Barely two years ago prospective business aircraft buyers in Europe were among the most sought-after clients for a banking industry attracted both to the high rates of growth in this market sector and to the exceptional strength of asset values, driven largely by soaring demand and long delivery backlogs.
Aircraft
April 30, 2010 - 11:24am
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 Ebace.
April 30, 2010 - 11:08am
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.
April 30, 2010 - 11:04am
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 equipped with the Universal Avionics UNS-1Espw flight management system.
April 30, 2010 - 11:01am
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 a test program that is expected to take more than 1,300 flight hours.
April 30, 2010 - 10:58am
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 type certificate data sheet. Fuel capacity is 3,220 pounds in two wing tanks.
April 30, 2010 - 10:55am
The Premier II program is making progress, with first flight occurring in mid-March.
April 30, 2010 - 10:06am
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.
April 30, 2010 - 9:23am
Unions in France today suspended a series of strikes that affected six Airbus factories this week, as well as design offices and headquarters in Toulouse. The manufacturer’s human resources department on that day offered to reopen negotiations with the unions, which as of yesterday demanded a 3.5-percent wage increase, while company management would offer no more than 1.9 percent.
April 30, 2010 - 7:34am
The FAA has proposed that ERA Helicopters pay a civil penalty of $260,000 for operating a helicopter on Part 135 flights without complying with required post-maintenance checks and test flights. According to the agency’s penalty letter, sent to ERA on January 28, ERA operated Agusta AW139 N156JS for 23 passenger-carrying flights without accomplishing a required blade track and balance check following replacement of a rotor system lag damper.
