It's hardly an original idea (in fact the Founding Fathers made one a requirement for America's CEO) but GAMA's annual state of the industry address has become a must-attend evening event held at the massive Ronald Reagan Interna-tional Trade Center, just down the street from the Treasury Department in Wash-ington. It is there that you get the final score for the year, and, this year at least, it provided a nice setting for a kind of group hug.
How many business aircraft shows does the world need? Well, the United States is spoken for with the N in NBAA standing for National, leaving others, especially in Europe, to duke it out. EBACE? Well, that's European, and ILA -- that's German, according to SBAC, the organizers of the Farnborough Air Show. But I say, old chap, isn't that the British show? No, insists SBAC Chief Executive David Marshall -- Farnborough is a global shop window.
From its introduction in 1965 until production ceased in the mid-1980s, Dassault's Falcon 20 was a great airplane awaiting suitable engines. That seems to be the consensus of operators of TFE731-powered Falcon 20 aircraft contacted by B/CA for this evaluation.
In September 1999, Tom Horne, a senior experimental test pilot for Gulfstream Aerospace, found himself drowning in a sea of yellow envelopes. He had just been permanently assigned the task of updating the flight department's worldwide Jeppesen charts. Every 14 days, he had to remove and replace as many as 2,000 approach, arrival, departure, airport, taxiway and en route charts, or about five percent of the 40,000 published procedures.
An unexpected fallout from the September 2001 terrorist attacks has been a heightened interest in business aviation, largely in response to the passenger security and safety the medium has come to represent.
A 7,000-hour helicopter pilot with extensive combat and commercial experience, Groen co-founded GBA with his brother, Jay, in 1986 with the goal of bringing to market a modern gyroplane -- an aircraft supported by a freewheeling rotor and propelled by a pusher propeller. They believe its $158-per-flight-hour cost and $750,000 purchase price will help their Rolls-Royce-powered Hawk 4, now in flight test, revolutionize the rotary wing industry. 1 The gyroplane virtually disappeared 60 years ago for want of a market. What makes it a good idea now?
I was back in Florida a few weeks ago on a brief business escape. Jogging along the beach one morning, the sight and sound of the crashing waves and the feel of the hot sun on my winter skin prompted a mental na-na-na-nah-na for the snowbound dears back home, along with some reminiscences, mostly happy.
Air Nippon Network is the name given to Japan's newest stand-alone regional airline set up by parent Air Nippon (ANK). The regional is being equipped with three 56-seat Bombardier Q300s, the second of which was just delivered. The first aircraft, based at Haneda Airport, is already in service and flying several short routes to Oshima and Miyakejima. The newly arrived second Q300 is based at Sapporo on Hokkaido in northern Japan, and the third aircraft will also be based at Sapporo.
George A. Saling Vice President, Aviation&Travel Services, Philip Morris Management Corp. After flying U.S. Army O-1 Bird Dogs in Vietnam, Saling joined Tenneco as a management trainee and soon was assigned to the flight department as a pilot/manager. He later worked at GTE and FlightSafety, and in 1991 joined Philip Morris, overseeing its eight aircraft operation. An NBAA board member since 1994, he was elected chairman in December 2001. 1 You're the NBAA's big boss now. What do you see as the association's priorities?
The true first year of the third millennium is gone, and good riddance. Welcome, indeed, Double-Oh-Two. The year that just ended will be remembered for the worst of it -- the airplane attacks of September, the wailing bagpipes and endless succession of heart-wrenching memorial services, the savage warring that had to follow. Yes, the world changed, much for the worse, in the latter half of anno Domini 2001. But not entirely. December helped put things in perspective.
Who would have guessed the market for business aircraft would grow as big as that for jet fighters? Honeywell Aerospace, in its latest forecast (revised downward slightly after September 11) predicts deliveries of 8,400 business jets over the next 10 years valued at $130 billion. In contrast, analysts at Teal Group put the potential fighter market at 2,938 combat aircraft worth $134.4 billion in the same period.
The FAA has granted Bombardier Aerospace Reduced Vertical Separation Minima (RVSM) group approval for Learjet 35/36 aircraft, following completion of five aircraft STC modifications.
