TRIUMPH GROUP announced a public offering of 3.65 million shares at a price of $37.50 per share. The company is selling about three million shares - the remainder are being sold by a stockholder - and said it expects to use the proceeds of approximately $106 million to reduce indebtedness under its revolving credit agreement.
CAROLYN RIEDEL was named air charter travel manager for The Air Group in Chicago. Riedel formerly was with Priester Aviation, as a dispatcher and customer service representative and, before that, was with Signature Flight Support in Nashville, Tenn.
AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION is offering an online Runway Safety Program to help show its members how to avoid runway incursion situations. Using active motion and three-dimensional graphics, the real-life situations involve operations with high potential for causing runway incursions. The program also uses audio of ATIS and ATC communications.
SMITH GROUP PLC agreed to buy Barringer Technologies, Inc. for $87 million. Barringer, headquartered in Warren, N.J., is a leading provider of trace drug and explosives detection equipment.
Model EMB-145 series airplanes (Docket No. 2000-NM-256-AD; Amendment 39-12121; AD 2001-04-03) - requires inspection of the bolts on the hinge fittings that attach the spring tab and the servo tab to the rear spar of the elevators for evidence of loosening; inspection of the region of the hinge fittings on the spring tab for interference of the bonding jumpers attached to the hinge fittings with the leading edge of the spring tab; and corrective action, if necessary.
VENEZUELA'S MINISTRY OF INFRASTRUCTURE is drafting legislation to create an Autonomous Civil Aviation Institute as a first step to upgrade the country to Category 1 from Category 2 in the FAA's safety oversight assessment program. The new agency would set guidelines for air carriers to follow and would have the authority to impose fines and other penalties against rule-breakers. Those drafting the new provisions are consulting all civil aviation sectors.
JET AVIATION opened a fixed-base operation at London Biggin Hill Airport. The facility, which includes two hangars covering 55,830 square feet, will maintain and refurbish several business jet models, including Gulfstreams, Falcons, Hawkers and Citations. Elie Zelouf, formerly general manager of Jet Aviation Basel, will manage the new location and report to Heinz Kohli, president and chief operating officer of Jet Aviation Europe, Middle and Far East. The facility will offer FBO services beginning in the third quarter.
BALLISTIC RECOVERY SYSTEMS reported sales of $794,470 for the first quarter 2001, ended Dec. 31, a 72.9 percent increase over first quarter 2000. The increased sales position the company to post a record $3.5 million to $4 million in sales for fiscal 2001, compared with $2.5 million in fiscal 2000, said President and CEO Mark Thomas. The increase in sales comes as BRS's largest customer, Cirrus Design Corp., spools up deliveries of its SR20 and SR22 single-engine aircraft, which use the BRS emergency parachute system.
Model CL-600-2B19 series airplanes (Docket No. 2000-NM-142-AD; Amendment 39-12112; AD 2001-03-08) - supersedes an existing AD that currently requires, among other actions, certain revisions to the Airplane Flight Manual; and removal of all elevator flutter dampers. That AD also requires installation of new elevator flutter dampers and replacement of shear pins and shear links with new improved shear pins and shear links.
STANDARD&POOR'S revised its outlook on Raytheon Company to negative from stable Friday, but reaffirmed the ratings on Raytheon's debt. The McGraw-Hill unit said Raytheon's internal cash generation remains materially subpar for current ratings "and the improvement in operations is weaker than anticipated.
Used Retail Jet Deliveries Used retail jet and turboprop deliveries inside and outside North America for January 2001 (see related graphs on Pages 129 and 130 of the hard copy of this issue.) Used Retail Deliveries Jan. 1998 Jan. 1999 Jan. 2000 Jan. 2001 L M H L M H L M H L M H Jet North 37 34 10 38 26 18 39 26 14 3 42 22 America
MIDWEST JET CENTER, based at Cincinnati Lunken Field, was designated a Phillips 66 Aviation Performance Center. Midwest Jet Center provides Phillips 66 pre-blended Jet A and aviation gasoline.
