Aviation News

Airbus will raise the monthly production rate of its A320-family aircraft to 38 per month in August 2011 and to 40 per month in first quarter 2012, the company announced today. The company currently turns out 34 A320s per month and plans to raise that its rate to 36 this coming December. A330/A340-family production remains [...]

“We’re seeing a gradual improvement in the business jet market,” Jay Johnson, the chairman and CEO of Gulfstream and Jet Aviation parent General Dynamics, noted yesterday during the company’s second-quarter financial conference. “Gulfstream flying activity is up and we’re seeing a 16-percent increase in aircraft service sales…The industry has turned the corner.” The aerospace division [...]

Business jet charter, sales and acquisition firm Zenith Jet has released a “bottom-up segment dynamics” forecast that predicts 10,940 bizjets worth some $208 billion will be delivered this decade. According to the outlook, the large, super-large and ultra-long-range segments are expected to account for more than half of these sales revenues; by volume, “personal jets” [...]

At about 6:15 p.m. on Tuesday, a Hawker Beechcraft Premier I piloted by Jack Roush crashed at Wittman Regional Airport in Oshkosh, Wis., on the second day of the annual EAA AirVenture show. The Premier was flying from Ypisilanti, Mich., to Oshkosh. A witness told AIN that the Premier “approached very tight to the runway” [...]

The business aviation market is getting stronger, but it’s not getting stronger soon enough to support hopes for a full-blown recovery in the short term, according to Dassault Aviation’s assessment of its financial results for the first half of this year. The French airframer said yesterday that, despite slowing order cancellations, it sold only two [...]

Honda Aircraft this week said that power was switched on in its first conforming flight-test HondaJet light jet, while the fuselage and wing assemblies were mated for the first static test aircraft. “The success of our power-on tests is an important step in the completion of the first conforming flight-test aircraft,” said Honda Aircraft president [...]

Partsbase, an online business-to-business parts locator service for the aviation, aerospace and defense industries, has acquired PMA Parts Finder (PPF). For the past 10 years the PMA Parts Finder computer program has been locating PMA parts and their holders. The output of the program can be directed to screen view or printed lists, machine-readable data [...]

“We were delighted to have been part of the conceptualization and certification of the 50Dash4 program. Now that it’s a proven performer, the best future for the program is in the hands of a strong, full-service business aircraft MRO such as West Star,” Ken Goldsmith, Jr., managing director of Yankee Pacific Aerospace, said. The relationship [...]

Bangalore, India-based Deccan Charters’ Mumbai facility has been approved as a Sikorsky authorized customer service center (CSC) to support the S-76 helicopter. “We are pleased to provide in-country aftermarket support services. Aligned with our international strategic initiatives and overall commitment to our worldwide customers, this agreement serves as an important launch point in India,” said [...]

Eclipse Aerospace has named VNE Jet of Henderson, Nev., the exclusive U.S. Southwest region factory-authorized gold service center for the Eclipse 500. A spokesman for Eclipse told AIN, “VNE’s region includes Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and all of West Texas, including Dallas.” The designation allows VNE Jet to provide maintenance services, parts distribution, airframe, [...]

Gulf Coast Avionics president Rick Garcia has announced the company’s expansion into the Brazilian aviation market through a joint venture with Quick Aviação, located in Goiânia-Goias. “There is a vibrant general aviation industry in South America, particularly in Brazil. We are excited to expand our international presence by partnering with such a well known and [...]

Hawker Beechcraft (HBC) is installing customer-support leadership and adding $3 million in critical parts in the Asia-Pacific region. Steve Porte, v-p of international support, has relocated to the company’s regional headquarters at Hong Kong International Airport, where he will focus on developing HBC’s support infrastructure in the region. Porte will also supervise the Asia-Pacific field [...]

A Hawker Beechcraft Premier I carrying Roush Fenway Racing co-owner Jack Roush and a friend crashed while landing at an EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, Wis., at about 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday.
Witnesses saw the jet make a tight left turn onto final and then a series of S turns behind a landing Piper. The Premier’s [...]

An Airbus A321 operated by Pakistani airline Airblue crashed this morning in the Margalla hills, north of Islamabad, killing all 152 people on board. The aircraft, built by Airbus in 2000, went down minutes before its scheduled arrival in Islamabad. 

Flight ED 202 left the southern city of Karachi at 7:45 a.m. for a two-hour scheduled [...]

Extra Aircraft announced plans Friday to produce the dormant carbon-fiber-fuselage Extra 500 turboprop single in Montrose, Colo., for $1.65 million per copy, with initial customer deliveries beginning late this year or early next. Extra Aircraft intends to send an initial group of seven to 10 employees to Extra’s factory in Dinslaken, Germany, for production training [...]

In a letter to Hawker Beechcraft employees July 23, vice president of human resources Rich Jiwanlal dismisses union allegations that the Wichita-based OEM is planning cuts that “could shrink Hawker’s total hourly work force by as much as 75 percent within the next two years, without a guarantee of even the last few jobs remaining.” [...]

According to Piper Aircraft’s recently appointed executive vice president, Randy Groom, a year ago only 12 people were actively working on the single-engine PiperJet program. Now there are more than 100, all but a few of them full-time Piper employees. Groom, formerly president of Hawker Beechcraft’s global customer service and support and its Beechcraft division, [...]

Alan Klapmeier, the former chairman of Cirrus and new CEO of Kestrel Aircraft, told AIN yesterday at EAA AirVenture that the company still needs to raise additional funds to certify its six- to eight-seat, 350-knot single-engine turboprop, but was confident it would succeed. Klapmeier said “a huge amount of design work” had already been done [...]

Garmin announced yesterday at EAA AirVenture that its new electronic stability and protection (ESP) stability augmentation system will be available on G1000-equipped King Air 200s later this year. ESP is being developed for G1000 and G3000 systems and helps prevent stall and spin onset, steep spirals “or other loss-of-control situations should the pilot become distracted, [...]

Doug King, CEO of the LT Builders Group, yesterday at EAA AirVenture said that kits for the $1.9 million (complete) single-engine turboprop LT are back in production at the former Epic factory in Bend, Ore. Epic filed for bankruptcy last year and was liquidated. The LT Builders Group subsequently acquired exclusive rights for the former [...]