FLIGHT DISPLAY SYSTEMS developed a five-source wireless audio transmitter that will allow on-board listening to audio sources such as iPOD, MP3, satellite radio, CD, television and DVD. The wireless headsets include channel selection access and volume controls anywhere in the cabin. The transmitter weighs 14 ounces and produces 2.43 GHz digital signals. The transmitter also incorporates a pilot public address interrupt function.
DIANA CLASEN was promoted to manager of corporate communications for FlightSafety International. Clasen joined FlightSafety in 1983 as a marketing assistant at FSI’s Cessna facility in Wichita, Kan., and held positions of increasing responsibility, including manager, marketing information center, and manager, customer relationship program. Most recently she was product marketing manager at the Wichita Cessna center.
The Association of Air Medical Services has scheduled a series of closed-door meetings to discuss short- and long-term regulatory changes to increase safety standards for helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) providers. The meetings are part of a multifaceted effort AAMS has undertaken to work toward improving the air medical industry’s safety record. The association said it was working with both FAA and Congress as well as highlighting safety at its annual conference.
THE LATEST EMS ACCIDENT claimed four lives outside of Chicago when a Bell 222 hit a guy wire attached to a 700-foot radio antenna, another accident which probably would have been avoided if the aircraft had been equipped with a Terrain Avoidance Warning System or an enhanced/synthetic vision system. National Transportation Safety Board investigators are trying to determine if the lights on the tower were illuminated when the crash occurred in clear skies late Wednesday night.
AVFUEL added Million Air of San Antonio, Texas (SAT) to its network of fixed-base operation-branded dealers. Million Air SAT completed a renovation of the facility last year to expand amenities and services offered.
ADAM KONOWE was promoted to vice president of public relations for Sullivan Higdon & Sink. Konowe, who is based in the McLean, Va., office, will lead McLean-based public relations accounts and will support other aviation, aerospace and defense teams across the agency. He has been with SHS for five years, most recently as director for brand reputation.
MICHAEL MCCLAIN joined the sales team for Jet Works Air Center. McClain will be based in the Houston, Texas center and promote Jet Works aircraft maintenance, avionics, paint and interior services for turbine aircraft. McClain has more than 30 years of business aviation maintenance, repair and overhaul experience with companies including Tenneco and Duncan Aviation. He held sales and marketing roles with West Star Aviation, where he later became president. He also worked at Alliance Engines, Dallas Airmotive, Garrett Aviation and most recently, M7 Aerospace.
STAN (SKIP) FEHER was named regional sales director for the Pacific Northwest for Mooney Airplane Company. Feher is an air transport pilot and certified flight instructor with more than 5,000 hours. He previously was a charter pilot with Sierra Pacific, where he flew tours with high-profile musical performers including Fleetwood Mac, the Beach Boys and John Denver. He also was a director of flight operations, an airline pilot and held sales positions with Global Systems, Airshow, and Rockwell Collins.
SCOTT GALDI joined FlightSafety International as regional marketing manager. Galdi will work with FlightSafety’s Part 135 customers. He has 30 years of business aviation experience, serving as president of Atlantic Aviation Flight Services, executive vice president of The Air Group in Van Nuys, Calif., and executive vice president, sales and service for K-C Aviation Transportation Services. He also has held roles with Executive Jet Aviation, United Air Fleet and Teterboro Aircraft Supplies.
The International Civil Aviation Organization next year is expected to roll out a number of environmental recommendations, including possible market-based initiatives, in time for the next post-Kyoto agreement, a senior ICAO official told attendees at the National Business Aviation Association’s annual meeting and convention this month in Orlando, Fla. Roberto Kobeh Gonzalez, president of the ICAO council, said the ICAO Assembly last year created a group to recommend “an aggressive program of action on international aviation and climate change.”
October 20-22 – Airports Council International-North America Public Safety and Security Fall Conference, Ritz Carlton Pentagon City Hotel, Arlington, Va. For more information call (202) 293-8500 or go to www.aci-na.org/conferences October 22-24 – International Aviation Womens Association (IAWA) 20th Anniversary and the Accomplishments of Women in the Aviation and Aerospace Industries, Chicago. Contact: Karen Griggs at [email protected]
SEOS, a supplier of “highly realistic visual display solutions for commercial and military full flight simulators,” will be acquired by Rockwell Collins, the two companies announced late Friday. Terms of the acquisition agreement were not disclosed, but the deal is expected to close within about 30 days. After the transaction closes, SEOS will operate under the Rockwell Collins name and become part of the larger firm’s Simulation and Training Solutions organization.
