-- Jeppesen Weather Services' (903-799-9090/www.jeppesen.com) new Advanced Weather Graphics (AWG) package enables subscribers to receive high-resolution color maps anywhere one can connect with airline communications services such as ACARS and SITA. New features of AWG include a North Pacific Surface Analysis and forecasts, a European surface analysis, and U.S. icing and turbulence analyses. -- Dimensions International (703-998-0098/www.dimen-intl.com) has released FLIGHTExplorer 2.0, the company's latest aircraft situation display package.
Photograph: Ryan's 9900B TCAD If the next 12 months are anything like the previous year, avionics installed in business aircraft will be getting a workout. Most operators report that they're flying more than they have in a long time, and expect the trend to continue. Underscoring this, completion centers say they have plenty of work as operators add new aircraft or retrofit their existing fleets. Over the last year, the leading avionics makers have been busy enhancing their products and introducing new versions.
Photograph: AlliedSignal's SilverCrown Plus New products popped up at the Aircraft Electronics Association annual meeting in April in Orlando like golden poppies in California after El Nino. Here are some highlights. -- AlliedSignal Electronics/ Avionics Systems announced that its seven-pound, $29,000, low-earth-orbit, Iridium satcom system will be certificated by December. Notably, the Iridium airborne equipment will weigh one-third to one-half of the current $400,000-class of Aero-H satcom systems.
Photograph: IAI Galaxy The business aircraft industry soared through its fourth consecutive year of growth in 1997. The General Aviation Manufacturers Association reported that industry sales of U.S.-manufactured airplanes alone reached $4.7 billion, a whopping 51-percent increase compared to 1996. Just as impressively, shipments of U.S.-made general aviation airplanes reached 1,569 units, which is the highest number of deliveries since 1985.
FAA Field Approval of IFR GPS installations went into a holding pattern in some regions shortly after Flight Standard Information Bulletin for Airworthiness (FSAW) 98-03 was issued early this year. The intent of the bulletin is to ensure that all mechanical or electrical equipment that is installed during a major alteration is properly maintained during its service life.
Global Energy has entered the avcomps market with an aviation CD-ROM containing a full FAA database-more than 660 megabytes of information, says the Madison, Wis. firm. The CD-ROM includes the following: -- FAA written tests for certificates and ratings. -- FARs (required Adobe Acrobat reader is included). -- Pilot names, addresses, ratings and medicals (660,000 records).
James O. Rice, Jr., VisionAire Corp.'s chairman and CEO, inked an order worth $175 million for JT15D-5s with Gilles P. Ouimet, Pratt&Whitney Canada's president and COO, in late January. VisionAire chose the 2,900-pound-thrust JT15D-5 to power its single-engine Vantage business jet because of its "unequaled reliability," according to Rice.
If aviation's contribution to the global level of greenhouse gasses was gathered and measured together as if it were the entire output of a nation, aviation would rank about seventh or eighth on the list of the world's largest sources, according to Sandy Webb, ARINC's director of aviation environmental programs. Aviation contributes about 2.5 to 3.0 percent of the world's carbon dioxide emission.
Are your passengers tired of missing broadcasts of their favorite sporting events, financial analysts, sitcoms or public affairs programs because they were airborne? They will be happy to learn that in the near future, this will no longer be a flying inconvenience. Several companies, including CAL Corp., are developing airborne Direct Broadcast Satellite systems.
After nearly two years of development, users of Ac-U-Kwik's Navpak software now can lay out a multi-leg trip, including itinerary editing, scheduling and performance, and generate an estimate or a final invoice with only a mouse or a trackball.
Photograph: Guests dine at AMR Combs' FBO terminal at SFO. As the first stage of a major airport expansion and modernization, the opening of AMR Combs' new FBO at San Francisco International Airport on September 30 represented more than just the promise of better service for business aviation. It was, according to SFO director John Martin and the new facility's manager, AMR Combs Vice President Steven True, a symbol of cooperation between the airport authority and private enterprise.
Boeing Business Jets has named Lee Monson as its vice president of sales. In an exclusive interview with B/CA, Monson said he foresees a market for 250 BBJ aircraft during the next 10 years. "Today, considering the number of companies with global business requirements, the [market demand] dynamic is changing," he claimed.
