BELL HELICOPTER TEXTRON Model 204B, 205A, 205A-1, 205B, 210, 212, 412, 412CF and 412EP helicopters [Docket No. FAA-2008-0490; Directorate Identifier 2008-SW-26-AD; Amendment 39-15509; AD 2008-10-03] – Requires inspection of each tail-rotor blade assembly at specified intervals and repair or replacement, as applicable, of any unairworthy blade (BA, May 12/211). This AD was prompted by three inflight failures of tail-rotor blades and a recent incident in which a cracked tail-rotor blade was discovered during a scheduled visual inspection.
Manassas, Va.-based charter Chantilly Air won clearance from the Transportation Security Administration to operate at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). The approval capped a six-month effort Chantilly Air undertook to demonstrate compliance with TSA’s DCA Access Standard Security Program (DASSP), said Tim Sullivan, director of operations and chief operating officer for the company.
THE ADVANCED TURBINE ENGINE COMPANY (ATEC), a joint venture between Honeywell and Pratt & Whitney, won a contract valued at $108 million for the U.S. Advanced Affordable Turbine Engine (AATE) technology demonstration program. AATE is designed to validate technologies designed to achieve the Army’s goal of 65 percent improvement in shaft horsepower/weight ratio and 25 percent improvement in specific fuel consumption (SFC) for the next generation 3,000 SHP turboshaft engine. General Electric also is developing a new engine for the AATE competition (BA, May 12/219).
HONEYWELL’S corporate flight department applied for FAA authorization to perform Required Navigation Performance Special Aircraft and Aircraft Authorization Required (RNP SAAAR) operations on the company’s Gulfstream G450 and G550 aircraft equipped with the PlaneView system. FAA late last year designated Honeywell as an RNP SAAAR consultancy, allowing the company to provide services to business jet operators that would speed authorization for RNP SAAAR procedures. Approval for RNP SAAAR operations requires validation of the flight management system database.
SAVVY AIRCRAFT MAINTENANCE MANAGEMENT (SAMM) was recently established in Las Vegas, Nev., to provide professionally managed maintenance for owner-flown aircraft ranging from high-performance single-engine airplanes to cabin-class twins and Very Light Jets. General aviation maintenance expert Mike Busch established the company, building on his “Savvy Owner Seminar,” which has provided maintenance information to more than 1,000 aircraft owners over the past four years.
Larry R. Flynn, who has overseen a major expansion of customer support and maintenance business for Gulfstream Aerospace for more than a decade, was named senior vice president, marketing and sales, for the Savannah, Ga. manufacturer, effective June 30.
SUMI FONSEKA was named general manager of the Gulfstream Aerospace service center in Luton, England. The service center, located at London-Luton Airport, provided service to more than 900 Gulfstream aircraft during 2007. Fonseka will be responsible for daily operations of the facility and for anticipating the needs of Gulfstream customers in Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Most recently Fonseka was the senior hangar operations manager at Gulfstream’s new South Service Center in Savannah, Ga.
AMPARO CALATAYUD keeps getting promoted by FlightSafety International, this time to manager of the company’s new helicopter learning center in Lafayette, La. The 20-year U.S. Army aviation veteran first joined FSI in 1997 after retiring from the military and spent seven years with the company before leaving in 2003 to raise her family. During her first tour with FSI, Calatayud served as an instructor, an assistant manager and as manager of the company’s San Antonio facility.
SPECIAL CONDITIONS for the Lineage 1000 have been issued by FAA, which wants to address cargo compartment accessibility and fire-safety issues not addressed by existing certification standards. The agency believes that a means to detect smoke is needed in all six electrical/electronic equipment bays on the Embraer 190-100 to ensure that the flightcrew can make an informed decision as to the source of smoke and can shut down electrical equipment when smoke is detected in those bays.
Van Nuys, CA VNY CRS #DWHR329D NOW OPEN St. Louis, MO SUS CRS #DELR158D Philadelphia, PA MQS CRS #U7JR551L Dallas, TX DAL COMING SOON Growing in Scope. Keeping our Focus.
MOONEY AIRCRAFT recently secured FAA certification for use of Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS)-aided navigation and SafeTaxi aboard the Acclaim Type S, Ovation 3 and Ovation2 GX aircraft. Mooney has begun delivery of the aircraft upgraded with the WAAS and SafeTaxi systems. The systems allow Mooney operators to take greater advantage of the capabilities of Garmin G1000 avionics and the Global Positioning System, Mooney said.
The National Transportation Safety Board wants the FAA to require manufacturers of aircraft equipped with engine turbochargers to amend their Pilot Operating Handbooks (POH) and Airplane Flight Manuals (AFM) to include in the “Emergency Procedures” section information regarding turbocharger failures. Specifically, the safety board wants those documents to detail procedures that would minimize potential hazards relating to inflight fires or loss of engine power.
MEERA SIKKA was named vice president-global business development for Bristow Group, effective June 1. She will replace Mark Duncan, whose appointment as senior vice president-Western Hemisphere was previously announced by the company. Sikka has more than 20 years of experience in the energy business in various locations around the world, the last 10 of which were spent with affiliates of Royal Dutch Shell. From March 2000 to February 2004 she was commercial manager of Shell Aircraft Ltd., based in London, England.
