Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), concerned about the increasing incidence of "air rage" on commercial airline flights, thinks the solution lies in limiting the amount of alcohol passengers are allowed to drink.
NATIONAL BUSINESS AVIATION ASSOCIATION, whose rapidly growing convention attendance and space requirements limit the association to just a handful of cities as venues for its annual meeting, won't be adding Chicago to the mix any time soon.Despite Chicago's large McCormick Place convention center, plenty of suitable hotel rooms and a number of suburban airports, NBAA President Jack Olcott told McCormick Place officials the political climate in Chicago isn't conducive to holding the country's largest business aviation convention there. See article below.
THE BOEING COMPANY, which announced plans last month to develop a "revolutionary" technology that will form the basis of a new air traffic control system (BA, June 11/273), said it "cleared a major hurdle in the development of its Air Traffic Management system with the licensing of a new mobile satellite service by the International Bureau of the Federal Communications Commission." The FCC action "is a critical step toward the development and implementation" of the satellite portion of the system, said Dennis Muilenburg, vice president-engineering at Boeing's Air Traffic
TRIUMPH GROUP was awarded a ten-year agreement with a five-year option to support American Airlines in-house repair activities for the Honeywell GTCP131-9B APU. The two companies will share development of a parts repair protocol, and the agreement provides for the maintenance program to increase APU reliability and time in service.
Eclipse Aviation Corp., the startup manufacturer developing an entry-level, twin-turbofan business jet, has modified its agreement with engine maker Williams International and is slipping some of the target dates for the program to conserve financial resources while waiting for the equity market to improve.
JOANNE THEO was promoted to production manager at Aircraft Belts, Inc., Kemah, Texas. Theo will oversee the production, plating, inventory and shipping departments. Most recently, Theo was the company's plating manager.
CBL SYSTEMS CORPORATION received an FAA Supplemental Type Certificate to install fiber optic-networked Digital Flight Data Acquisition upgrade units on Aerospatiale ATR-42 and ATR-72 aircraft. The system meets the Aug. 20, 2001 FAA deadline to upgrade flight data recording systems. Continental Express and Trans States Airlines will be the first ATR-42 and ATR-72 operators to comply with FAA's 1997 Flight Data Recorder regulations.
ROBERT WILLIAMS was named vice president-product distribution at Superior Air Parts, Inc. Williams will oversee the sales and service support functions to distributors of the Superior product line.
CONKLIN&DE DECKER AVIATION INFORMATION released an updated version of MxManager, its maintenance management software. The latest edition is set up automatically with administrative items such as database backup and repair, which users previously had to configure manually.
American Express launched a new program Thursday to offer jet charter service to its Platinum Card and Centurion Card members through jet charter broker Le Bas International. Holders of the designated American Express cards can call Le Bas directly to outline their travel requirements. Le Bas customer service personnel then identify the most suitable aircraft available, book the trip and attend to other requirements such as special catering needs.
CHRIS BERTRAM, a congressional staffer, was named assistant administrator for financial services and chief financial officer at FAA. Bertram will serve as FAA Administrator Jane Garvey's principal adviser on budget, performance management and financial issues. Bertram had been a senior professional aide for the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and helped draft the AIR-21 FAA reauthorization legislation.
JET AVIATION'S Bedford, Mass. facility won a JAR-145 acceptance certificate for JAA Repair Station approval, which will permit the Bedford unit to maintain European-registered aircraft. In addition to Bedford, Jet Aviation's Teterboro, N.J. and West Palm Beach, Fla. facilities hold JAA Repair Station approvals. The company said the Bedford operation also received an Approved Maintenance Organization Certificate from the Bermuda Department of Civil Aviation, an approval sought "because of the increasing number of international customers at Bedford," the company said.
Sales by General Dynamics Aerospace division, which includes Gulfstream Aerospace, were down in the second quarter, the parent company said, although operating profits for the business were up.
