Aviation International News
February 2016
PUBLICATIONS Vol. 48 No. 2 $9.00
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Airplanes Textron’s new turboprop single Details beyond the engine remain thin on the airframer’s newest model, but an image revealed to investors provides a glimpse of the airplane and offers some new buried insights. page 4
Air Transport MRJ delayed again Shortly after the aircraft took to the air for the first time in November, Mitsubishi announced that the development program is facing another setback, and first delivery will not take place until 2018. page 28
Safety Bizjet fatalities down in 2015
Former Beechcraft facility chosen to build Longitudes by Kerry Lynch Textron Aviation’s new Cessna Citation Longitude will be built at the former Beechcraft campus in the same plant that produces King Airs, Barons and Bonanzas. The move to build the Longitude on what is now referred to as the “East Campus” in Wichita comes as Textron Aviation further integrates Cessna Aircraft with the Beech assets acquired in March 2014. “With the acquisition of Beechcraft, we got some really good facilities,” said Dave Rosenberg, v-p of integration and
strategy for Textron Aviation. “It’s a case of trying to maximize the company’s footprint. As we look at the capacity at our East and West Campuses…we try to do all this new product development using current facilities and not having to spend additional capital on buildings.” Longitude final assembly “fits in nicely on the East Campus so that is the path we chose to pursue,” Rosenberg added. The company has been making the minor renovations required for the line and is in the
process of adding the appropriate tooling for Longitude final assembly at Plant IV. The moves are part of a number of changes that have been under way at the East Campus as part of the integration, including moving Longitude engineering into Plant III. Half of Plant III was modified to support both the engineering and development of the first Longitude “test assets” for the flight-test program “We invested quite a bit getting that experimental flight capability up and running,” he said. The other half of Plant III has become a Composites “Center of Excellence,” enabling Textron Aviation to tap into the composite technology that came with Beechcraft. “As we go forward on new jets we will be using composites more in the structures,” Continues on page 54 u
TAG Aeronautics/Bombardier:
End of an era by Matt Thurber TAG Aeronautics, the company that helped launch Bombardier into the business aviation market by making a bold and early commitment to purchase 21 Challenger 600s, and Bombardier have agreed to end a nearly 40-year relationship under which TAG Aeronautics served as Bombardier’s exclusive sales representative and distributor for new Challengers and Globals in 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa. The relationship began in 1977, and since then TAG
Aviation Apps Aziz and Mansour Ojjeh (left to right) and their company, TAG Aeronautics, had a fruitful 40-year relationship with Bombardier Aerospace.
Aeronautics has sold more than 100 Bombardier jets to customers in the 22 countries. TAG Aeronautics is part of the wider TAG Group S.A., which in turn operates Continues on page 54 u
When Apple introduced the iPad, pilots were early adopters, finding plenty of uses for the tablet…and for those that followed. For now operators are benefiting from the EFB and ADS-B apps in particular. page 20
The good news: the number of fatalities declined from year to year. The bad news: more work remains to be done, as both the jet and turboprop sectors recorded more nonfatal crashes. page 6
Trip report Phenom 300 AIN tagged along with an Executive AirShares crew as it took delivery of a Phenom 300, its last to be built in Brazil. When we took the controls it performed as expected. page 34