Andy Cebula, who has spent nearly 20 years with the National Air Transportation Association, has accepted a position with the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association in Frederick, Md., beginning next month. Cebula will be senior vice president of government and technical affairs, replacing Dennis Roberts, who had been vice president and executive director of government and technical affairs. Roberts accepted a position with the Louisville, Ky. Airport Authority.
AVCARD, the Hunt Valley, Md. aviation credit card provider, is offering a new service based on its database of 6,000 firms worldwide that accept the AVCARD for fuel and other aircraft-related products and services. The company said pilots can use a personal computer to download information on FBOs and the services each provides. The selected list of vendors then can be downloaded into a pilot's personal digital assistant and accessed during flight.
A New Jersey environmental group wants FAA to use a variety of noise-measurement standards in addition to the customary 65 dB DNL as part of its airspace redesign for the New York/New Jersey area. The 65 dB DNL is a year-long 24-hour weighted average, and is the threshhold for FAA's definition of "significant" noise eligible for mitigation - and federal spending. According to the group, New Jersey Citizens for Environmental Research (NJCER), additional "metrics" FAA should use to guide airspace redesign include:
BRUCE WEAVER was promoted to chief financial officer for Dallas Airmotive. Weaver joined Dallas Airmotive in 1986 as a senior accounting clerk and has held a series of positions of increasing responsibility including his most recent position of vice president of finance.
CESSNA is offering interior and avionics upgrades for its single-turboprop Caravan. The interior enhancement includes new seat designs and fabric choices. Cessna also is adding the KLN 94 GPS color moving map as an option for situational awareness and the KFC 225 digital autopilot.
Federal Aviation Administration outlined early plans to improve its field approval process, but the National Air Transportation Association fears that the agency's recommendations don't go far enough. FAA met with industry representatives late last month to detail the progress of its multi-year review of the field approval process. FAA discussed a number of administrative improvements to the program, said Ric Peri, NATA technical services manager.
FAA told Bombardier Challenger 604 business jet operators last week they must revise the aft center of gravity limits for their aircraft because of potential control problems due to fuel sloshing around in the fuel tanks.
Demands for noise relief and better land compensation are dimming prospects for a second international airport for Sydney, Australia despite an A$190 million (US$99 million) government investment over the last 15 years. Two months ago, the government halted the project when Transport Minister John Anderson said plans for the airport would not be reviewed until 2005.
Since FAA already has spent 25 years considering changing rules governing repair stations, the agency should not rush at this time to issue a final rule, groups representing repair stations and manufacturers contend. Those groups appealed to Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta to delay adopting FAA's final rule, which rewrites Part 145 governing repair stations, and instead issue a supplemental notice of proposed rulemaking (BA, Feb. 19/83).
KEITH MORDOFF will join the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association next week as senior vice president-communications, reporting to AOPA President Phil Boyer. Mordoff has been director of corporate communications at Gulfstream Aerospace since 1998. At AOPA, Mordoff will have the same title formerly held by Drew Steketee, who left AOPA to become president of the BE A PILOT program last year (BA, Sept. 11/117), but Boyer said the position is being expanded to include responsibility for both communications and Internet services.
BAE Systems, which has been largely observing while other manufacturers have been logging regional jet orders, said it signed a deal with British European airline for up to 20 of the manufacturer's RJX-100 airliners, a contract valued at more than $600 million.
TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY NORM MINETA last week took his case for streamlining the environmental regulatory process to the states, asking the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials to consider conducting concurrent state and federal airport expansion environmental reviews.Noting such projects involve state, local and federal government, Mineta said multiple reviews "are out of alignment.
ROBERT F. JULIANO, bureau chief for the Connecticut Department of Transportation's Bureau of Aviation and Ports, died March 1, a day after his 62nd birthday, after suffering a heart attack. In his post as bureau chief, Juliano ran Bradley International (BDL) and five other airports, in addition to overseeing maritime programs. Juliano was airport administrator at BDL for more than 20 years and had been with the Connecticut DOT and the airport for more than 43 years. He is survived by his wife, Nan, and their son and daughter.
