Spokane, Wash.-based Rocket Engineering is developing the Turbine P/Baron in parallel with the Royal Turbine Duke program. The Baron conversion, which fits two PT6A-21 turboprops and Hartzell four-blade full-feathering-reversing metal props to the light twin, costs about $700,000 (airframe additional). The company plans to have an STC in about 12 to 18 months.
AINalerts
January 11, 2007 - 6:18am
All jet and transport-category airplanes (those with an mtow of 12,500 pounds or more) for which application of a new type design is submitted on or after January 1 this year have to meet new noise certification levels. Stage 4 is a cumulative 10 EPNdB (effective perceived noise level in decibels) less than Stage 3 limits. Virtually all in-production business jets will qualify to be recertified under Stage 4.
January 11, 2007 - 6:14am
Bill Boisture, 59, yesterday resigned as president of NetJets Aviation, a position he held since joining the fractional provider in October 2003. Boisture, who recently formed W. Boisture & Associates, has been retained by NetJets as a consultant to “support and assist the company on several strategic projects.” During his two-year tenure he was the company’s front-line negotiator with the pilot and flight attendant unions.
January 11, 2007 - 6:08am
The FAA is seeking comments on four potential plans intended to improve safety, reduce delays and handle growing air traffic in most of the nation’s northeastern airspace. The call comes as the FAA released its draft environmental impact statement on the New York/New Jersey/Philadelphia Metropolitan Area Airspace Redesign Project. The redesign involves a 31,000-square-mile, five-state area encompassing 21 major airports.
January 11, 2007 - 6:05am
In a move that could prove a little embarrassing for the FAA, the agency quickly removed new requirements easing oxygen use in Part 121 operations upon learning that it apparently used inaccurate data to justify the rule.
January 11, 2007 - 6:03am
Last year the U.S. business jet fleet experienced fewer fatalities compared with 2004, according to aviation safety analyst Robert E. Breiling Associates of Boca Raton, Fla. However, the Part 91 corporate/executive segment’s previous two-year nonfatal streak came to an end early in 2005 with the crash of a Circuit City Citation 560 on February 16 last year. That accident took the lives of both pilots and the six passengers.
January 11, 2007 - 6:01am
The first of two public meetings will be held this Thursday on the FAA’s proposal to make permanent the so-called temporary restrictions and the current air defense identification zone (ADIZ) in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The meeting, presented by a panel of representatives from the FAA and other government agencies, will be held on January 12 at the Sheraton Columbia Hotel, Columbia, Md.
January 11, 2007 - 5:55am
Just two months after being unveiled at the NBAA Convention, the Spectrum 33 twinjet made a 10-minute first flight this past Saturday afternoon. At a light weight of 5,375 pounds, the Spectrum 33 prototype took off from Spanish Fork Airport, Utah, using about 750 feet of runway.
January 10, 2007 - 12:23pm
Deicing boots must be installed on the landing gear struts and cargo pods of several hundred Cessna Caravans approved for flight into icing under an AD published today.
January 10, 2007 - 12:20pm
In its January 10 modified final report on the fatal crash of a Cessna Caravan more than three years ago, the NTSB said thre was “no evidence of an in-flight collision or breakup, or of external contact with a foreign object.” There had been speculation in the industry that the freight-carrying turboprop single might have collided with another object or airplane, perhaps a nearby FedEx DC-10, before it lost control and crashed on Oct.
