The FAA presented Embraer Executive Jets with a production certificate to assemble the Phenom 300 at its Melbourne, Fla. facility yesterday. Embraer has delivered three U.S.-assembled Phenom 300s since the first one came off the line in March. The Phenom 300s are assembled on the same production line as Phenom 100s, which have been coming off the line at the Florida plant since December 2011. Embraer’s light jets are now being assembled in Florida at a rate of three aircraft per month, less than half of the full capacity of eight a month.
Regulations and Government
News about bills, laws, regulations and other governmental decisions affecting aviation and aerospace. Topics include FAA reauthorizations, taxes on fuel and aviation activities, environmental legislation, ICAO decisions, governmental mediation of labor conflicts and World Trade Organization disputes and decisions.
May 14, 2013 - 3:40pm
The FAA–and its parent organization, the Department of Transportation–announced on Friday that it will keep open the 149 contract towers that the agency slated for closure on June 15. These cuts were to be made to comply with sequestration, but on April 26 Congress gave the FAA the authority to shift funds to stop controller furloughs and tower closures.
May 14, 2013 - 3:35pm
Online jet charter broker PrivateFly estimates that approximately half of the estimated £9.3 million in potential revenue from the recent extension of the UK’s air passenger duty (APD) tax to business jets will be lost to nonpayment in the first year. The extended tax, which became effective on April 1, applies to all flights departing from the UK.
May 14, 2013 - 3:25pm
Atlantic Aviation has filed suit against the city of San Jose, Calif., in its efforts to block development of a new Signature Flight Support facility at Norman I. Mineta International Airport. Last month, Signature, in partnership with a group representing the business aircraft of Google’s executives, was awarded a 50-year lease by the San Jose City Council and intends to begin construction on the $82 million FBO this year.
May 10, 2013 - 4:21pm
The FAA–and its parent agency, the Department of Transportation–today announced that it will keep open the 149 contract towers that the agency slated for closure on June 15. These cuts were to be made to comply with sequestration, but on April 26 Congress gave the FAA the authority to shift funds to stop controller furloughs and, possibly, contract tower closures.
May 9, 2013 - 3:05pm
“The FAA has decided not to pursue the elimination of midnight shifts at FAA towers at this time,” a spokesman for the agency told AIN today. As part of sequester-mandated cuts announced in late February, the FAA had planned to eliminate overnight shifts at 72 air traffic control facilities, including those at Chicago Midway Airport.
May 6, 2013 - 3:15am
A federal judge has allowed buffalo herding by helicopter, in response to a lawsuit filed by an environmentalist group that had obtained a restraining order against such operations in Yellowstone National Park last year, alleging the practice adversely affects grizzly bears. Helicopters have been used for more than a decade to steer wandering bison back into Yellowstone each spring.
May 6, 2013 - 2:55am
The Columbus, Ohio police temporarily grounded its MD500 fleet and hired an independent maintenance company to inspect the helicopters in April after discovering “gaps” in maintenance records.
May 6, 2013 - 2:35am
Russian Helicopters has delivered two Mi-171s to Siberian operator Skol Airline. They are fitted with special lifting and transport equipment, including an on-board boom and winch able to lift loads of 330 pounds and an external hoist rated for 8,800 pounds. The new helicopters will “help Skol strengthen its position in the international air-freight market.”
May 6, 2013 - 2:10am
Researchers at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), working at Turbomeca’s test facilities in Bordes, France, have managed to measure the noise inside a helicopter engine. They used new hot-gas microphone probes in an environment of high pressure (up to 12 bar) and high temperature (up to 1,200 degrees C). The microphones were installed at various places inside the engine and around the exhaust. Their signals were recorded simultaneously. Analysis of the noise field enabled the DLR to explain how noise is generated and how sound propagates.