DUNCAN AVIATION, which operates two highly regarded full-service maintenance facilities in the Midwest, is planning a third full-service business jet facility near the West Coast. The facility, to be built in Provo, Utah, is slated to open by August 2010. The Provo operation will offer airframe, engine, completion, paint and avionics installation services. Duncan currently has major facilities in Lincoln, Neb. and Battle Creek, Mich., and operates more than 20 satellite avionics and seven satellite engine locations throughout the U.S.
BOMBARDIER DHC-8-400 airplanes [Docket No. FAA-2008-1083; Directorate Identifier 2008-NM-130-AD] – This proposed AD would require operators to replace the weight-on-wheels harnesses and steering harnesses, according to the instructions of Bombardier Service Bulletin 84-32-51, Rev. B (dated Dec. 17, 2007). This proposal, which resulted from an MCAI originated by Transport Canada Civil Aviation, was prompted by several cases in which the landing gear did not retract after takeoff.
ANGEL BENNETT was promoted to director of client services in the McLean, Va. office of Sullivan Higdon & Sink. Bennett joined SHS in 2005 as senior brand manager. She will coordinate advertising, marketing and public relations strategy and tactics for accounts such as FLIR Government Systems and Delex Systems.
EMBRAER selected Elbit Systems of America to provide the Kollsman EVS II enhanced vision system for the Lineage 1000 jet as optional equipment. The system, which is expected to be certified by 2010, would be offered in combination with the Rockwell Collins Head-Up Guidance System Model 5600E.
ESTERLINE CMC ELECTRONICS formed a strategic alliance with Pentastar Aviation to pursue corporate and military market opportunities for CMC’s electronic flight bag product line and Pentastar’s articulating yoke mount. Pentastar is a “Platinum Dealer” for CMS, holding a number of supplemental type certificates for the CMC PilotView EFB. Pentastar has a patent pending for the yoke mount, which will allow the pilot to adjust the view angle for improved situational awareness.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Lockheed Martin and other partners plan the first demonstration of a new NextGen ATC testbed at Daytona Beach Airport next month in a project backed by FAA. The research and development demonstration under way in a 5,000-square-foot facility at Daytona has been included under FAA’s umbrella of NextGen testbed activity in Florida – an effort to accelerate the roll-out of benefits to aircraft operators from airlines to military jets and general aviation. Miami Airport is also involved in other work with FAA.
Gulfstream Aerospace conducted a flight last month using four different technologies – including wireless – to move control surfaces on a Gulfstream V business jet. Gulfstream said the Sept. 18 flight was “historic...the first known application of wireless signaling for a primary flight control surface in a civilian or military aircraft.”
ANOTHER VIEW of how tight credit markets and volatile stock markets are affecting business jet orders is expected this week when Gulfstream Aerospace parent General Dynamics conducts a conference call with analysts to discuss the company’s third-quarter results.
Textron’s Bell Helicopter unit lost a U.S. Army contract worth billions of dollars Thursday, Textron is closing down its financing arm, and worldwide economic woes have sharply reduced new orders for Cessna Aircraft’s line of business jets, company officials said.
FLIGHTSAFETY INTERNATIONAL reached an agreement with Hawker Beechcraft to expand both its pilot and maintenance training services. FSI will build a new 33,000-square-foot maintenance training center at the north end of the runway adjacent to the Hawker Beechcraft manufacturing facility in Wichita. The ramp from the maintenance center provides access to aircraft for training purposes, and the new building will be equipped with classrooms and hands-on aircraft component training areas.
IN LIGHT OF GROWING environmental pressures, the business aviation community continues to attempt to position the industry as environmentally friendly. Fractional aircraft ownership provider Flexjet has become the latest major operator to join the carbon offset movement, announcing it is partnering with Climate Care, a carbon offset provider. Flexjet is offering the program to its aircraft share owners, assessing a voluntary per-hour fee for carbon emissions used.
