NEW PIPER AIRCRAFT this month completed the first flight of its Malibu Meridian single-turboprop aircraft. The aircraft, the first of four prototypes, took off at 11:39 a.m. Aug. 21 from Vero Beach Airport and flew for 60 minutes. Engineering Test Pilot David Schwartz conducted preliminary tests to determine flying quality, control characteristics and powerplant responses. The aircraft has flown twice since - a 30-minute flight Tuesday and a 12-minute flight Wednesday - and is next scheduled to fly during a Meridian employee celebration tomorrow (Sept. 1).
Federal Aviation Administration this month called for inspection of 60,000 Textron Lycoming and Teledyne Continental reciprocating engines in search of a few hundred possibly faulty crankshafts that were repaired by a Bedford, Mass. company. The airworthiness directive requires owners and operators of Lycoming and Continental engines to determine within 10 hours' time-in-service (following the Oct. 19 effective date of the AD) whether Nelson Balancing Service repaired the engine crankshafts between Feb. 1, 1995 and Dec. 31, 1997.
MITSUBISHI Model YS-11 series airplanes (Docket No. 97-NM-92-AD) - proposes to require repetitive inspections for fatigue cracking in the manhole doublers of the lower wing panels and repair, if necessary. This proposal also would require eventual modification of screw holes in the manhole doublers of the lower wing panels. This proposal is prompted by issuance of mandatory continuing airworthiness information by a foreign civil airworthiness authority. The actions specified by the proposal are intended to detect fatigue cracking in the manhole doublers.
DUANE TERRY was named director of operations for Sony Trans Com, a designer, manufacturer and supplier of inflight entertainment systems. Terry will be responsible for the company's manufacturing, manufacturing engineering and material efforts. He formerly was vice president of operations for Micronet Technologies.
ROBERT GEORGE was appointed to the newly created position of Seattle-area representative for Flight Dynamics. George previously served with AT&T Wireless Aviation Division and Boeing.
TIM KEISER was appointed safety supervisor for Downtown Airpark. Keiser was a long-time United Airlines employee and a former flight engineer in the U.S. Air Force.
PRIMEDIA INTERTEC published its 1998-1999 AC-U-KWIK International Manager's Edition. The 800-page book contains airport, fixed-base operation, hotel and support services information. The book includes airport diagrams, listings of charter, limousine, catering and executive protection companies and U.S. Customs information. The book, which retails at $69.95, also is offered through a Windows-based software program. To order, contact PRIMEDIA Intertec, P.O. Box 12901, Overland Park, Kan. 66282-2901; telephone: (800) 400-5945.
Federal Aviation Administration called a ban on scheduled service at Centennial Airport near Denver, Colo. discriminatory and ordered the Arapahoe County Public Airport Authority to present an acceptable plan within 20 days to provide for scheduled service or lose eligibility for future airport grants. The airport authority, notified of FAA's decision early last week, scheduled a meeting Thursday (Sept. 3) to discuss the action, but an airport official said the authority has not announced its next step.
HOWMET CORP., Greenwich, Conn., will expand its manufacturing capacity, building a new aero-airfoil plant and expanding three plants that make industrial gas turbine components. Howmet will begin construction during the fourth quarter, following completion of the site selection process, which is under way for the aero-airfoil plant. The plant will be equipped initially for $60 million in sales, require an investment of $40 million over the next 18 months and will employ about 350 people.
AIRCRAFT OWNERS AND PILOTS ASSOCIATION, which will hold its Expo '98 Oct. 23-25 in Palm Springs, Calif., will return to Atlantic City, N.J. next year for AOPA Expo '99. AOPA last held the event in Atlantic City in 1995, attracting 8,129 attendees. The 1999 Expo is scheduled for Oct. 21-23 at The New Atlantic City Convention Center.
BELL HELICOPTER TEXTRON Model 214B and 214B-1 helicopters (Docket No. 97-SW-23-AD) - revises an earlier proposal that would have established a mandatory retirement life of 15,000 high-power events for the pillow block bearing bolts. That proposal was prompted by fatigue analyses and tests that show certain bearing bolts fail sooner than originally anticipated because of the unanticipated high number of lifts and takeoffs (torque events) performed with those bearing bolts in addition to the time-in-service accrued under normal operating conditions.
