Business & Commercial Aviation

The 2,000-lb.-thrust-class GE Honda HF120 is one of the most advanced engines in its class, having a 4.5:1 thrust-to-weight ratio, 2.9:1 bypass ratio and 24:1 pressure ratio. It's also one of the quietest and lowest exhaust emission engines in its class.

Lithium ion main batteries are becoming more and more common but not without teething troubles. A number of high-profile safety incidents have given the technology a black eye. The danger of thermal runaway is a serious issue and if you have the technology installed in your aircraft you need to keep up to speed.

Designers attempt to provide exceptional capabilities in all areas, including price, but the laws of physics, thermodynamics and aerodynamics do not allow one aircraft to perform all missions with equal efficiency. Trade-offs are a reality of aircraft design.

As of January 2016, the Swiss Air Force had 31 Boeing F/A-18 Hornets, 22 F-5E and 4 F-5F double-seater Tiger II fighters in its inventory. If you tour the country or look at overhead photographs of the mountain valley airfields where the aircraft are based, you won't spot any of their hangars.

Three HondaJet HA-420 graphs are designed to illustrate the aircraft's performance under a variety of range, payload, speed and density altitude conditions.

The hustle and bustle of busy business aviation ramps can easily result in an uploading of an inappropriate amount of fuel or fueling to the wrong tanks, or both. Accordingly, some business aircraft operators abide by SOPs that stipulate their pilots monitor the refueling process.

BCA shares the latest products and services for the business aviation industry.

Refusing to load excessive baggage is an awkward matter, especially when the lead passenger insists other pilots accepted the same. But a professional pilot’s primary responsibility is to ensure safe passage, not accommodate overindulgence.

The now-classic Falcon 10's sky-high operating costs can be painful, but when you are blasting past lesser light jets at Mach 0.85 to 0.86 you might feel it is well worth the money.

Weight-and-balance considerations of a helicopter are similar to those of an airplane, except they are far more critical, and the CG range is much more limited.

Options range from leather crew seats for $3,000 to a GoGoBiz - Text and Talk system for $151,500.

On May 20, 2002, a Cessna Citation 550 accelerated down 7,200-ft.-long Runway 17L at Will Rogers World Airport at Oklahoma City, destined for Greeley-Weld County Airport in Greeley, Colorado. According to the pilot, he didn't notice any anomalies with the airplane during the preflight examination or while taxiing for takeoff and that the flight controls were free and correct.

Bruce Whitman, chairman, president and CEO of FlightSafety International, receives the medaille de l'Aeronautique from France in New York from Consul General Bertrand Lortholary on April 26, 2016.

There is a growing awareness and concern that those who have asked that ATC tracking data be blocked from dissemination on the Internet are now subject to exposure through growing networks that capture their Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) transmissions. Today, there are thousands of tracking capture sites receiving data from unwitting operators.

News of promotions, appointments and honors involving professionals within the business aviation community

Robinson Helicopter's two-place R44 Cadet won its FAA certification last month. Robinson says the aircraft's modest price will appeal to the training market as well as operators who want the economy of a small helicopter with the comfort, power, and performance of a larger one.

ARG/US International has purchased the Unmanned Safety Institute. The privately held company conducts unmanned aircraft system safety training, certification and management.

According to market intelligence firm Tractica, global commercial UAS services revenue is expected to grow from $170 million in 2015 to $8.7 billion by 2025.

BNSF Railway will test low-level surveillance methods necessary for beyond-visual line-of-sight operations for small unmanned aircraft systems.

The FAA has expanded its efforts to prevent UAVs from flying too close to airports by signing cooperative research agreements with an additional three suppliers of counter-UAV systems.

Jetex is adding a new fixed-base operator location in Marseille,France, continuing the company's expansion in the region. The location offers VIP travelers easy access to the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region.

VistaJet celebrated the delivery of its 100th aircraft since the company's founding in 2004. The company's fleet has grown to more than 60 Bombardier Global and Challenger aircraft with a market value of more than $1.8 billion.

Jet Aviation expects this quarter to open a business jet maintenance center at Macau International Airport that it is being established partly in response to space limits in Hong Kong.

Lufthansa Technik is extending its presence in the Asian market and is expanding its range of products, some of which are already being installed in aircraft.

Leonardo-Finmeccanica Helicopters has taken the first steps in restarting the flight-test campaign of its AgustaWestland AW609 commercial tiltrotor following the fatal crash of the second prototype last October.