The Weekly of Business Aviation

Bombardier’s new Global 5500 and Global 6500 long-range business jets have completed 70% of their flight testing and are on track for delivery in 2019.

Brazilian manufacturer Embraer Executive Jets has introduced its new Praetor 500 and Praetor 600 midsize and super-midsize business jets.

Textron Aviation kicked off the National Business Aviation Association Conference & Exhibition with the announcement of an order option for the Citation Hemisphere business jet from fractional ownership company NetJets. Once firm, the order will be the launch order for the aircraft.

The company operates a global fleet of 72 business jets it makes available to customers under a pay-by-the-hour membership plan, and its chief commercial officer, Ian Moore, says an uptick in customer numbers and aircraft use in North America is driving global growth.

No fewer than 20 new business aircraft are under development by major manufacturers, almost all expected to enter service within the next five years.

MRO experts Flying Colours is adding 148,000 sq. ft. of new facilities in North America to meet demand for new and refurbished large-cabin business jets.

New business jets entering service will help drive robust short- and medium-term growth in the industry, which is also seeing a tightening market for used jets, Honeywell Aerospace finds in its annual Global Business Aviation Outlook.

Singapore-based fuel-cell producer HES Energy Systems has unveiled its concept for a hydrogen-electric four-seat regional aircraft, building on its experience developing hydrogen propulsion systems for unmanned aircraft.

Ron Draper, Textron Aviation senior vice president of integrated supply chain, has been named president and CEO of the Wichita aircraft manufacturer.

Bell is to collaborate with Japanese package-delivery company Yamato on aerial logistics using electric vertical-takeoff-and-landing (eVTOL) unmanned aircraft.

A new Aviation Week Intelligence Network forecast predicts worldwide deliveries of 8,683 business jets and 2,877 turboprops from 2019-2028, exhibiting a 1.4% annual growth rate.

Safran’s troubled Silvercrest program is progressing toward testing a new axial high-pressure compressor in June 2019.

The collective exhaling of relief last week when Luton Airport’s summer night-closure program came to an end was almost loud enough to drown out the roar of all those business jets that the airfield north of London is once again able to welcome after dark.

North American flight activity slumped in September from the impact of Hurricane Florence and the Labor Day weekend, according to Argus International.

Garmin International is expanding the availability of its G1000 NXi integrated flight deck for upgrades on aircraft equipped with its G1000 flight deck.

One Aviation Corp., which includes Eclipse Aerospace and Kestrel Aircraft, has voluntarily filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Dassault has issued a “clarification” to confirm that Rafale aircraft parts will be delivered by year’s end as part of agreed offsets.

Inside Textron Aviation’s Industrial Design Studio in West Wichita, the interior of the company’s new high-wing, utility Cessna Sky Courier twin turboprop is taking shape.

The U.S. Justice Department announced Oct. 10 that it arrested and indicted a Chinese security officer earlier this year for alleged economic espionage and trying to steal trade secrets from “multiple” U.S. aviation and aerospace companies, including GE Aviation in Ohio.

TransDigm Group’s proposed $4 billion acquisition of rival Esterline Technologies could cement the former in the pantheon of top-tier Western aerospace and defense suppliers and aftermarket providers.

Bruce N. Whitman, the chairman, president and CEO of FlightSafety International, died at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut, on Oct. 10 after a brief period of failing health. He was 85.

Argonne National Laboratory is creating a center to evaluate potential UAS design options, including battery technologies and hybrid architectures.

Gulfstream Aerospace has opened a sales and design center in Midtown Manhattan to serve one of the world’s busiest business aviation regions, the company said.

AE Industrial Partners, a private equity investor, has acquired Wichita-based Aerostructures Acquisition, doing business as The Atlas Group.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University students verified the accuracy of automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) signals at high altitude in research supporting the integration of rocket launches and suborbital spaceflights in the U.S. airspace system.