AS RAYTHEON rolled out the Premier I last week, the company continued design efforts on the next edition of the Premier family. Wegner said the company, which has said from the outset of the Premier I program that the aircraft was the beginning of a new family, was not yet ready to discuss the new airplane, only saying that it is "not smaller" than Premier I. Raytheon officials also hinted at a follow-on of its other new aircraft, the Hawker Horizon, noting that the middle segment of the fuselage could be stretched.
LORD CORPORATION renewed its agreement with AAR Cooper Aviation as the exclusive supplier of engine mounts. Lord has served as a single-source supplier of vibration control products for AAR Cooper Aviation and the former Cooper Aviation since 1989.
MIDCOAST AVIATION named James Bates vice president and chief financial officer. Bates will manage financial and accounting functions for the Midcoast facilities at Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, St. Louis Downtown-Parks Airport and Little Rock National Airport. He also will assist on special projects for Midcoast parent Sabreliner Corp. Before joining Midcoast, Bates was vice president and chief financial officer for Sight&Sound Distributors, Inc.
FLIGHTCRAFT, which celebrated its 50th anniversary last month, increased its flight department fleet of aircraft to 29 and pilot staff to 45 with the addition of nine aircraft since the beginning of the year. The Northwest-based aviation services company added a Learjet 35, a King Air C90 and B200, Cheyenne II, three Citation Is, a Citation II and Citation III. Flightcraft has operations at Portland International Airport, Eugene, Ore., Hayward, Calif. and Seattle, Wash.
RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT named D. Scott Kalister vice president-customer support. Kalister will manage the customer support division in addition to the Raytheon Aircraft Services fixed-base operation chain and Raytheon Aircraft Parts Inventory and Distribution, a subsidiary formed last year to consolidate Beech and Hawker aircraft parts distribution.
FLIGHTSAFETY INTERNATIONAL received contracts to train Federal Aviation Administration pilots for Hawker 800, Gulfstream V and King Air 90 aircraft. FlightSafety's Houston facility is providing Hawker 800 training to pilots from FAA's Office of Aviation System Standards, Flight Inspection Operations Division and the Evaluation and Training Branch. The Gulfstream and King Air training will take place in Savannah, Ga. and Wichita, Kan., respectively.
MILLION AIR DALLAS acquired a new Cessna 525 CitationJet, a new Beech King Air C90B turboprop and a used Hawker 600-731. The additions bring the Million Air Dallas Part 135 charter fleet to 20 aircraft.
CENTENNIAL AIRPORT near Denver, Colo. last month recorded its busiest month ever with more than 48,500 operations. The operations top the previous record of 44,000 set in August 1977. Centennial, the nation's second busiest general aviation airport, is expected to have more than 460,000 operations this year, airport authorities said. Authorities credited the healthy Denver economy as well as the improving general aviation industry for the climb in operations.
THREE PROVIDERS of general aviation flight tracking information - RLM Software, Flite Comm of Florida and SkySource - have agreed to follow the National Business Aviation Association's voluntary code of conduct to ensure security over the release and use of such information.NBAA initiated the code of conduct in February after member companies raised concerns about the misuse of Aircraft Situational Display Information (ASDI) (BA, Feb. 16/69).
FIRST TECHNOLOGY FIRE AND SAFETY toilet compartment fire extinguishers (Docket No. 98-ANE-29-AD) - proposes to require inspection of suspect fire extinguishers for leakage and replacement of certain parts, if found leaking. This proposal is prompted by reports of leakage at the fire extinguisher's eutectic tip due to a design change. The actions specified by the proposed AD are intended to prevent fire extinguisher failure due to leakage, which could result in an uncontained fire and damage to the aircraft.
Galaxy Aerospace, which a year ago selected Alliance Airport in Fort Worth, Texas as the site for its new worldwide headquarters complex (BA, Aug. 4, 1997/54), continued to round out its staff there with a series of senior appointments. The company named former Learjet executive Vern Dyer vice president-procurement for the completions center, product support and vendor contracts. He most recently was vice president/general manager of On Command/Spectra Vision and, before that, was vice president of operations support at Learjet.
BANYAN AIR SERVICE opened an instrument shop at its full service fixed-base operation at Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Executive Airport. The shop, which complements Banyan's 16,000-square-foot avionics shop, is approved to overhaul and certify most remote directional and vertical gyros, including Collins, King, Honeywell and Sperry Instruments.
DOUG BOWEN was appointed worldwide sales manager for maintenance technician training programs for FlightSafety International. Bowen, based in Houston, will be responsible for more than 100 training programs that FlightSafety offers at its learning centers or at individual customer locations. He previously served as vice president of operations in St. Louis, Mo.
