Embraer's newest facility will have a soft footprint on the native forest. The Brazilian manufacturer is reforesting the 6.56-square-mile site at Gavio Peixoto with about 600,000 native trees of 135 species. Currently the reforestation is about 80 percent complete. The reforestation program is the result of an Embraer study of the environmental impact of building an aerospace design and development facility in So Paulo's agricultural heartland, where the typical farmer grows oranges and sugarcane.
Eclipse Aviation had two of its Eclipse 500 flight-test aircraft performing flybys for attendees at the recent EAA AirVenture. Eclipse CEO Vern Raburn expects his company to build and deliver 120 to 130 new VLJs in 2006. It will ramp up to 600 to 700 aircraft annually in 2007 and remain at that level for a year or two while officials assess the market.
B&CA is looking for a staff editor. The ideal candidate will be a licensed pilot or mechanic and have familiarity with business aviation along with a solid foundation in basic journalistic skills and the ability to research and present highly technical and complex subject matter. Our readers have a low fluff tolerance and are intolerant of factual errors. The position involves writing features, departments, sidebars and captions. The job involves considerable domestic and some international travel in pursuit of stories.
HORSES' BRAINS ARE modestly sized for the massive bodies they control, a kind arrangement, I suppose, if your fate is to be a beast of burden. But most of the equines I've encountered wouldn't know a plow harness from a hula hoop. Rather they're the pampered darlings of well-off exurbanites, or four-legged cops that stand around a lot, or desultory dobbins who plod along tired paths with half-pint Hopalongs giddyapping on their backs.
In the next two to three years, passengers aboard large business jets may witness advances in cabin productivity on a scale not seen since the the first air-to-ground radio-telephones made their debut aboard corporate aircraft decades ago. Business jet manufacturers and avionics firms have talked up airborne office data-link communications capabilities for more than a decade, but the relatively small communications pipe between airborne offices and ground offices has been the main choke point.
The FAA has squelched a proposal to allow inflight mobile phone use, at least for the time being. The agency said it disagreed with the Federal Communications Commission's decision to possibly lift the 14-year-old ban. The administration insists that airlines will have to prove that the phones are not disruptive to airline navigation and are safe to use.
Jet Engineering Technical Support (JETS) has become the first British firm to win Civil Aviation Authority approval to carry out base and line maintenance on the jet and turboprop versions of the Dornier 328. JETS' hangar at Southampton is capable of holding three Dornier 328s. The company has mechanical and avionics workshops, plus a dedicated paint bay, which can accommodate most small- to medium-size commercial aircraft. JETS is currently licensed for line and base maintenance for the earliest Hawkers to the latest Hawker 800XP.
Philip J. Klass, former editor with Aviation Week & Space Technology, died Aug. 9, in Merritt Island, Fla. He was 85. An Iowa native, Klass graduated from Iowa State University in Ames in 1941 with a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. Following graduation, he joined General Electric in Schenectady, N.Y., as an engineer. After 11 years in industry, he joined Aviation Week as a technical journalist.
In its recently issued final rule regarding the compliance of newly certificated aircraft with the Stage 4 noise standard, which goes into effect on Jan. 1, 2006, the FAA reiterated its official position that it has no plans to require a phase out of Stage 3 aircraft already in service.
House leaders introduced legislation to punish pilots who enter restricted airspace around the National Capital Region. The bill (H.R.3465), introduced July 27 by Majority Whip Rep. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) and Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), would levy up to a $100,000 fine on unauthorized pilots who enter the Flight Restricted Zone, which has a 15-mile radius from Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). Unauthorized pilots who enter the D.C.
Airwolf Filter Corp. has earned FAA certification for its 400 series wet vacuum pump, which drives deicing boots on piston aircraft. The new pump is a follow-on to the 200 series.The 400 and 200 series are the only certified new wet pumps for piston aircraft available on the market.
A second-quarter report from the National Aircraft Resale Association (NARA) on recent sales of previously owned business jets and turboprops confirms the continuing strength of the current market. The statistics on aircraft sold and those available for sale, which were compiled by New Jersey-based AMSTAT, indicate that airplane sales continue at a robust rate as the inventory of available aircraft continues to shrink.
James M. Loy has been elected to a seat on the Lockheed Martin board of directors. The former TSA administrator spent nearly 40 years in the U.S. Coast Guard, retiring as an admiral. After heading the TSA, he served as deputy secretary of the Department of Homeland Security before retiring from government service early this year.
