pilot had not been seen since Feb.
A French-registered Beech 95-55, piloted by a French private pilot, impacted terrain following a loss of engine power near Auxerre Airfield (LFAQ), France. The pilot was killed and one passenger sustained serious injuries. The airplane was destroyed. It was VFR at the time of the accident.
FlightSafety International has been chosen to provide G650 crew training services, and preparations are under way to integrate those programs at the Savannah Learning Center. Level D simulator certification is scheduled for 2011, well ahead of initial customer deliveries in 2012.
Thank you so much for your note. I have always enjoyed working with the women in the aviation business, and upon reflection it occurred to me that it wasn't simply a coincidence that they were such strong, able individuals. Rather, they had to share those characteristics to succeed in an environment that wasn't always so welcoming. My compliments on your success. Keep up the great work.
Year-end sales statistics compiled by AMSTAT and distributed by the National Aircraft Resale Association (NARA) indicate that 2007 was another outstanding year for sales of previously owned turbine-powered aircraft. For the full year, retail jet sales increased 14.0 percent to 2,307 transactions, while turboprop sales climbed 10.5 percent to 1,670 transactions. The number of jets on the market declined 156 units to 1,554 aircraft, a 9.1- percent drop. The number of turboprops available for purchase dropped 75 units, an 8.0-percent decline.
If you have established a reputation, you will become widely known to qualified cabin crewmembers, and you won't have to find them; they will come to you. That's what executives from the top firms told Business & Commercial Aviation during our recent survey of the field. This is a closely knit community, experts say, and everybody in it knows everybody else. They compete and yet help each other out.
At last count, among all of its diverse operating companies, NetJets, Inc., had 734 business jets in its worldwide stable. NetJets Aviation, the conglomerate's higher-profile fractional ownership division, accounted for 440 of them in its North American operation. So it knows about maintenance management.
*Cessna Citation 525, 525A and 525B airplanes - Inspect the lower wing skin structure, forward wing spar, lower fuselage skin, fairings and the external fairing frames for corrosion. Repair any damage found and apply a corrosion-inhibiting sealant to the fuselage fairings before reinstalling them. Also, disable the cockpit-mounted pilot relief tube. *Dassault Falcon 10, 50, 200, 900, 900EX, 2000 and 2000EX airplanes - Conduct repetitive tests and inspections to detect interference between the emergency exit and interior components.
*Landmark Aviation/Standard Aero, Winnipeg, Canada, announced the appointment of Mike Woodward to the post of turboprop sales manager for the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A and PW100 and Honeywell TPE331, with all of Canada as his territory.
Airports operator BAA has added biometric technology to control access to its international lounge in London Heathrow Airport's Terminal 1. In the past, domestic and international passengers had been segregated for border control purposes, said a spokesman. "The introduction of biometrics technology means that all passengers can enjoy the same facilities," he said. Passengers are asked to provide biometric data in the form of a fingerprint before they proceed through security, said the spokesman. "They also have their photograph taken with a digital camera.
*Aviatrade, Mendham, N.J., has appointed Gui Ye as director, information technology for Aviatrade Asia. Joy Ingruye is the new director, client relations and Kitty Long is director, sales and marketing.
*Schuback Aviation, San Diego, announced that Eric Turner has joined the company as director of safety and Von Welker has been named assistant safety officer.
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.
Honeywell has signed a 10-year service contract valued at approximately $400 million with NetJets covering Honeywell TFE731 engines on the operator's Hawker 750 and 900XP fleet. First certified in 1972, the TFE731 now comprises more than 10,900 engines in service that have accrued more than 72 million hours of operation on more than 27 different aircraft models.
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.
