NBAA Convention News 10-12-11

PUBLICATIONS

WEDNESDAY 10•12•2011 Vol. 43 No. 23

NBAA Convention News

®

Olympics Preparations

Bizav grows in Japan

CMC hooks up EFBs, iPads

Another Kind of NextGen

Plan ahead for 2012 Games

Narita embraces bizav

Tandem boosts EFB utility

Pilot inspires students

Business aviation airports in the UK are preparing for a traffic onslaught during next year’s Olympics, and Signature will have a dedicated customer service team. Page 19, 24

The efforts of Japan’s business aviation group are starting to bear fruit, and Narita International Airport will get its first dedicated executive aviation terminal next year. Page 20

The software lets pilots do their planning off-airport, then transfer the data from the iPad to electronic flight bags mounted in the airplane. Page 38

Barrington Irving, the youngest pilot to fly around the world, returned to the NBAA show with MHIA to get young people interested in flying and aviation. Page 45

Today on AINonline > Pre-owned market is stronger than it seems > Gulfstream Elite cabin has beauty and brains >V ideo news headlines from AINtv

Design has begun on Dassault’s new SMS

by Liz Moscrop Dassault Falcon kicked off its traditional Falcon Family breakfast at NBAA ’11 with a message from chairman Charles Edelstenne that the industry must unite to combat threats to its development. He stressed that business aviation is not a luxury, rather, it buys time, which he described as an essential competitive advantage in today’s world.

Continued on page 53 u

Is China riding to the rescue of aviation?

User fees, depreciation schedules and instability in world financial markets have called for some tough talking at NBAA 2011. One country, however, seems to be promising great rewards for those who dare enter. China seems to be the golden land, the new Wild East set to save the industry from oblivion.

Several consultants held press conferences during the show, highlighting incredible opportunities in China. Jason Liao, CEO of China Business Aviation Group, said he foresees a

China Business Aviation CEO Jason Liao predicts that 1,000 bizjets will grace Chinese skies in 10 years.

As evidenced by the lines of people waiting to self-register for the 64th annual NBAA Convention, Las Vegas drew 25,861 attendees by day two of the world’s biggest business aviation show.

Need business aviation news? Sign up for AIN Alerts.

CY CYR

Continued on page 53 u

CY CYR

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Arinc demos flight planning app for iPad

by James Wynbrandt Having introduced it a week before NBAA, Arinc Direct is demonstrating its Flight Execution App for the iPad here at the convention. The app provides access to flight plans, weather information, charts and other flight planning data directly through the Arinc Direct portal. Flight information is updated automatically when the user logs on, including D-Atis, Metars, Tafs, Notams and winds aloft. Chart data such as airport diagrams, takeoff minimums, approach plates, departure procedures and Stars are stored locally on the iPad. “The iPad is increasingly becoming the standard, and we’ve had an overwhelming number of requests for this application,” said Arinc Direct senior director Robert Richard. The app has already been downloaded more than 2,000 times.

Arinc is on a fast track to add enhancements to the app.

Version 2.0 should be available through Apple’s App Store in about two weeks, Richard said.

“We’ve got a dedicated development team for the iPad,” he added. “We’re looking to

release often and early. The only thing that gets in our way is getting Apple’s approval to get them into the Apple Store.”

Arinc (Booth No. N4421) has also unveiled a new highspeed Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) service for business aircraft using Inmarsat SwiftBroadband connectivity,

The VoIP service carries both accelerated data and VoIP traffic concurrently without conflict, according to Arinc. The service is available immediately to Arinc Direct customers with properly equipped aircraft.

“This is the VoIP service most of today’s corporate jet operators have been waiting for,” Richard said.

