Signature Flight Support plans to open a new fixed-base operation at Denver's Centennial Airport next summer, becoming the third major FBO on the busy business aviation airport.
A BOEING PAINT-STRIPPING SYSTEM, to be used by the U.S. Navy to strip Boeing T-45A training aircraft, went into operation at the Kingsville, Tenn. Naval Air Station. To house the robotic gantry Flashjet Coating Removal System, the Navy modified one of six bays in the Kingsville Corrosion Control facility. Boeing said the system can be used to strip other carrier-based tactical aircraft.
OWNERS of more than 25 percent of U.S.-registered aircraft would have to inspect the fuel strainer assembly under a proposed airworthiness directive published by FAA. The proposed AD would apply to some 50,000 airplanes built by Cessna Aircraft, primarily single-engine models. See article on Page 36.
STANLEY J. GREEN, the former long-time counsel for the General Aviation Manufacturers Association, will join the Washington, D.C. law firm of Davis&Bentzen, effective Aug. 3. Green retired in 1991 after 22 years as vice president and general counsel for GAMA and since has served with the Washington law firm of Dunaway&Cross, which represents the Aerospace Industries Association. Green will continue to represent aviation clients, especially with FAA certification and National Transportation Safety Board matters.
AEROSPACE INDUSTRIES ASSOCIATION named John W. Douglass president and chief executive officer. Douglass, 57, has been assistant secretary of the Navy for Research, Development and Acquisition since Nov. 1, 1995. He will succeed Don Fuqua Sept. 18. Fuqua, a former Florida congressman, has headed AIA since January 1987.
SAAB Model SF340A and Saab 340B series airplanes (Docket No. 98-NM-117-AD) - adopts a new AD requiring modification of the detachable center inlet component of the air intake system of the engine. This amendment is prompted by issuance of mandatory continuing airworthiness information by a foreign civil airworthiness authority. The actions specified in the AD are intended to prevent fuel and/or oil that may be present in the nacelle from entering the air intake system of the engine, which could result in a fire. The AD is effective Aug. 20.
The Senate Friday passed 90-1 the fiscal 1999 transportations appropriations bill, S.2307, which recommends a nearly $9.9 billion budget for the Federal Aviation Administration (BA, July 20/28). Also last week, the House Appropriations Committee approved its own fiscal 1999 DOT appropriations measure, recommending $9.5 billion for FAA. The largest difference is in the Airport Improvement Program, with the Senate seeking $2.1 billion and the House approving $1.8 billion. Both recommendations are above the Clinton Administration request for $1.7 billion.
NEW PIPER AIRCRAFT, preparing to roll out its first new turbine product of the decade, is looking "beyond" the single-turboprop Meridian to developing a new jet, according to a company executive. The company is reviewing its entire line and is considering new products in all areas, from single pistons to a possible turbofan-powered aircraft, he said. See article on Page 41.
NATIONAIR INSURANCE AGENCIES opened a Seattle, Wash. office headed by Richard F. Keltner, a 25-year veteran of the aviation insurance business. Keltner, who spent 21 years as a naval aviator, is an airline transport pilot and is a commercial helicopter and glider pilot. He was formerly a senior underwriter with Associated Aviation Underwriters.
HENRI ZIEGLER, 92, credited as "the founding father" of the Airbus consortium, died July 23. The company said he was the principal inspiration behind the Airbus A300B program launched in May 1969 and the driver behind creation of the consortium's integrated management and sales structure. He served as managing director of Airbus until retiring in 1975.
The Federal Aviation Administration Wednesday issued a notice of proposed rule making that would require the owners of more than 50,000 Cessna aircraft to conduct inspections of their aircraft. The NPRM is applicable to Model 150, 152, 172, 177, 180, 185, 188, 206, 207, 210 and 337 airplanes. It would require measuring the visible length of standpipe (tube) in the top assembly of the fuel strainer assembly for the correct length, and replacing any fuel strainer assembly that does not have the correct length of standpipe.
HELICOPTER ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONAL board of directors elected James T. Cheatham chairman and Peter Wright, Jr. vice chairman. Cheatham is president and owner of Verticare, a helicopter company he bought in 1970. He has been involved in HAI for more than 30 years and served on its Safety Committee for 12 years. Wright is chief executive of Keystone Helicopter Corp. where he began working in 1968.
Stan Roth, 50, the founder and president of Executive Aircraft Corp. of Wichita and Newton, Kan., and his brother, Jim, were killed July 18 when the Sabreliner business jet they were flying over Eastern Kansas suddenly went into a dive and crashed in the Flint Hills area about 75 miles northeast of Wichita.
