Dassault Aviation announced the Falcon 900DX tri-jet at EBACE in late May. It will replace the Falcon 900C in the firm's long-range business jet lineup. The 900DX, in essence, is a 900EX, complete with Primus Epic EASy cockpit and 5,000-pound-thrust Honeywell TFE731-60 engines. But fuel capacity is 18,830 pounds, a 10-percent reduction compared with the 900EX. Max range for the $31.65 million Falcon 900DX with eight passengers is 4,050 nm, versus 4,400 nm for the $34.65 million Falcon 900EX.
GAMA responded enthusiastically when the U.S. Senate passed a bill that contains a provision extending the so-called bonus depreciation ``placed-in-service'' date for business aviation aircraft. This is GAMA's top legislative priority for the year. The GAMA announcement noted that with the long lead time to produce an airplane, extension of the ``placed-in-service'' date is crucial to airframe manufacturers as well as purchasers who can then benefit from the depreciation schedule, which is set to expire at the end of this year.
Stand-alone TAWS boxes will become increasingly rare as integrated avionics manufacturers package Class A, B or C functionality inside their integrated avionics systems as standard or optional equipment.
YOU'VE SEEN THOSE wooden paperweights with the laser-etched fronts that look like shadowy blobs. Stare at one for a while, and the word ``FLY'' suddenly pops out. I've encountered these things for years. I know that the word ``FLY'' is there, but yet I never see it at first glance. I always have to stare, relaxing my focus until the image somehow reverses and the word emerges.
Embraer announced the delivery of the 800th jet in its ERJ 145 family on May 13. The 50-seat ERJ 145 aircraft was delivered to U.S. customer Chautauqua Airlines, which operates all models of the ERJ 145 family.
Little more than three years ago, a chartered Gulfstream III departed Los Angeles International (LAX) for Aspen-Sardy (ASE) in the Colorado Rockies with 18 folks on board. The crew checked the weather at the destination and it wasn't much above IFR minimums. There's a prohibition against flying the VOR/DME-C approach into Aspen at night. It's challenging enough in the daytime, as anyone who's flown it in IMC can attest.
I never knew my grandfather, Delancy West Davis, who was known to all as ``D.W.'' He died before I was born. But his story and times came up recently when I was conducting an aviation-related interview with Tim Gronberg, a Bombardier field service representative, over a business lunch. At some point between the hamburgers' arrival and downing the last drop of coffee we discovered that both D.W.
Of the 193 rotorcraft that Bell Helicopter Textron delivered in 2003, 19 were used commercial models. Overall, the airframe maker experienced more than a 20-percent increase in aircraft deliveries in 2003, compared with 2002.
Paradigm shift may well be two of the most overused terms in contemporary American business-speak. But in the case of the A700 AdamJet, as well as with other twin turbofan business jets due for entry into service in 2006 and beyond, the phrase is most appropriate. Adam Aircraft claims that for about $2 million in current year dollars, its Adam 700 will deliver a 340-knot maximum cruise speed, a 41,000-foot maximum operating altitude and a four-occupant NBAA IFR range of 1,100 miles.
The FAA has granted site acceptance for the advanced technologies and oceanic procedures (ATOP) system at Oakland, Calif., the first of its new oceanic air traffic control systems to be delivered by Lockheed Martin. ATOP will replace existing systems and procedures for aircraft separation on ocean routes and is expected to boost capacity on the routes. Although the FAA has signed off on delivery of ATOP, more testing is in order before the system is commissioned.
Honeywell's Teterboro, N.J., facility, the original home of the Bendix Aviation Corp., has been added to a register of historic aerospace sites. Selection of the former Bendix headquarters was made by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) as part of its Historic Aerospace Site program. Bendix Aviation was formed in 1929 by automotive and aviation innovator Vincent Bendix when he brought together several companies, including Eclipse and Pioneer. Bendix combined with Allied Corp. (later AlliedSignal) in 1983.
The U.K. Civil Aviation Authority has introduced changes to South Eastern Anglian airspace (known as Clacton Airspace) to ease congestion and minimize delays. The changes, which have been implemented by National Air Traffic Services, are expected to improve capacity in the airspace by 30 percent. There are currently 1,200 aircraft movements per day through the area. The CAA says the new arrangements, ``will generate sufficient capacity to handle projected air traffic growth up to 2010 and will result in cost savings to users.''
GE is also working toward certifying the CF-3410A/E engines slated to power Embraer's 190 and the AVIC ARJ21 in China. Blankenship said the ARJ21's engine will be mounted on the fuselage instead of under the wing, as on the 190. He said it's the same engine and same thrust, and added it would cost GE about half the expense of a new engine program to modify and certify the engine for the ARJ21. Blankenship predicted GE should snag orders for about 400 engines this year, and build about the same number.