Arinc also announced the addition of a new Hot Spot Tracking capability for its SwiftBroadband Internet service for business jets, making it easier to bill passengers for Internet use. Almost 10 percent of today’s corporate aircraft

4 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

Editor-in-chief – R. Randall Padfield Editor – DOMESTIC show editions – Matt Thurber PRODUCTION DIRECTOR – Mary E. Mahoney PRODUCTION editor – Jane Campbell PRESS ROOM ADMINISTRATOR – Annmarie Yannaco PRESS ROOM Managing editor – Mark Phelps the editorial team Charles Alcock Jeff Apter Jeff Burger Bill Carey Thierry Dubois Curt Epstein Bernard Fitzsimons Ian Goold Kirby J. Harrison Mark Huber

David A. Lombardo Paul Lowe Liz Moscrop Robert P. Mark Nigel Moll Harry Weisberger Kim Rosenlof Ian Sheppard Mary F. Silitch James Wynbrandt

are equipped with Inmarsat SwiftBroadband satcoms, according to the company, but flight departments and charter operators have been challenged in allocating costs for onboard Internet use. The solution is expected to simplify cost allocation among corporate departments and multiple users of in-cabin “hot spot” connectivity. Implemented by software on the ground, no additional onboard equipment is needed.

Onboard Internet users can also buy service in block time using a credit card and can view their usage rate during the flight via onscreen display. o

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R A T the production team E B I N L Mona L. Brown Joseph W. Darlington John T. Lewis John Manfredo Lysbeth McAleer O R Colleen Redmond R T Y Y E A web Developer – Mike Giaimo ONLINE EDITOR – Chad Trautvetter Photographers – Barry Ambrose, Cy Cyr & Mariano Rosales G

Part of that movement is Cessna’s new Latitude midsize jet, introduced, on Monday, as well as the Citation M2 light business jet, which made its public debut this week in the form of a cabin mock-up on display at the Cessna exhibit (Booth No. C9044).

Operator feedback and owner insight has indicated interest in an airplane like this, said Ernest. He added that Cessna expects to see the M2 draw customers new to the Citation family, as well as from the ranks of existing Citation Mustang owners and from CJ1+ owners who want a new, more advanced Citation.

Officially launched in September, the $4.194-million, sixpassenger twinjet is positioned

FOUNDED IN 1972 James Holahan, Founding Editor Wilson S. Leach, Managing Director

F

Cessna Aircraft’s new president and CEO Scott Ernest took the stage at NBAA to introduce his new leadership team and reaffirm the Wichita-based OEM’s dedication to the light-to-midsize jet and single-engine piston markets and remaining atop the customer support standings among aircraft manufacturers.

Ernest took over the helm at Cessna four months ago and took advantage of a packed press conference to introduce the team; Brad Thress, senior v-p of business jets; Jodi Noah, v-p of single-engine/ prop aircraft; and Mark Paolucci, senior v-p of sales and marketing. It is a team that Ernest expects to carry Cessna forward.

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typed at last Ken Ricci (left), Nextant CEO, shakes hands with FAA program manager Jonathan Oxman after he awarded the TC for the company’s 400XT. Looking on is Nextant president James Miller.

MARIANO ROSALES

Cessna’s new boss takes the NBAA spotlight

between the Mustang and the interest in that particular marCitation CJ family. The pre- ket. Meanwhile, said Ernest, liminary specs call for a max Cessna must continue to invest speed of 400 knots and a range in the future, and added that he of 1,300 nautical miles. Thress expects “a slight uptick” this noted that it will fly 40 knots year over last.

It was a response echoed faster than its Phenom 100 competitor from Embraer and have by Paolucci, who noted, “We a 37-percent better rate of climb. can’t wait for the market to o The prototype is on track for a improve.” first flight later this year.

In terms of marketing, Ernest suggested a futility in attempting to chase lowcost labor markets all over the world. “The reason for a presence in China,” he said, “is primarily to open that market.”

