Jessica is Executive Editor of Business & Commercial Aviation magazine. She started as Editor of ShowNews Online, Aviation Week's on-site trade show daily published at the Paris Air Show, NBAA Annual Convention, Singapore Air Show and at other significant aerospace gatherings.
Jessica has worked in television production and management consulting. While not yet a licensed pilot, Ms. Salerno has received flight instruction and has soloed.
Canadian helicopter engineering firm Eagle Copters has certified its modification to fit Honeywell’s HTS900 turboshaft engine into the Bell 407 single-engine helicopter. Eagle has been developing its HTS900 retrofit program, called the Eagle 407HP, since 2010, re-starting a project originally envisaged between Honeywell and Bell Helicopter back in the 1990s. According to Eagle, the two companies were not able to make it financially viable.
The European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has certified the search-and-rescue (SAR) variant of the AW189 super-medium helicopter, just months before the aircraft is due to enter service with Bristow on a U.K. government contract. The heavily modified variant builds on the oil-and-gas industry variant already in service with a number of operators in Europe, the Middle East and Asia, with an extended nose housing a weather radar and electro-optical camera turret, a rescue hoist and additional avionics systems capabilities.
Fractional ownership company NetJets has signed an agreement with Embraer Executive Jets to convert 10 purchase options for Signature Series Phenom 300s into firm orders, Embraer announced. Deliveries will begin in January 2016. At current list prices, the contract is worth $89.55 million, which will be included in the backlog from the fourth quarter of 2014. NetJets signed a purchase agreement with Embraer in October 2010 for 50 firm orders and 75 options. If all options are exercised, the deal would be worth more than $1 billion at list prices.