The Citation Mustang PW615F engine completed its maiden flight on a Cessna engine test-bed CitationJet on April 27 from Cessna's Wichita facility. The 1.9- hour flight marked the first time a Pratt & Whitney Canada engine flew on an aircraft manufacturer's engine test-bed prior to being flown on P&WC's Boeing 720 engine test aircraft. Cessna received the Citation Mustang PW615F engine from P&WC on April 1, and the first ground run test was conducted April 9.
Garrett Aviation has selected Rockwell Collins to provide elements of its Pro Line 21 family of avionics as part of a retrofit program to upgrade Cessna Citation 501 aircraft. Initial system deliveries are scheduled to begin in January 2005. The program features the Collins IDS-3000 Integrated Display System to replace existing analog and EFIS equipment with large-format LCDs designed to enhance information presentation and increase situational awareness.
American Airlines' automatic external defibrillators have saved 50 lives in the seven years since the company began installing AEDs on its fleet. Save number 50 came the night of April 27 at Chicago O'Hare when a flight attendant used an AED to save the life of a 67-year-old Virginia man deplaning a flight from Reno. A doctor began CPR and the flight attendant brought the AED from the aircraft and applied the pads to the man's chest. The device voice-prompted the flight attendant to administer three shocks before the victim was revived.
Boeing and Airbus are jointly sponsoring a series of symposiums to build a consensus about Global Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology standards on commercial aircraft. Boeing and Airbus are promoting the Air Transport Association SPEC 2000 automated identification and data capture guidelines. ``This technology offers the aviation industry many proven benefits with the ultimate objective being continued safety, airworthiness and operational efficiencies for commercial airplanes,'' said Kenneth Porad, RFID program leader for Boeing Commercial Airplanes.
AvCraft CEO Ben Bartel and Hainan Group Chairman Chen Fang signed a contract for an additional 20 Dornier 328Jets for Hainan Airlines at a May 3 ceremony in Berlin hosted by German Chancellor Gerhard Schruder. This contract converts five previous options to firm orders, to be delivered this year, plus an additional 15 328Jets with delivery dates into 2007. Hainan Airlines already operates 27 328Jets.
GAMA's board of directors elected EADS Socata and Pilatus Aircraft to membership in the trade association. EADS Socata will be represented on the GAMA Board by Stephane Bernard, president and CEO of Socata Aircraft, Inc. Pilatus Aircraft, Ltd. will be represented by Thomas Bosshard, president and CEO of Pilatus Business Aircraft, Ltd. A wholly owned subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defense & Space Co., EADS Socata manufactures a line of single-engine piston-powered and single-engine turboprop airplanes at Tarbes-Lourdes-Pyrenees Airport, France.
THEIR BUSINESS IN SARASOTA, FLA., done, the four men piled into the company's TBM 700, locked the door and headed north, homeward bound to their families for the weekend already under way. It was Saturday morning. The plan called for dropping off one passenger at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) in Greer, S.C., and then continuing on to Leesburg Executive (JYO) in Virginia, the TBM's home port.
There's a perfectly good reason why a 15-foot bronze mule appeared at Keystone Helicopter's headquarters in West Chester, Pa., in mid-May. It turns out that it's a statue of not just any Army mule, but the West Point mascot mule, ridden by a ``Mule Rider'' -- a distinction accorded to just one or two West Point cadets in each class. It was en route from the foundry in Colorado where it was cast to West Point, where it will stand as a tribute to mule riders and Army football.
``HOW MUCH CAN WE CHARGE Acme Co. for flying our executive vice president to participate as a member of its board of directors at the next board meeting?'' There are no easy answers to questions like this for FAR Part 91 flight departments. From the FAA's standpoint, the safest answer is always, ``Nothing.'' But the Sarbannes-Oxley Act of 2002 may make both companies nervous about providing and accepting a free flight.
In Colorado Springs, there's a neon sign above an FAA-certified repair station beaming out a name that makes you think, ``Hey, I didn't know they did that.''
Mooney Aerospace Group was hit with a $23.9 million penalty by an arbitrator in conjunction with the termination of a lease on the Long Beach, Calif., facility that had been the West Coast headquarters of AASI, which acquired Mooney and now operates under the Mooney banner with its headquarters in Kerrville, Texas. Mooney said it believed the arbitrator's damage award to the landlord, AP Long Beach Airport LLC, to be non-binding and that it would seek a jury trial.