In response to a question regarding the possibility of the sale of Cessna’s singleengine/prop business, Ernest said there is no such intention, and added, “We need to continue to be in that business.” He also repeated Cessna’s intention not to revive the super-midsize Columbus New Cessna boss Scott Ernest reaffirmed program and suggested that the company’s dedication to light-toat this time, Cessna has no midsize jets and single-engine pistons.

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Category Killer.

Introducing the 400XT

by Nextant Aerospace The only remanufactured light jet that clearly out performs the competition in virtually every category at a price under $4 million. Building on the renowned value, ruggedness and technological sophistication of the Beechjet 400A/XP, Nextant has created a whole new category of business jet with more range, more speed, more fuel efficiency and most importantly more value. The 400XT clearly trumps the high acquisition and operating costs a new jet purchase demands.

FAA certification now complete,

Visit us at NBAA booth #C13113 Demonstration flights also available at NBAA.

The New 400XT from Nextant Aerospace, It’s What’s Next.

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news clips z Iridium: Global ADS-B Coverage Possible Satellite communications provider Iridium is in discussions with other aerospace companies and air navigation service providers to equip its next generation of 66 low-Earth-orbit (LEO) satellites with automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) payloads, making possible global surveillance of aircraft to include oceanic and polar regions.

At a conference in Williamsburg, Va., sponsored by satcom equipment provider ICG in August, Iridium CEO Matthew Desch described the discussions. The plan “is to put a NextGen ADS-B receiver on every one of our satellites,” Desch said, referring to the FAA’s NextGen ATC system. “We can basically provide realtime surveillance of every NextGen-equipped aircraft anywhere on the planet.” He also said the plan complements deployment of ADS-B systems in domestic airspace and supports mandates in Europe to equip for ADS-B by 2015 and in the U.S. by 2020.

z Precision Aviation Group Acquires Aero Technology Atlanta-based Precision Aviation Group (PAG) has acquired Aero Technology of Long Beach, Calif. ATI provides accessories, avionics and instruments to the commercial transport, military and regional airline markets.

Located on Long Beach International Airport, ATI operates out of a 25,000-sq-ft facility, employs 38 people including 18 technicians and holds FAA, EASA and airline certifications.

Ketan Desai, PAG’s vice president of sales and marketing, told AIN, “The acquisition gives us an established relationship with the commercial, military and regional sectors. It allows PAG to expand its operations into one of the largest aviation markets and provides us with an additional platform for future growth.”

PAG (Booth No. C8140) provides MRO and supply chain services for fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft. Desai said a significant capital investment in inventory and capability expansion is slated to bring PAG’s suite of MRO services to ATI, including wheels, brakes, hydraulics and electro-mechanical accessories.

z Conklin & de Decker To Host Acquisition Seminar Conklin & de Decker (Booth No. N2317) announced the location of its 12th Annual Aircraft Acquisition and Planning Seminar, planned for December 6 and 7 in Scottsdale, Ariz.

The seminar is designed to help aircraft owners, managers and aviation professionals who are planning to buy an aircraft or are facing fleet changes. Subjects covered will include finding the best aircraft for a mission, federal and state tax issues, depreciation-like exchanges, financing alternatives, ownership structures, valuation and appraisals, insurance and the importance of a competitive acquisition process, according to Conklin & de Decker.

“We are excited to offer this seminar again this year and we have a great group of experts in their respective fields lined up for this event,” said Nel Stubbs, Conklin & de Decker co-owner and seminar chairwoman. “Attendees will learn about all aspects of purchasing and operating an aircraft in one exceptional program.”

Cost of the seminar is $795 per person until November 4, then the price climbs to $995.

z JetNet Stats: Bizjet Prices, Transactions Climbing “For the first time this year, some long-anticipated good news came for pre-owned business jet retail sale transactions,” JetNet said in describing statistics in its August pre-owned market report. “In the first eight months of 2011, the year-todate average asking price increased 3.5 percent while the industry maintained double-digit growth at 11.4 percent.” While turboprop asking prices declined by 1.5 percent over the same period, transactions still climbed by 11.7 percent.