The New Piper Aircraft Corp. next month will roll out its first new turbine-powered aircraft since emerging from bankruptcy in the summer of 1995 and one year after the company formally announced the project (BA, Sept 8, 1997/99). Development of the single-engine Meridian is on time, on schedule and within budget, according to Larry Bardon, director of marketing and sales for Piper. First flight of the aircraft is slated by the end of the month, following the Aug. 13 rollout, with certification and deliveries expected in the second quarter of 2000.
RMI TITANIUM, Niles, Ohio, reported net income of $51.1 million, of $2.49 per share, compared with $23 million, or $1.13 per share, in the first half of 1997. Revenues were up 24.7 percent to $185.5 million. The second quarter results included a $21.7 million, or $1.06 per share, adjustment to the company's deferred tax asset valuation allowance. The company manufactures titanium mill products and other components for the aerospace, energy exploration, refining, chemical processing equipment, pulp and paper production, medical implant and consumer goods markets.
JOHN DECKER was named parts manager for Mayo Aviation, Englewood, Colo. He will direct the aviation parts support activity for the company's fleet aircraft, retail parts sales and compliance with FAA parts regulations. He began his career in 1989 with Pioneer Tube and Steel and joined Intelligent Electronics in 1994 as operations manager. Decker retired as a master sergeant from the U.S. Marine Corps in 1988.
CESSNA FINANCE CORP. named Ralph Sanders branch manager of its Raleigh, N.C. office and promoted Andy Joran to credit manager of the Ontario, Calif. branch. Sanders, a Raleigh native and commercial pilot with an instrument rating who joined CFC in 1989, will oversee all operations throughout the Southeast. Joran will oversee both retail and wholesale financing for the Western U.S., Alaska and Hawaii. He holds a master's in business administration from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, is an air transport pilot and has flown more than 3,500 hours.
ALLEN NOEL was promoted to director of maintenance for Mayo Aviation, Centennial Airport in Englewood, Colo. Noel has been chief inspector at Mayo since 1991 when he joined the company. In his new post he will be responsible for maintaining aircraft airworthiness and compliance with FAA regulations at Mayo's charter management headquarters in the Denver area and its Flagstaff, Ariz. aeromedical transport base.
"A SMUGGLER who knows that his plane, and his life, could be lost in the delivery of drugs may think again before making the run," according to House transportation appropriations subcommittee Chairman Frank Wolf (R-Va.). Wolf, continuing his pursuit of a "shoot down" policy for aircraft suspected of drug smuggling (BA, March 9/105), inserted a two and one-half-page statement in the fiscal 1999 transportation appropriations report outlining arguments for such a policy. "If we are going to place a priority on interdiction...there is more we can do," he said.
IVOR THOMAS, a 35-year Boeing veteran who has worked on programs ranging from the 707 to the 777, was named FAA's national resource specialist for fuel systems. Thomas will serve as a technical liaison to industry and other government and international authorities working on fuel system designs. At Boeing Thomas was the chief engineer of propulsion safety, fuel and auxiliary power unit systems.
THE NEW HONG KONG AIRPORT has had its share of teething problems since the July 6 opening, but things are operating smoothly at the new airport's Business Aviation Center, according to officials of AMR Combs who won the contract to operate the FBO there. Corporate arrivals at the old airport were limited to two per day, but the new airport operates around the clock. This has resulted in spreading out airline passenger and cargo flights and making more slots available for corporate operators.
Federal Aviation Administration last week continued to come under fire from nearly all segments of the industry for its controversial "ticket program," but remained undecided on how or whether to proceed. The agency met Tuesday with representatives from general aviation, the airlines, and machinists and pilots unions, all of whom uniformly opposed the Streamlined Administrative Action Program, which allows inspectors to issue administrative actions on the spot (BA, June 8/247).
AEROSPATIALE Model ATR 42 and ATR 72 airplanes (Docket No. 98-NM-149-AD) - adopts a new AD applicable to certain airplanes that requires a one-time inspection of the electromagnetic interference (EMI) filter capacitors and electronic cards of the cabin air recirculation fans to detect damage. The AD also requires replacement of damaged components with new or serviceable parts, and modification of the cabin air assembly fans.
DASSAULT Model Mystere Falcon 50 series airplanes (Docket No. 96-NM-230-AD) - adopts a new AD that requires installation of a reinforcement fitting at the junction of the baggage floor and Frame 35 on both the left- and right-hand sides of the airplane. The actions specified are intended to prevent fatigue cracking in the subject area, which could reduce structural integrity of the airplane. FAA said 26 aircraft on the U.S. Registry are subject to the provisions of the AD, but added that the work already has been accomplished on eight of the 26.
PAT NEARY is the new manager of member services for the National Air Transportation Association, responsible for member recruitment, retention, marketing and market development. Neary has seven years marketing and sales experience as a small business owner, outside sales representative with Stanley Tools and marketing director for a national construction trade association.
