By now, the first Transportation Security Administration passenger screener-trainer candidates should have completed their training at Oklahoma City and returned to their respective airports. The 300 men and women are the first of a force that will be responsible for helping to train and supervise airport screeners at 429 airports nationwide. The first candidates were fitted for uniforms on March 22 and took the oath of office before beginning 40 hours of classroom instruction.
A new report stating that 96 percent of all U.S. nuclear reactors were designed without regard for the potential impact ``from even a small aircraft'' has raised concerns from the general aviation community, which has spent months trying to dispel fears about the potential threat of private airplanes.
David Hurley, CEO of PrivatAir, has been named to the board of directors of the National Air and Space Museum. The board's 32 members are appointed by the Smithsonian Board of Regents. Hurley, a 15,000-hour pilot, has been continuously involved with business aviation marketing and operations and was one of the original members of the Jim Taylor gang that marketed the original Cessna Citation, Fan Jet Falcon and many other airplanes and schemes over the years.
FlightSafety International's new VITAL-9 visual system makes its commercial debut installed on an ERJ 145 simulator at the company's St. Louis learning center. The simulator, FSI's 15th ERJ simulator, received Level D certification in April. The VITAL-9 will be the standard visual system installed on FSI's new-production simulators. Bottom line, the main advantage of the VITAL-9 to the user is a sharper, more detailed use of real-world textures derived from samples, as opposed to using hard-edged polygons.
This directory is a selective listing of specialized products and services not included elsewhere in the 2002 Purchase Planning Handbook. In many cases, the products or services are not available directly from the manufacturer, but from authorized distributors. Operators should contact the manufacturers shown in the address listing (page 205) to obtain purchasing information. The listing of a product or service in this directory is not an endorsement or recommendation by B/CA. CATEGORY INDEX
Lufthansa Technik has stationed a rapid-response AOG engine rescue team in the United States, based at Bizjet in Tulsa, Okla. The Airline Support Team (AST) is available to individual operators as well as airlines. Its specialty is foreign object damage. The AST is on 24-hour alert to send one to four technicians to a grounded aircraft, diagnose and borescope it, and immediately set to work to repair the engine. Any AST unit can be sent anywhere in the world. The AST services cover a large number of engine models.
The European Union released funding to develop its own satellite navigation system to rival the U.S. Global Positioning System. A recent meeting of the E.U. ministers removed the last obstacle to funding the program through the year 2006, when the first satellite of the proposed 30-satellite Galileo system would be launched. The U.S. government has opposed the European system, calling it redundant and citing possible interference with future GPS improvements. Senior E.U.
Garrett's Mark Larsen, engine program sales manager for the company, has been selected by the National Air Transportation Association (NATA) as chairman of its Aviation Maintenance and Systems Technology Committee. The committee evaluates maintenance standards and FAA regulations as to their effects on NATA constituents.
``There are a lot of people out there who would like to turn the airport into a golf course. We need to do everything we can to mitigate noise so we can maintain public support.'' Peter Manion, chairman of the Naples, Fla., Airport Authority. (Naples Daily News)
A group of workers under threat of losing their jobs at Raytheon Aircraft Co. banded with management to find ways to cut costs and improve productivity, and their efforts have proved so successful that the initiative is being expanded into other areas of the company.
Twin Commander Aircraft Corp. has received STC approval for a Meggitt MAGIC avionics package for its Commander 690-series turboprops. The MAGIC suite consists of four electronic displays with flight and systems information. It will be standard on Grand Renaissance Twin Commanders and can be retrofitted on any 690.
West Star Aviation has obtained an STC to install the Bendix/King 560 General Aviation Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (GA-EGPWS) in Citation 550 and 560 aircraft. The Bendix/King 560 meets the requirements for a CFIT protection device: a terrain/airport database, look-ahead algorithms and a terrain clearance floor feature. It also provides several additional capabilities incorporated from its air transport EGPWS: terrain display, peaks mode, geometric altitude and a built-in GPS receiver.
Edited by David RimmerMike Vines, aboard ACJ F-GSVU, Chile
Saying ``we need to find an alternative to Avolar,'' Airbus Corporate Jetliner (ACJ) Vice President Richard Gaona nevertheless predicted at the recent FIDAE show in Santiago, Chile, that airlines will still account for certain ACJ orders in the future.
Air BP and Valley Oil Co. have formed a joint venture (50-50 ownership) called Air BP Aviation Services, which will merge the U.S. aviation businesses of BP and Valley under one brand name. ``Strategically, the formation of the new entity marks the culmination of nearly a decade of BP's expansion and brand enhancement efforts in the United States, which includes acquisitions of Conoco's GA business, Amoco, Arco and Exxon's turbine oil business,'' said Graham Rose, Air BP, Americas general manager.
The long-awaited reopening of Washing-ton Reagan National Airport to general and business aviation could happen this month if plans to publish a rule establishing new security requirements are approved.
American Airports Corp. has won a 50-year contract to operate New Orleans Lakefront Airport. The contract is expected to eliminate more than $1 million per year in operating losses to the Orleans Levee District, and therefore New Orleans taxpayers, and to generate guaranteed revenue to the district.
Crews have salvaged the restored vintage Boeing 307 Stratoliner that ditched in Seattle's Elliott Bay, but it's not certain whether the aircraft will be returned to flying status or just cosmetically restored for display. Only 10 were built, and this is the last one still in existence. Owned by the Smithsonian Institution's National Air&Space Museum, it will be housed at the new museum facility at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C.
During recent years, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission has conducted investigations into the practice of certain industries in fixing and advertising list prices. It is the position of the FTC that it is deceptive to the public and against the law for list prices of any product to be specified or advertised in a trade area if the majority of sales are made at less than those prices.