Further good news is that pre-owned inventories of business jets and turboprops continue to shrink. Business jet inventory now sits at 13.8 percent of the in-service fleet, versus 14.9 percent a year ago; turboprop inventory is at 10.2 percent, down from 10.7 percent last year. Average days on the market remain at very high levels, however, noted JetNet. Business jets sit unsold for an average of 385 days, down from 413 days a year ago, and turboprops 325 days, an increase of 11 days.

GA safety is on NTSB’s radar

by Curt Epstein Amid changes to the format he said. “The corporate and of its annual “most wanted” list, executive [aviation] rivals the the NTSB has included improve- airlines, and those are profesment in general aviation safety as sional pilots. Most of general one of its hot-button topics. aviation is what we call personal In the past, the Safety Board flying and that accident rate is had used the list as a sort of score- about double the whole general card, keeping track of the prog- aviation rate.” ress of its specific outstanding While airplanes used for safety recommendations, which business but not flown by a would remain on the list until professional pilot account for they were resolved. That began to approximately 25 percent of the prove unwieldy as the number of total number of GA accidents, open recommendations piled up. corporate and executive aircraft “Often those recommen- accidents comprise about 3 perdations on an item stayed on cent of the overall total. “One the most wanted list could take a lot of comfor a long time,” said fort in that, but on the NTSB board member other hand, where do Earl Weener. “As you you get your corporate can well imagine, you and executive pilots?” can’t really have much Weener asked rhetoriin terms of priorities cally. “If you get them if you have almost 60 from the GA ranks, it priorities.” As a result, would sure be nice to the Board this year have those pilots start decided to streamline Earl Weener, NTSB their discipline, profiits list to the top 10 of board member ciency and ability to what it identified as manage risk early rather the most glaring needs in trans- than wait until they become proportation safety. fessional pilots.”

By statute, the NTSB must Pilot Error investigate each of the approxWeener, who has a decadesimately 1,500 GA accidents that occur each year, a number long background in flight trainthat, according to Weener, has ing, notes that many of the GA remained virtually unchanged accidents share the common facover the last 10 years. “If we tor of pilot error. “We’ve got look at GA statistics, there’s lots of examples in the accidents been no real improvement in the that we investigate of poor prolast decade in terms of accident ficiency, poor decision making rates, and if anything, it’s gone and a lack of discipline in terms of when and under what conup slightly,” he told AIN. “In the face of declining hours ditions people decide to fly.” flown, the number of accidents While the Board takes all facmay have gone down slightly but tors into account when deterthe rate of accidents per 100,000 mining the cause of an accident, hours unfortunately has gone in the end most cases come back up, so it’s time to put some focus to the human element. That, said on GA safety,” Weener said. In Weener, is where it makes the fact, the preliminary numbers most sense to devote the agenof accidents for 2010 showed cy’s limited resources. “By and that despite nearly seven million large, if you want to pick a startfewer GA flight hours compared ing point where you can make the to 2000, the rate of nonfatal acci- most improvement and have the dents per 100,000 flight hours as most potential, it’s the pilot side.”

Like the improvements in well as the rate of fatal accidents per 100,000 flight hours experi- commercial aviation made over the past 15 years through the enced a modest increase.

The Board’s definition of efforts of the Commercial Aviageneral aviation is admittedly tion Safety Team (CAST), a joint broad and includes all aviation industry-government initiative other than Part 121 and Part created to identify and address 135, ranging from banner-tow- the causes of airline accidents, ing piston-engine aircraft to the NTSB is hoping for a similar intercontinental corporate jets, response in general aviation.