Despite the downturn in the economy, Cessna Aircraft Co. is going forward with construction of a $60 million Citation Service Center in Wichita, so cavernous it will be able to accommodate 75-80 jets simultaneously. Preparation of the 150-acre site at Mid-Continent Airport is to begin immediately and the 443,000-square-foot center is expected to be open in 2003.
Photograph: John Rosanvallon The new French entry in the transatlantic ``super jet'' derby has been christened. Gone for good is FNX, the temporary moniker Dassault assigned to its new top-of-the-line business jet. Henceforth, business aviation's first fly-by-wire aircraft will be known as the Dassault Falcon Jet 7X.
Photograph: John J. Goglia Member, NTSB The first working A&P mechanic to serve on the NTSB, Goglia has more than four decades of aviation experience, from piloting his own J-3 Cub, to overseeing maintenance for USAir. He received the Aviation Mechanic of the Year Award in 1994 and the following year was named to the Safety Board. He is respected for his knowledge, professionalism and honest talk. 1 Do you think aviation technicians should receive recurrent training? Goglia: It should be mandatory. You need it to keep pace with what's going on.
It's easy to become disheartened. The horrors of September helped to produced a series of reactions that are unjustified, frustrating, expensive and more than a little bit frightening. Osama bin Laden declared war on the United States, and, as a consequence, unidentified security officials have turned the federal government against private aviation.
Photograph: James D. Raisbeck CEO, Raisbeck Engineering Unabashedly opinionated, Raisbeck worked at Boeing and at Robert-son Aircraft before founding his own firm in 1973. He has been integral in developing performance mods for King Airs, Sabreliners and 30-series Learjets, among other things. Outside aviation, he is passionate about the ballet, opera, vintage cars, his family and Purdue University, his alma mater. 1 Has Raisbeck Engineering been affected by the terrible events of September?
One evening not long ago I was at a Manhattan restaurant sawing through an outrageously thick steak. At the table were my kid brother, Tom, and a long-time family friend, both of whom were hungrily packing away even larger slabs of meat. Vegetarians might have wept at the sight, but we had fun reminiscing and catching up on each other's lives. Our out-of-town guest said he was particularly happy to share the meal; he'd been putting in some long hours over the past few weeks and the evening was a welcome respite.
Furloughs and hiring freezes already under way before September 11 at major airlines and regionals, as well as at some corporate flight departments, have accelerated. But organizations whose stock-in-trade is matching pilots to empty cockpits say there's reason to hope the downturn won't be as steep or severe as some might fear.
With the horrifying images of September 11 seared into the nation's collective memory, business aviation is pondering the ultimate impact from the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., will have on operational freedoms.
The events of September 11 have, in essence, activated elements of the FAA's National Air Traffic Reduced Complement Operations Plan (RCOP). Much of the vital operational information is disseminated using the NOTAM process associated with FAR Part 91.139, particularly restrictions, prohibitions and authorizations for certain types of operations. As of September 21, general aviation aircraft were flying both IFR and VFR, but those operations were subject to Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR's). SFAR No.
Multiflight, a U.K. FBO, charter operator and flight school, is undertaking am ambitious expansion plan set for completion in mid- to late 2002. In late September, the Leeds/Bradford International Airport-based operator was slated to take delivery of a new Boeing BBJ2 -- the first of its type in the U.K. or Europe. The green aircraft will be flown directly to Lufthansa Technik in Ham-burg, Germany, for completion.
A few years ago my wife and I paid a visit to friends who had moved to Broward County, Fla., and the driving directions took us much farther west than I had expected. Finally, as we neared the Everglades we came upon signs welcoming us to Tropical Haven or something like that. It was a built-last-week village of fine, chock-a-block, central air-conditioned homes, smiling children and perfect lawns. Years earlier when I'd lived in Miami, this had been a place of sawgrass and alligators, so I was taken aback. My next surprise was being forced to halt at a guard shack.
Signature Flight Support, part of the BBA Group, will cease operating the FBO at London City Airport (LCY) at the end of November, when the airport itself will take over responsibility for corporate aviation activity. The airport is building a new FBO. A BBA spokesperson said the company was ``very sorry to lose the business and at some point in the future, if it is possible, or there is an opportunity, we would like to get the business back.''