The National Business Aviation Association told Chicago convention officials this month that NBAA will not consider holding its annual meeting in that city because of the city's plans to close Meigs Field airport. Top NBAA officials met earlier with James Rielly, president and CEO of the Chicago Convention and Tourism Bureau, for a tour of the city's McCormick Place convention center. The NBAA convention draws more than 30,000 registrants each year who spend millions of dollars at the host city's hotels, restaurants and entertainment venues.
FEDERAL AVIATION ADMINISTRATION reported that the pilot of a Beech Debonair did things the hard way during a July 17 landing at the Billings, Mont. International Airport (BIL). "Aircraft landed with the nose wheel tow bar still attached, it had previously aborted a takeoff to remove the pitot cover, and the aircraft sustained propeller damage."
NASA picked four state teams to support the agency in the Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) research program. Managed by the General Aviation Programs Office at NASA Langley Research Center in Hampton, Va., SATS is a five-year, $69 million research program designed to increase the availability of low-cost general aviation aircraft and access to small airports.
National Business Aviation Association's board of directors approved the development of a flight department manager certification program to be part of its Professional Development Program. NBAA hopes the Certification Program for Business Aviation Flight Department Managers will "define the profession of corporate aviation management and provide nationally recognized, industry-wide standards." Certification will include education, training, mentoring and testing potential candidates in the program.
GULFSTREAM Model G-V series airplanes (Docket No. 2000-NM-357-AD; Amendment 39-12327; AD 2001-14-16) - requires repetitively replacing the existing nose wheel steering actuator with a new or reworked actuator having the same part number. The actions specified by this AD are intended to prevent loss of nose wheel steering control without a corresponding alert message annunciation due to the effects of moisture intrusion into the rotary variable displacement transducer (RVDT) inside the steering actuator, and consequently, an over-steering condition.
GOODRICH CORP. reached an agreement with privately held Hella KG Hueck&Co. GmbH to acquire a 95 percent stake in the company, which Goodrich said is "the second largest manufacturer of aerospace lighting systems and related electronics in the world." The business being acquired has annual revenues of approximately $45 million and 240 employees.
A FEDERAL APPEALS COURT ordered FAA to reconsider the overflight fees it imposed last year on foreign airlines that fly through U.S. airspace without landing or taking off in U.S. territory, the second time the Court of Appeals rebuffed an attempt to impose such overflight user fees.
National Air Traffic Controllers Association and the Air Transport Association will host an aviation delays summit July 26 at the Washington Hilton and Towers. Objective is the "achievement of an unprecedented consensus among the full aviation community on the causes of and solutions to delays." Emphasis will be given "to the fact that a few specific, concrete actions can help avert the problems." FAA Administrator Jane Garvey is expected to address the summit.
Initial industry reaction to the FAA proposed rule on fractional ownership appeared positive last week as both the National Business Aviation Association and the National Air Transportation Association expressed cautious optimism about the rule. "NBAA is encouraged that the proposal submitted by the Fractional Ownership Aviation Rulemaking Committee has remained essentially unchanged," said Jack Olcott, president of NBAA.
METROPOLITAN AIRPORTS COMMISSION at the Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn. Airport (MSP) is soliciting public comment about expanding the Residential Sound Mitigation Program around the airport. The program is designed to reduce noise levels within homes impacted by airport noise. To be eligible under the current program, homes must be in areas that have a Day-night Noise Level of 65 decibels or greater. An expanded program would make Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport the only major U.S.
JAMES TOWLE was named director of sales power plant systems at Superior Air Parts, Inc. Towle will be in charge of the company's two engine programs: the Certified Millennium Pre-Owned Engine and the XP-360 Engine. Towle was most recently the director of engine sales at Van Bortel Engine Sales.
CATHY PATRUNO-STATHAM was named customer service supervisor for Atlantic Aviation's Teterboro, N.J. FBO (TEB). Patruno-Statham has worked for 18 years at Teterboro Airport and has nine years of customer service experience with Atlantic Aviation.