The Board this year has and Weener acknowledges that not all the segments are a prob- met with the leaders of the lem. “There is a big difference alphabet organizations such as between airplanes flown by a NBAA, AOPA, NATA, EAA, professional flight crew and the HAI and GAMA, and accordaverage general aviation flying,” ing to Weener, who spoke on

6 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

Sunday at the NBAA/Cessna Single Pilot Safety Standdown here in Las Vegas, the industry’s response to the Board’s concerns has been positive.

Joint Safety Committee

In a statement released soon after the NTSB’s Top 10 announcement, GAMA noted that the industry had relaunched its General Aviation Joint Safety Committee (GAJSC) in partnership with the FAA, and that its members are continuing to bring the latest safety technology to even the lightest of GA aircraft. “We look forward to strengthening our already close relationship with the NTSB in these areas as we work together to further improve the safety of general aviation operations,” the organization said.

The NTSB is considering sponsoring a GA safety forum next year that will bring all the industry leaders together to provide feedback. “We’re not trying to run into the industry and tell them what to do,” said Weener.

“We’re trying to work with the industry to try to understand how everybody sees the problem, and we’ve got the advantage of having a lot of accident data that we can use to help the industry narrow the focus down to the major issues.”

Weener does not believe it will take much in the way of official oversight to make very large safety improvements, but he is willing to offer the agency’s expertise in order to help. “We don’t have any regulatory authority at the NTSB, but we do have considerable analytic and data-gathering capability,” he said. “Our initial push is to help those in the industry who want to help themselves. My focus really is to turn some of that information back into finding ways to improve general aviation safety based on what we understand from those accidents.” o

News Note

United Technologies reached an agreement to purchase Goodrich for $18.4 billion.

The deal is subject to “customary closing conditions,” including regulatory and Goodrich shareholder approvals.

“The combined company’s increased scale, financial strength and complementary products will strengthen United Technologies’ position in the aerospace and defense industry,” the companies said in a joint statement. n

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Boeing bizjets are bigger and backlog is growing Boeing has sold 205 Boeing Business Jets based on all of its aircraft models, including its two newest: the widebody 787VIP twinjet and 747-8VIP Intercontinental, the latest iteration of its iconic jumbo quad jet.

Twin-aisle jets now represent the majority of the Boeing Business Jet backlog. VVIP customers have ordered nine of the $318 million (green) 747VIPs and 12 of the $185 million 787VIPs. “Right now our backlog of twin-aisle airplanes is larger than our backlog of 737based airplanes,” said Boeing Business Jets president Steve Taylor. “I don’t think any of us saw that coming.”

The original 737-based BBJ remains the company’s best seller by unit volume, with 154 sold by Boeing through midyear; 15 were BBJ2s and about nine BBJ3s. The BBJ was created in 1996 in partnership with General Electric, joint maker with Snecma of the CFM56 series engines for newer 737s.

The BBJ matches components from two 737 models–the main fuselage of the 737-700 and the larger wing and the center fuselage section and the landing gear of the 737-800.

The belly of the airplane can be outfitted with from three to 10 auxiliary fuel tanks, giving it a maximum range of nearly 6,200 nm or 14 hours in the air with eight passengers.

BBJ2 Introduced

With all those extra fuel tanks there isn’t much room in the baggage hold, so in 2005 Boeing began offering the

Steve Taylor, BBJ president, said if there is a BBJ Max reengining program, he sees deliveries beginning around 2017.

BBJ2, with 25 percent more cabin volume, and an even bigger BBJ3, based on the 737900ER, with 1,120 sq ft of cabin floor space. Compared to the original BBJ, the BBJ3 is 28 feet longer, has 35 percent more cabin volume and weighs nearly 17,000 pounds more.

Changes made to the original BBJ aircraft include avionics upgrades, winglets and an upgraded pressurization system that lowers cabin altitude to 6,500 feet at the maximum cruising altitude of 41,000 feet.

