Business & Commercial Aviation

Icon Aircraft is shifting production of major components for its A5 sport amphibian from subcontractor Cirrus Design to its own 300,000-sq.-ft. facility in Tijuana, Mexico, that will be up and running by November.

SpeedNews plans to explore the major issues facing the business aircraft industry at its 21st annual Business and General Aviation Industry Suppliers Conference Oct. 4-5 in Los Angeles.

Bombardier celebrated 40 years of operations in Tucson, Arizona, where it occupies nearly 1 million sq. ft. of hangar space. The Tucson Air Center is the largest of Bombardier’s nine service centers and employs more than 900 engineers, technicians and staff. The site opened in 1976 at the Tucson International Airport, where it is one of the largest tenants. The facility provides services for Learjet, Challenger and Global business aircraft and CRJ Series regional jets and Q400 turboprops.

The United States Aircraft Insurance Group has added two food safety online courses to its Performance Vector program. The classes were created by Jean Dible, president and founder of GA Food Safety Professionals. First is a flight attendant’s for managing inflight food service activities, and includes galley operations with onboard food preparation, presentation and food storage exceeding 12 hours. The second is a course for pilots and flight technicians who fly without flight attendants and carry limited food selections onboard.

There's a new campaign underway to fully restore the Burgess-Wright Model F Aircraft that landed on the White House lawn a century ago and put it on permanent display at Reagan National Airport’s Historic Terminal A. Designed by the Wright Brothers and manufactured under license by Starling Burgess, the Model F landed on the South Lawn of the White House on July 14, 1911.

The National Mediation Board (NMB) on Aug. 22 dismissed challenges filed by Flexjet and Flight Options against the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The allegations stemmed from the December 2015 election in which the pilots of the sibling fractional aircraft operations chose the Teamsters to represent them as a single unit, after the two companies merged under the One Sky umbrella. The NMB recognized the merger as of Sept. 30, 2015.

After years of criticism for foot-dragging, the FAA on Aug. 29 instituted Part 107, which regulates unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). And industry has expressed satisfaction with the rules which enable routine commercial drone operations. The so-called Small UAS Rule, “represents a low and reasonable barrier to entry,” says Brendan Schulman, vice president of policy and legal affairs at DJI, by far the largest maker of small drones, which by definition weigh less than 55 lb.

Garmin International has broken ground on a four-year, $200 million expansion at its Olathe, Kansas, campus, beginning with an additional 720,000 sq. ft. of space for product manufacturing and distribution center. It is expected to take two years to complete. A second phase will include the renovation of Garmin’s existing warehouse and manufacturing space into a state-of-the-art research and development facility and office space. This phase will take an additional two years to complete, the company says. The full project will near completion in late 2020.

Bombardier Aerospace's first Global 7000 ultra-long-range business jet has been registered on Transport Canada's Canadian Civil Aircraft Register. The aircraft was registered August 29. The company is concentrating on preparations for first flight, planned to take place this year. “We’re focused on flying as soon as possible,” said Bombardier spokesman Mark Masluch, who declined to give further details.

In yet another indication that business and general aviation has yet to fully recover from the great recession of 2008, Textron Aviation is offering voluntary retirements to its employees as a way to cut costs and is also closing its service centers in Wilmington, Delaware, and at DeKalb-Peachtree Airport in Atlanta. Employees received a letter about the early retirement option on Sept. 8 and until Sept. 22 to apply.

Business aviation flight activity was positive during the first half of this year, with activity up in five of the six months compared to the same period a year ago, according to Argus International TraqPak data. April was the only month to post a decrease over 2015 flight activity, with a 0.6% decline. Flight activity is expected to rise 3.4% in August, September and October when compared to the same period in 2015, TraqPak analysts predict.

CNN has launched its first unit using unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) for newsgathering, called CNN Aerial Imaging and Reporting (CNN AIR). With two full-time UAS operators, the unit will use tethered and free-flying small UAS to integrate drone imagery into reporting for CNN news services, Turner Broadcasting System and parent company Time Warner. Since 2015, CNN has been developing uses of UAS for newsgathering in partnership with the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI).

European business aircraft brokers and operators have been the victims of cyberattacks in increasing numbers, said London-based BACA, the Air Charter Association. It appears a “sophisticated criminal community” is targeting the business aviation sector and has hacked into broker and operator internal communication systems to gain access to bank accounts and trading information, BACA said. Attacks have taken place throughout the UK and Europe, it said. The rise in attacks was reported during the 438th meeting of the BACA Council, it said.

I realized I was falling into an all-too-common, part-time, contract copilot trap. I could put everyone on the aircraft at risk if I blindly assumed that my basic FAR Part 61.55 legal compliance truly prepared me to belt into the right seat.

In August 2016, Teterboro Airport again was the business aviation airport viewed more than any other by acukwik.com users, according to site traffic data. Dig into the data to spot more trends.

As the value leader in the single-engine turboprop class, the M600 has potential to carve out a considerably larger share of this market segment for Piper.

Dean Rush, a pilot and former corporate CEO turned pastor, tells BCA how lessons from his business career shaped his current goal.

At the end of a remarkable chain of inaccurate weather forecasts and missed communications opportunities, two Boeing 737-800s operated by different Australian airlines had to bust minimums within minutes of each other to prevent really bad outcomes.

BCA breaks down mission costs — direct costs, fuel expenses and per-mile costs — as well as flight times for turboprops heavier than 12,500 lb. and jets lighter than 20,000 lb.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researchers have developed a way of reinforcing composites using tiny carbon nanotubes (CNT) that testing has shown can increase strength by 30%.

Jet-A And Avgas Per-Gallon Fuel Prices August 2016

It’s reasonable to ask just how reliable are FANS and its constituent parts.

A Cessna Citation CJ3 equipped with a Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion avionics upgrade made its first flight Aug. 2.

Market research provider ReportsnReports.com forecasts the global aviation fuel market to grow at a compound annual rate of 3.13% through 2020.

Tired of climbing into a cramped cockpit and contending with cumulonimbus and demanding passengers? Why not instead don a pair of fuzzy slippers, settle into a recliner and become a remote pilot in command?