EBACE
PUBLICATIONS Geneva
MONDAY 5•14•2012 Vol. 44 No. 15
Convention News
TM
FSF Urges Safety Focus
HBC Remains Optimistic
HUD Applications Grow
Universal Is Fans-Ready
The Flight Safety Foundation is calling on business aviation to up its game and to be proactive in tackling top threats to safety. Page 10
Hawker Beechcraft is bullish about its prospects and expects to emerge form Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this year. Page 18
Rockwell Collins opens new possibilities for operators with synthetic vision and HUDs for smaller aircraft types. Page 68
Universal Avionics is now delivering equipment that will allow aircraft to operate in the ‘Future Air Navigation System.’ Page 74
AINonline.com Videos Watch our interview with new EBAA chief executive Fabio Gamba Top stories from EBACE 2012 in our exclusive AINtv coverage
‘Stop kicking a €20B industry,’ bizav tells EU
All dressed up and almost ready to go; Gulfstream’s G280 arrived here at EBACE sniffing for European sales. Its still-green stablemate, the widebody G650 (inset), is also on track for certification by year-end.
MARK WAGNER
by Liz Moscrop
DAVID McINTOSH
Gulfstream jet duo jump Pond to make international debuts by Bill Carey Gulfstream’s G650, the U.S. manufacturer’s largest, fastest flying jet, made its first transoceanic crossing to appear here at the EBACE show, having touched down at Geneva Airport on Saturday evening. Both the G650 and the super mid-size G280, which landed Saturday morning, are making their European debuts. They flew in from Washington, D.C.’s Dulles International. Gulfstream intends to apply for city-pair speed records from the U.S. National Aeronautic Association for the flights. The two new aircraft types, flying under experimental certificates, are on parallel paths to certification from the
U.S. Federal Aviation Administration and European Aviation Safety Agency. Certification of each is planned this year. “Clearly, it’s important to demonstrate the performance in the real world of the aircraft,” said Jeff Miller, Gulfstream vice president of communications. “EBACE being such an important venue gave us an opportunity to do that.” The G650 completed the flight to Geneva in six hours and 55 minutes, landing just before sunset. The green, unpainted aircraft, flew at an altitude of 43,000 feet at speeds of Mach 0.90 to Mach 0.92, covering a ground track of 3,780 nm. Sharing piloting duties were
Scott Buethe, Gulfstream senior experimental test pilot, and senior production test pilots Ahmed Ragheb and Rick Gowthrop. They were accompanied by a fourth crew member, flight-test engineer David Chalk. The flight afforded Gulfstream pilots an opportunity to test future navigation capabilities for controller-pilot data link communications and automatic dependent surveillance-contract, both of which worked well, according to Buethe. “This is an important milestone,” he said. Buethe, who was exclusively interviewed by AIN at the Jet Aviation FBO
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European policy makers will this morning be told to stop kicking business aviation while it’s down at the opening general session of the 2012 EBACE show. New rules on airport slots, the emissions trading scheme (ETS) and new taxes imposed by Europe’s cash-strapped governments are all conspiring to keep the industry’s prospects flat, according to business aviation leaders gathering here in Geneva yesterday. Several senior European officials have been summoned to this morning’s EBACE opening general session to be reminded that business aviation contributes an annual €20 billion ($25.8 billion) to a European economy which is currently on its knees. This scenario has inspired the EBACE show theme this year, “Business Aviation: Flying the Return to Growth.” The conference panel will comprise Matthew Baldwin, director of air transport at the EC’s Directorate General for Mobility and Transport; MEP MarianJean Marinescu, who sits on the European Parliament’s influential Transport and Tourism Committee; and Salvatore Sciacchitano, executive secretary of the European Civil Aviation Conference, who is also a member of coordination committee of the Eurocontrol Provisional Council. Despite the fact that business aviation generates €5.7 billion ($7.3 billion) in salaries and wages in Europe, punitive new European Union legislation will
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