Cessna Aircraft signed a new agreement with the China Aviation Industry General Aircraft Company Ltd., (Caiga) and the Shijiazhuang Municipal Government that the company says is a framework to deliver Wichita-built Cessna Caravan single-engine turboprop utility aircraft to Caiga's Shijiazhuang factory for final assembly, painting, production flight tests and sale within China.
CAE is the first independent training provider to be qualified as a Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) approved training organization (ATO) for maintenance training for Dassault Falcon aircraft under China's CCAR-147 regulation. The approval enables CAE to deploy maintenance training courses in China for all in-production Dassault Falcon aircraft, including the Falcon 7X, Falcon 900EX EASy, 900DX, 900LX, and Falcon 2000EX EASy, 2000DX, 2000LX aircraft models.
Hawthorne Global Aviation Services has opened an FBO at Long Island MacArthur Airport (ISP) in Islip, N.Y., co-located with ExcelAire, a provider of aircraft management, charter and maintenance services. The Hawthorne-branded FBO, the largest private jet facility on Long Island, is the cornerstone of its developing FBO network across North America, the company says.
Thus far, we've talked about eliminating or minimizing sound. But for some operators, maximizing a cabin's audio qualities is of great importance. For those whose key passengers expect nothing less than an airborne symphony hall, IMAX theater, arena event or just some quiet meditation, a fourth way may be the path to audio bliss.
NORTH Flight Data Systems of Arlington, Va., has received STC approval for the installation of their Lightweight Aircraft Recording (LARS) system in Eurocopter EC 155 series helicopters. Working with Metro Aviation, Inc., NORTH FDS integrated their voice, video and flight data recording system into the EC 155B1 airframe. The system provides six channels of audio, one channel of video, and in excess of 200 separate parameters of recorded digital aircraft data.
The U.S. Export-Import Bank (Ex-Im) is developing a new process to expedite financing for business aircraft and helicopter exports, providing a critical avenue for financing to business jet makers at a time when financing worldwide is still scarce. Speaking at EBACE on May 14, Ex-Im Bank Chairman Fred Hochberg said Ex-Im Bank will work with industry experts on due diligence and credit analysis to speed up the processing of foreign-buyer financing.
Europe's business jet fleet total is down and likely to remain diminished for possibly another year due to slow new aircraft sales and used business jets sold out of Europe to buyers on other continents, aviation consultant Brian Foley says. During the past 12 months, 50 European business jets — about 2% of the total fleet — were sold to buyers on other continents. Outside Europe, the fleets have grown an overall 3%, Foley says. A vast majority, 79%, went to buyers in North America, mostly in the U.S. and Canada. Africa customers took the next highest total, 7%.
While modern business aircraft cabins offer superlative levels of comfort, they can be relatively noisy environments. Loud noise levels or even sporadic low-level noise over time can cause hearing impairment, hypertension, ischemic heart disease, annoyance, sleep disturbances and overall decreased performance. Obviously, operators should take steps to mitigate passenger noise exposure in their aircraft cabin.
The FAA has granted TSO approval for Universal Avionics' third generation Airborne Datalink System, UniLink UL-800/801 Communications Management Unit (CMU). UniLink UL-800/801 Airborne Datalink features: FANS 1/A+ Compliance, Controller Pilot Data Link Communications Capability (CPDLC), multiple media routing, full ACARS/CMU functionality, ADS-C Auto-Position Reporting and hi-res weather graphics. The UL-800/801 interfaces with Universal Avionics' current FMS product line with either 4-in. or 5-in. Control Display Units.
I have been fortunate enough over the last 25 yr. to work closely with several first responder organizations — fire, police and the U.S. Coast Guard Auxiliary. The passing years have witnessed an important shift in attitudes toward risk. I remember an old greybeard Coast Guardsman telling me, “You got to go out, but you don't have to come back.” That mindset has given way entirely to a mantra uttered by all first responders that states, “Everybody gets to go home.” Let's spread the word.
As aircraft become even more com–plex, we tend to focus on improving aircraft systems knowledge, often at the expense of learning more about other important topics such as fatigue, teamwork and communication. To help busy technicians and managers keep up to speed on the importance of human factors concerns in the hangar, the FAA has a website that has collected information and training ideas with maintainers in mind. It's worth a visit: https://hfskyway.faa.gov/hfskyway/index.aspx
Pratt & Whitney Canada's PW210 engine has been selected by Eurocopter to power the next-generation X4 helicopter. The PW210-powered X4 is expected to enter into service by 2017. The engine will also power three other unspecified helicopters.