Brazilian manufacturer Embraer will break ground later this year for a 150,000-square-foot facility to be built on the Melbourne, Fla. Airport (MLB) where the company will establish a final assembly production line for its Phenom 100 and 300 business jet models. The new facility will include a customer center where customers for all of Embraer’s business aircraft line of products will be able to do detailed specification planning on how they want their aircraft equipped and configured.
HAWKER BEECHCRAFT CORP. booked $1.1 billion in aircraft orders during the first quarter, 56 percent of which came from customers outside the U.S. First-quarter orders pushed HBC’s total backlog to $6.8 billion, the highest in company history. Despite concern in some circles about the soft economy in the U.S., “We remain pretty optimistic. We believe the market is going to remain strong,” Jim Schuster, HBC’s chairman and CEO, told financial analysts last week. Schuster said used aircraft pricing and orders and pricing for new aircraft all remain strong.
AIRCELL began taking orders for broadband service that it will provide to the business aviation market. Aircell is offering Aircell Mobile Broadband Network covering North American operations and Inmarsat SwiftBroadband for global coverage. Aircell also is offering a range of equipment packages that can be tailored to aircraft type, desired features and the geographic coverage required. The broadband service is slated to begin in the third quarter of 2008 for the business aviation market.
GENERAL AVIATION operations in the New York area would be further restricted under a new proposal FAA is slated to publish Wednesday. FAA is proposing a number of new mechanisms, including slots for scheduled and “reservations” for unscheduled operations, to grapple with congestion at New York Kennedy and Newark Liberty International Airports. The proposal calls for two reservations per hour for unscheduled operations each at Kennedy and Newark. Those two airports would follow a similar system already in place for New York’s LaGuardia Airport.
MD HELICOPTERS, INC. Model 369A, OH-6A, 369D, 369E, 369F, 369FF, 369H, 369HE, 369HM and 369HS helicopters [Docket No. FAA-2008-0287; Directorate Identifier 2006-SW-15-AD] – This proposed AD would require repetitive tap inspections of each tail-rotor blade abrasion strip to detect bonding voids. Modifying each tail-rotor blade by installing a titanium rivet in the tip of the outboard end of each blade and painting a “T” in the root-end of the blade would be considered a terminating action to the repetitive inspections.
FAA is receiving a growing number of requests from government agencies and other organizations to use unmanned aircraft systems, resulting in creation of more restricted warning areas in the continental U.S. Maps and a chart depicting the growth of those restricted areas are shown on Pages 233-234. The information was compiled by the Department of Defense for presentation at the National Transportation Safety Board’s recent UAS safety forum (BA, May 5/203).
AEROSPACE EMPLOYMENT increased to 651,700 in March, up from the 2007 year-end average of 645,600, the Aerospace Industries Association reported. AIA said aerospace employment has climbed steadily since hitting a low of 587,100 in 2003. Despite the increases, AIA still is concerned that the industry is facing a potential work force crisis since 60 percent of U.S. aerospace workers were age 45 or older in 2007.
BARBARA TAYLOR was promoted to manager of FlightSafety International’s Bell Helicopter learning center in Fort Worth, Texas. She joined FSI in 1995 and most recently was assistant center manager of the Fort Worth center. As manager Taylor replaces George Ferito, who served as both manager of the Fort Worth learning center and director of rotorcraft business development for FSI. Ferito will continue in his business development role.
AS JET FUEL PRICES continue to climb, Honeywell unit UOP is working with Airbus and International Aero Engines to develop a sustainable biofuel product that can be used to replace jet fuel in commercial aircraft. Officials hope to begin testing the new fuel within a couple of years. See article on Page 225.
Jet Aviation is planning to expand its presence in Asia with a joint venture agreement to manage a fixed-base operation and line maintenance facility in Malaysia. Jet Aviation signed a memorandum of understanding with Malaysian maintenance, repair and overhaul specialist Airod to jointly provide FBO, line maintenance and aircraft-on-ground services at Subang Airport in Kuala Lumpur. The two companies will negotiate details of the joint venture agreement in the upcoming months and plan to finalize the partnership in August.
THE CITY OF SANTA MONICA and FAA are awaiting a decision on whether a U.S. District Court in California will issue a preliminary injunction against the city’s ban on larger business jets at Santa Monica Municipal Airport (SMO). The city and FAA presented arguments in the case Thursday, with FAA arguing for the injunction saying the city could harm regional transportation and violate federal law if it enforces the ban. The city, however, argued that it cannot ignore the city’s safety responsibility and must enforce the ban.
May 20-22 — National Business Aviation Association, European Business Aviation Convention and Exposition (EBACE 2008), Geneva, Switzerland. Contact Kathleen Blouin at NBAA at (202) 783-9000. May 27- June 1 — Berlin International Air Show (ILA2008), Berlin, Germany, sponsored by the German Aerospace Industries Association (BDLI) and managed by Messe Berlin. For more information, call (609) 987-1202; fax (609) 987-0092 or e-mail (www.ila-NA.com).
