VistaJet has increased its in-service business-jet fleet to 50 aircraft. All are Bombardier business jets. The milestone will be achieved in June when VistaJet takes delivery of a Global 6000 ultra-long-range aircraft, the company said. The growing fleet reflects VistaJet’s increasing global expansion, said Thomas Flohr, VistaJet founder and chairman. "As worldwide growth continues, we look forward to adding more Bombardier business aircraft to our fleet."
WASHINGTON—House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Bill Shuster says his committee soon will produce an FAA Reauthorization bill that will split the agency’s safety and air traffic control (ATC) and modernization roles. The bill could be on the House Floor in July, Shuster said in an Aero Club of Washington speech June 15. The move comes as the FAA’s most-recent four-year authorization expires at the end of September.
The Office of Inspector General has initiated an audit of FAA policies and procedures for hiring new air traffic controllers. The audit was requested by the Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, its Subcommittee on Aviation and Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL). In 2014, the FAA made several changes to its hiring process for controllers. The FAA employs about 14,000 air traffic controllers.
South Carolina’s governor has signed a bill removing a 6% sales tax on maintenance performed on general aviation aircraft. Gov. Nikki Haley signed the bill on June 15. The tax exemption takes effect on Jan. 1, 2016. South Carolina has 37 certified repair stations, but many of the businesses had been losing out on work as aircraft owners took their aircraft to Georgia, Florida or Arkansas to avoid the tax, supporters said. The bill was backed by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
Beechcraft Defense Co., a division of Textron Aviation, recently delivered four Beechcraft T-6D military aircraft to the U.S. Army. The aircraft, part of the Joint Primary Aircraft Training Systems, or JPATs, program, will be stationed at Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Alabama. They will replace Beechjet T-34 aircraft in use at the facility. The T-6D aircraft will be used in a variety of training and mission-support operations. Beechcraft has delivered more than 850 T-6 trainers.
Corporate Angel Network has arranged its 48,000th cancer patient flight, with a flight on June 11. The patient was a 48-year-old with colon cancer. Patient James Etherton was accompanied by his wife, Tammy. Blue Beacon International donated its Cessna Citation for the flight, which flew them from their home in Mechnicsburg, Illinois, to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York. Etherton needs to fly to New York for treatment once a month. Blue Beacon has participated in the Corporate Cancer Network since 1992.
Yellowstone Aviation has chosen Avfuel as its branding partner and fuel supplier. The fixed base operator is minutes from the west entrance of Yellowstone National Park. The partnership with Avfuel gives Yellowstone a myriad of resources, including competitive fuel pricing through Avfuels’ contract fuel program; participation in a pilot rewards program’ and access to fuel-handling training assistance.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott signed into law a bill that provides sales and use-tax reforms for general aviation aircraft based in or visiting Texas, according to the National Business Aircraft Association. For the past several years, general aviation aircraft owners and operators had been subjected to confusing and contradictory interpretations during the state’s tax-audit process.
Spirit AeroSystems is celebrating its 10th anniversary as a company. Spirit was formed in 2005, after Onex Corp. bought Boeing’s commercial aircraft division in Wichita, and operations in Oklahoma. The company went public in 2006. In the past decade, Spirit has grown in revenue, sites, customers, products and build rates, it said. Spirit began with $9 billion in backlog. At the end of first-quarter 2015, its backlog totaled $46 billion. The company is the largest private employer in Kansas.
Aequs Aerospace has acquired the operations of T&K Machine, based in Paris, Texas. T&K Machine manufactures parts for the aerospace industry. Customers include Boeing, Spirit AeroSystems, Triumph’s Vought Aerostructures, UTC Aerospace Systems and others. The acquisition is Aeques Aerospace’s first presence in the U.S. T&K operates in a 27,000-sq.-ft. facility and employs 65. The company will be renamed Aequs Aero Machine. Aequs Aerospace is based in Belagavi, Karnataka, India.
Phillips 66 Aviation has added Volo Aviation, based at the Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford, Connecticut, to its fixed base operation network, the company said. The location includes 40,000 sq. ft. of hangar space and manages about 30 flights per day.
Phillips 66 Aviation has added Volo Aviation, based at the Sikorsky Memorial Airport in Stratford, Connecticut, to its fixed base operation network, the company said. The location includes 40,000 sq. ft. of hangar space and manages about 30 flights per day.
Jun. 22-25—SAE 2015 International Conference on Icing of Aircraft, Engines, and Structures, Hotel International Prague, Prague, Czech Republic, www.sae.org/events/icing Jun. 22-26—Aviation Forum 2015, Dallas, Texas, www.aiaa-aviation.org/
Otto Pobanz, a former National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) director and leader of the Federated Department Stores flight department for 30 years, died June 12. He was 93. Pobanz was a leading aircraft-cabin acoustics consultant. During his career, Pobanz amassed more than 20,000 flight hours. He also helped design one of the first computer programs for dispatch, maintenance and flight department recordkeeping.
LE BOURGET, France—Eduardo Munhos de Campos, who was vice president for sales at Embraer until October last year, is heading efforts to establish a single, unified worldwide commercial structure for the Sukhoi Superjet 100 (SSJ100).
LE BOURGET, France—Pratt & Whitney planned to fire up the first PW1900G geared turbofan for the Embraer E190-E2 at its West Palm Beach, Florida, test site on June 15, marking the start of the fourth major new PW1000G family development program.
Airbus’s new development philosophy, seen in the H175 and the H160 has seen the company delivering an aircraft with the typical maximum takeoff weight of other helicopters in that category, but with a empty weight of one metric ton or more less than that of the competition.