Photograph: In this view up the tailpipe of the G-II/G-III hush kit mockup, the lower internal deflector that redirects the exhaust into the cascade is visible in the deployed position. Note the 10-lobe mixer/ejector that does much of the job of hushing the noisy Spey. Stage III Technologies and Dallas Airmotive have tangible evidence of their hush treatment of the Rolls-Royce Spey turbofan in the form of a full-size detailed mockup mounted on the left nacelle of a Gulfstream II.
Business aviation may be booming, along with the economy, this year, but corporate flight department managers should be wary of lean times ahead, according to NBAA President John W. Olcott in his keynote address at the association's annual corporate aviation management seminar recently. Olcott extolled flight department managers to run their departments as businesses. He challenged the audience to ask themselves, ``What is my business? Why am I in this business? Who are my customers? How do I satisfy my customers?''
A proposed new, small turbine engine from Allison will look nothing at all like the engine builder's current--and ubiquitous--Model 250 turboshaft. While bracketing the same 350- to 800-shp power range, the powerplant will shun the Model 250's reverse-flow gas path for a more straightforward axial-flow configuration.
MentorPlus of Aurora, Ore. has released the latest version of its FliteStar/FliteMap flight planning and moving map program. Version 6.2 includes new, seamless VFR charts, a night-vision mode to enhance screen readability, a printing capability for DUATS weather maps and expanded technical support. Technical support is now available from 0600 to 1800 Pacific Time. Customers who buy a revision update service with the program receive technical support for free.
Hate filling out all those annual insurance company forms that ask for your recency of experience and flight times? Englewood, Colo.-based InForms, Inc. is offering a solution with its AirForms General Aviation software. The program makes it possible for operators to store and quickly update flight-time information in a format that aviation insurance companies will accept, says InForms. Similarly, operators can update aircraft information. The $18.95 program can then be used to print out the entire insurance application for transmission via fax or e-mail.
Version 2.5 of Flight Level Corp.'s Logbook Plus includes a number of improvements such as personalized due dates, expanded search capabilities, international settings for date and monetary values, automatic backup/restore/compression, and Windows 95/97/NT compatibility. Upgrade price for registered users is $49. The full version is available for $99. For more information, visit Dallas-based Flight Level at www.flightlvl.com, or phone (214) 327-1001.
Photograph: THIRD GALAXY GETS ITS MATE. In May, the wing and fuselage of IAI's third Galaxy aircraft were mated. It's the first of two flight test aircraft. First flight is slated for the end of this year. Certification is scheduled for December 1998, following an aggressive 12-month development program. Twenty-two aircraft will be built in 1999. Galaxy Aerospace Corp. will complete and deliver aircraft to retail customers from its U.S. home base.
Brian Barents, president of Galaxy Aerospace Corp. (GAC), immediately addressed the top concern of IAI Westwind and Astra Jet operators at GAC's first Maintenance&Operations meeting, held in San Diego from May 5 to 7. Product support in the past, Barents conceded, suffered from ``some limited resources.'' His goal, first stated at the 1996 NBAA convention, is nothing less than to provide the best customer support in the business aircraft industry.
Monte Mitchell, until recently the executive director of the Aircraft Electronics Association, received enormous applause at his retirement celebration at the AEA annual convention in Palm Springs in April. AEA members' praise for Mitchell was indeed appropriate, but the Association's long-term success has had as much to do with the eye-watering pace of technical developments in avionics as it has had with Mitchell's efforts.
Business aircraft sales were up for the third consecutive year in 1996. The General Aviation Manufacturers Association reports that sales of new aircraft reached $3.1 billion, fueled largely by a resurgence in the turboprop market and continued strength in the export market. This was an increase of more than 10 percent from 1995.
Leasing continues to be a popular vehicle for enjoying the benefits of business aircraft without the attendant tax exposure, and 1996 proved to be another growth year for the equipment leasing industry. New business volume was up, and lessors taking possession of aircraft at lease terminations experienced better-than-anticipated residuals due to a brisk resale market. One major lease/finance company claimed it increased its business aircraft portfolio by 20 percent.
Continued health of the money supply and relatively stable interest rates during 1996 fueled a vigorous aircraft lending climate for the third year in a row. According to officials of the National Aircraft Finance Association, all indications are the trend will continue through this year and into 1998.
