Archive for April, 2010

The Aircraft Electronics Association’s annual convention doesn’t rank as the biggest or most heavily attended trade show on the aviation event calendar, but for those who work in the avionics industry the time spent at AEA often proves more valuable than what can be gained from traveling to larger shows like the NBAA Convention and [...]

International Communications Group (ICG) and Cobham Antenna Systems have been granted an FAA supplemental type certificate (STC) for a dual-network satcom system named Sora that offers both Iridium and Inmarsat SwiftBroadband voice and data services worldwide. The first Sora (the Japanese word for “sky”) system was recently installed and certified aboard a Gulfstream G200. Gulfstream, [...]

Garmin late last year released a new line of compact handheld GPS units, the aera 500 through 560 series. The four new aera units are priced from $875 to $2,199 and key differences between these and the older but still available 196 through 496 series is inclusion of Garmin’s City Navigator NT street mapping system [...]

Ten years ago, in 2000, a slide presentation at a Washington aviation conference illustrated 12 distinct benefits of ADS-B: the “backbone of NextGen,” as it was later to be called by the FAA. But the presenter wasn’t an FAA official. It was UPS 747 Capt. Karen Lee, and her presentation followed industry ADS-B briefings given [...]

In response to an NTSB recommendation, Honeywell is revising the software of its Mark XXII enhanced ground proximity warning system (EGPWS) for helicopters. The Safety Board last month warned that the failure of the radio altimeter could prevent the EGPWS look-ahead feature from functioning in flight, unbeknownst to the pilot. The NTSB on April 14 [...]

EMS Aviation’s eNfusion AMT-700 high-gain satcom antenna has cleared an important hurdle after receiving a letter of assessment from Inmarsat approving the product as a class-6 multi-channel aeronautical antenna. Inmarsat’s blessing clears the way for sales and installations of the mechanically steered antenna, which is designed to support SwiftBroadband, Swift64 and Aero H/H+ satcom services [...]

Dassault Falcon has delivered a Falcon 7X with Honeywell’s MCS 7120 SwiftBroadband satcom system as part of an installation that brings cabin Wi-Fi and VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) capabilities to the French trijet. Dassault said the installation is the first in a business jet capable of providing “fully managed” VoIP phone services in flight. [...]

Rockwell Collins has received a supplemental type certificate (STC) allowing Waas LPV upgrades in King Air models equipped with the avionics maker’s Pro Line 21 cockpit. Collins worked with Hawker Beechcraft to develop the STC, which covers the King Air C90GTi, B200, B200GT, B200C, 350 and 350C. The Waas LPV certification follows receipt of an [...]

Cessna Aircraft last month announced the introduction of wide-area augmentation system (Waas) avionics upgrades for the Citation CJ1+, CJ2+, CJ3 and Encore+ as well as certain Citation Excel and XLS airplanes. Cessna has obtained a service bulletin for the installations in the CJ models and Encore+. Waas can be added to Excel and XLS models [...]

The second super-midsize G250 took flight on March 24 from Israel Aerospace Industries’ facilities at Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, Israel. Piloted by IAI chief test pilot Ronen Shapira, the G250 flew for one hour 57 minutes during its first flight and to 20,000 feet. G250 S/N 2002 joins the first test article in [...]

The largest airplane in Cessna’s CitationJet line, the CJ4, received FAA certification on March 12. Cessna delivered the first copy on April 15. The $9 million (2010 $) CJ4 has an mtow of 10,400 pounds. That should grow to 10,600 pounds after S/N 360 and 10,700 pounds after S/N 600, according to the CJ4’s FAA [...]

The Premier II program is making progress, with first flight occurring in mid-March. “The aircraft flew on March 13 and performed flawlessly,” said a Haw- ker Beechcraft spokeswoman, “and completed all basic control and maneuverability checks expected during a typical first-flight envelope.” Key differences between the Premier IA and the II include more powerful 3,000-pound-thrust [...]

On March 30, Evektor rolled out its EV-55 Outback, a nine- to 14-seat, high-wing twin turboprop, at the company’s factory in Kunovice, Czech Republic. First flight of the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-21-powered utility airplane is planned for the third quarter, two years behind the company’s original schedule. The EV-55 was designed using “advanced software” [...]

Flying  a business air plane outside the U.S. isn’t all work. It’s also an adventure that offers U.S. pilots a chance to see how the other half–or actually the other 90 percent of the world–lives. Let’s be serious: Americans are spoiled by our own version of the aviation industry, such as when it comes to [...]

Dassault Falcon is reorganizing its service support strategy, with a particular focus on technical assistance, parts inventory and the service center structure. “Times have changed and we must change with them,” Jacques Chauvet, Dassault Falcon’s senior vice president for worldwide customer service, told AIN.
Chauvet said Dassault is refocusing on the quality and timeliness of [...]

As with most segments of the business aviation industry, the FBO business has been in a state of flux for the past two years. From the economic high and subsequent crash in 2008, to the slow but steady recovery over the past year, FBOs around the world have had to adjust and respond to the [...]

Bombardier inked a firm contract with Air Canada regional partner Jazz Air covering 15 Q400 turboprops, the Canadian manufacturer announced today. The order represents a conversion of an MOU signed in February.
Valued at $454 million at list prices, the firm order accompanied options on another 15 airplanes, potentially raising the value of the contract [...]

Dulles Jet Center, the corporate hangar facility at Dulles International Airport in Sterling, Va., which suffered roof collapse due to a massive snowstorm on February 6, has been forced to curtail services that made the company appear to be an FBO. According to a U.S. District judge’s opinion last month, Landow Aviation Limited Partnership, which [...]