American Jet International, Houston, announced that Annette Vitello is the new director of operations, responsible for flight department operations, including management and control of business development. Aviation Partners Inc., Seattle, promoted Gary Dunn to vice president of sales and marketing. In addition to the sales and marketing activities for API's Blended Winglets products for business aircraft, Dunn's duties will include the sales of large winglet retrofits to corporate and head-of-state buyers of Boeing 737, 757 and 767 aircraft.
CAE is now conducting aircraft maintenance technician training at a new U.S. location, Sherwood, Ark., near Little Rock, home to the Dassault Aircraft Services (DAS) service center, the Dassault Falcon Jet production facility and the main Falcon Completion Center. CAE is providing maintenance training to Dassault service center production technicians, Dassault's frontline Customer Service staff and Dassault operators for the Falcon 7X, Falcon 900EX EASy and Falcon 2000EX EASy aircraft.
Honeywell expects certification authorities to sign off on several of its in-development cockpit upgrades before the year-end , including programs for the Falcon 7X and Falcon 2000 EASy II avionics upgrade Honeywell is conducting with Dassault Aviation. This Dassault program follows the upgrade already developed for the Falcon 900, which adds synthetic vision functionality.
The GAMA Board of Directors approved Air Tractor as its newest member, bringing the association's membership to 77. Air Tractor got its start as the Snow Aeronautical Company in 1951. In 1958, Leland Snow moved the production facilities to Olney, Texas, where Air Tractor is headquartered today. With over 2,700 aircraft flying, Air Tractor manufactures an extensive line of agriculture aircraft powered by Pratt & Whitney piston or turbine engines. Air Tractor aircraft can be found working over fields and forests across the U.S.
Nextant Aerospace announced a new manufacturing facility for the Nextant 400XT, FAA-certified remanufactured business jet. The newly acquired facility at Cleveland's Cuyahoga County Airport will accommodate an annual production rate of 48 aircraft, and will quadruple Nextant's production area and office space footprint. The facility features a large production hangar which can handle six aircraft simultaneously, a second hangar for aircraft delivery and completions and a third that will house an advanced aircraft painting operation.
Hawker Beechcraft has secured initial court approval that the company says will enable it to continue its ordinary business while the company proceeds with its prearranged Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. The court approval enables the Wichita manufacturer to pay employees, vendors and suppliers, using $400 million in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing to meet its obligations. The plan will eliminate $2.5 billion in debt and about $125 million in annual interest expense, Hawker Beechcraft says.
A new Bombardier Flight Deck iPad app for Challenger and Learjets provides an electronic flight manual that can automatically receive updates from Bombardier. Updates to all Bombardier flight manual revisions, including temporary revisions, are received and implemented at the push of a button. The system uses advanced encryption technology and provides the necessary FAA, EASA and Transport Canada audit trail for paperless operations.
I enjoyed your article on second-grade math (Washington Watch, April 2012, page 61). The only thing you could have added was the name of the culprit who caused this problem in the first place. That person would be the Un-Honorable Sen. Charles “Chuck” Grassley from Iowa. The aviation community in Iowa needs to spread the word about this scoundrel and get him voted out of office.
Conventional wisdom is that new aircraft sales will lag until the used inventory shrinks, but business aviation consultant Brian Foley disagrees. “There is no cause-and-effect relationship because, generally speaking, new and pre-owned buyers are totally different groups,” Foley says.
Dassault has approval from the FAA for steep approaches on all Falcon 900 EASy and Falcon 2000 EASy series aircraft. Both models had already received steep approach certification from EASA. With the most recent approvals, the entire current production Falcon fleet is now certified for steep approaches, which permits aircraft to operate at restricted airports with approach angles of up to 6 deg.
The FAA's multi-year process to clean up the civil aircraft registry last year by requiring all aircraft to re-register on a rolling schedule is now in effect. When the program was announced, the agency warned it would cancel registrations for any aircraft whose owner did not respond. The HAI discovered, “they weren't kidding.” Rotor News reported that HAI's Finance and Leasing Committee found some 300 helicopters with cancelled registrations. If any of those 300 is in active use, it's now illegal to fly them until they have been re-registered.
Former FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt is expected to continue an aviation consulting career following the May 10 dismissal of drunk driving charges that led to his resignation from the agency in December 2011. A district court judge in Virginia dismissed the charges, ruling that the police had stopped him without sufficient reason. Babbitt said he plans to remain in aviation as a consultant.
