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.
China's Avicopter will build cabins for the Sikorsky S-76D as a second-source supplier of the executive/transport helicopter. The work will be done by Avicopter's Changhe factory at Jingdezhen, which previously made eight cabins for the S-76C++. Czech supplier Aero Vodochody also makes S-76D fuselages. Avicopter will deliver its first cabins in 2016, according to the schedule. The cabins — fuselages forward of the tail booms — will be delivered to Sikorsky fully fitted with equipment.
AgustaWestland is flight testing several aerodynamic improvements expected to boost performance of its AW609 TiltRotor. The manufacturer has test flown the aircraft with a modified vertical tail fin at its Cascina Costa flight test facility in Italy. That alteration is part of a package of improvements including a more aerodynamic design for the engine exhaust nozzles and changes to the prop-rotor spinner cones. Together, the mods reportedly reduce the aircraft's drag factor by approximately 10% and result in a significant weight savings as well.
Gulfstream Aerospace has seen its Russia-based business-jet fleet grow more than six fold in the last six years, according to an announcement made by Gulfstream President Larry Flynn at the recent Jet Expo in Moscow. There are now 53 customer-operated aircraft in Russia and a combined 76 in Russia and the CIS. In 2007, those numbers were eight and 11, respectively. To support the fleet in Russia and the CIS, Gulfstream has more than $120 million in parts and materials inventory at Luton, Madrid and Basel.