A Time Domain Reflectometer (TDR) is a handy device that sends electrical pulses through a wire to determine if it is working as designed. If insulation is breaking down, or a short or open is present, the device can determine the exact location on the wire where the fault lies. Another tool for finding electrical problems is a Resistive Fault Locator (RFL), which simulates a precise electrical load in a wire.
Panther Electronics of Kissimmee, Fla., has introduced a wireless aircraft headset with active noise reduction that incorporates Bluetooth technology. Weighing 1.5 ounces, the Bluetooth Pilot Pro comes with a molded-earpiece and features Panther's Cranial Audio Transmission (CAT) system that reportedly reduces noise by as much as 46 dB. The CAT system comes with a video and kit for making your own ear impressions for the custom earpieces.
The NBAA's newest international convention attracted more than 2,100 attendees to Shanghai. The three-day Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition (ABACE), held Aug. 9-11, included more than 50 exhibiting companies at the Shanghai New International Exhibition Center and included 12 aircraft on display at Hongqiao Airport. ABACE joins venues in Latin America and Europe where NBAA has co-sponsored with other international business aviation organizations.
It was no accident that Honda chose AirVenture 2005, the Experimental Aircraft Association's annual summer fly-in, for the public debut of its revolutionary HondaJet, if only for one day. Members of the EAA community invented the VLJ concept more than a decade ago at a time when traditionalists said it would never get off the ground. Then, Sam Williams and Burt Rutan brought their twin-turbofan V-JET II concept aircraft to Oshkosh, Wis., in 1997 with the dream of slashing the price of admission to the business jet club by several million dollars.
Cessna officials are confident of Citation Mustang FAA certification in the last quarter of 2006. The first Mustang flew April 23 and accomplished its 90th flight when Jack Pelton, Cessna's chairman, president and CEO, flew the airplane to Oshkosh, Wis., for display at this year's Experimental Aircraft Association AirVenture. While Cessna has earned a reputation for getting new aircraft models through certification and to market on time, the Mustang program presents new challenges.
FlightSafety International has awarded a scholarship to Chad Twogood to attend FlightSafety Academy's Advanced Airline Training Program. ``The FlightSafety Academy scholarship program is an opportunity for us to support and encourage pilots who have demonstrated their desire and ability to become professional pilots,'' said Jay Elder, director of marketing, airline training at the FlightSafety Academy in Vero Beach, Fla. Twogood is the winner of the Top Pilot award at SAFECON 2005 -- an annual competition held among students from more than 70 colleges.
Permira Funds bought out the Hirschmann family's interest in Jet Aviation. The Aug. 11, announcement said that both parties had agreed not to disclose any further details about the transaction, including the purchase price. The deal is subject to antitrust clearance and is expected to close in September 2005. Frankfurt, Germany-based Permira is an international private equity specialist based in Frankfurt, Germany, but has offices around the world.
Stevens Aviation, the Greenville, S.C.-based aircraft sales and support organization, is planning to launch a new refurbishment program this fall that will involve the company buying ``undervalued'' corporate jets and turboprops on spec and refurbishing them for resale.
In the late 1970s, who would have thought it possible to build a 450-plus-KTAS Citation? But that precisely was Cessna's goal for its $3.1 million Citation III in 1978. At long last, Cessna would step up to genuine business jet cruise speeds. Fitted with twin 3,650-lbf TFE731-3B turbofans and Cessna's first super-critical wing, this 17,000-pound MTOW aircraft would be able to climb directly into the mid forties, cruise economically at 0.78 Mach and carry four passengers 3,000 nm, according to the sales brochures of the time.
The all-composite Grob G-180 SPn Utility Jet made its first flight on July 20, just a month after its surprise appearance at the Paris Air Show. The prototype, D-ISPN, was airborne for 66 minutes. According to Chief Test Pilot Gerard Guillaumaud, ``During the flight, all systems and controls performed as expected, the aircraft was easy to handle and a pleasure to fly.'' The aircraft has flown several times since then, according to a spokesperson. D-ISPN will be joined by a second aircraft in March 2006 to speed the expected 1,000-hour flight-test program.
The venerable Morane-Saulnier MS 760 Paris Jet now has a glass cockpit. Twenty MS 760s have been refurbished by Your Aircraft Source at Calhoun Airport near Atlanta, and are being sold with an FAA-certified Chelton EFIS cockpit. The installation includes a PFD with 3-D perspective terrain modeling, real-time GPS/WAAS positioning and Highway-in-the Sky (HITS) predictive ``takeoff to touchdown'' flight director guidance system.