Leap-X Engines

While the backlog for twinaisle Boeing Business Jets is larger, demand remains for the 737-based BBJs and could even increase, depending on when the aircraft becomes eligible for the new, more efficient Leap-X engines that Boeing will soon be fitting on the airliner versions, called the 737 Max. The Leap-X builds on CFM56-5B/7B engines with new technologies developed under the Leap56 program.

The new engines are expected to feature advanced technologies including a single-forged blisk fan, a twin annular preswirl combuster and increased used of composites. Variants are expected to product thrust in the 18,000- to 35,000-pound range and to be 16 percent more fuel efficient than the current CFM engines.

If there is a corresponding “BBJ Max” program, Taylor sees deliveries happening somewhere around 2017. LeapX engines could increase a BBJ’s range by 6 to 10 percent, he says. Meanwhile, customers continue to gravitate to the BBJ for its large cabin; 11 feet, seven inches wide and seven feet, one inch tall. The space enables the installation of staterooms, full bathrooms with showers and large gourmet galleys.

While BBJ completions proceed fairly smoothly now, it wasn’t always so. Early ones were plagued with huge delays and cost overruns that flipped several completion centers financially upside down and frustrated aircraft owners. Over the years Boeing has worked the kinks out of the process via closer cooperation with the centers and better data sharing,

MATT THURBER

by Mark Huber

The original 737-based BBJ remains Boeing’s best seller by unit volume, despite the majority of new orders being for the twin-aisle VIP versions of Boeing Business Jets. At right is an example of a lounge outfitted for a single-aisle BBJ by interior designer Edese Doret.

and the centers developed considerable data and expertise in finishing the aircraft. Most completion centers now use digital design programs.

One BBJ completion house, Associated Air Center in Dallas, recently purchased a used 737 fuselage to use for fit checking interior components before the actual aircraft arrives. Associated estimates this will cut up to one month off the time required for interior installation. For Associated, this kind of expertise comes with experience. The company has delivered 21 completed 737 BBJs and has three more in work. For completion centers working on the new 787VIPs and 747VIPs,

the stakes are much higher.

Boeing has worked hard with them leading up to initial aircraft deliveries that could begin late this year or early next.

The completion tabs for those aircraft, especially those being prepared for heads of state, could easily top $70 million for the 787 and $200 million for the 747-8I. These aircraft offer an

unprecedented amount of cabin space and range: the 747 will have a 4,786-sq-ft cabin, range of 9,260 nm with 100 passengers and top speed of up to 614 mph; the 787 with have a 2,400-sq-ft cabin, carry 24 to 35 passengers and fly 9,590 nm nonstop. The 787-9 follow-on will add 300 sq ft of cabin floor space and fly 400 miles farther. o

Aussie system monitors flight facts Flight Data Systems (Booth No. C7015) is at this year’s NBAA show highlighting its line of ground-support equipment, which interfaces with flight-data recorders to download data files for flight analysis and replay. It makes not only data download equipment but also flight replay software that includes 3-D flight path reconstruction.

The Melbourne, Australia-based company operates from a new facility that incorporates a clean room environment for avionics and instrument work and extensive office and training spaces.

A warehouse facility provides additional storage and supports expanded manufacturing capacity as required. Flight-data monitoring services for both military and airline customers are performed from a new secure flight-data analysis center, located near Melbourne Airport.

The company specializes in the process known as flight-data monitoring (FDM), a key element of a flight operational quality assurance (FOQA) program. FDM involves analysis of flight data, which allows safety managers to identify trends and fully investigate the circumstances behind events that have been flagged so that flight operations procedures and training can be improved.

Flight Data Systems provides FDM replay

8 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

services, operation and support of FDM systems and complete FDM systems, including training and consultancy. For operators not wishing to operate their own FDM systems, the company offers a web-based FDM replay service. This includes secure transfer of data, transcription and analysis, validation of results and formal presentation of results and statistics in accordance with ICAO requirements.

The company also works closely with NeST Aerospace, provider of a wide range of FOQA tools, to analyze and monitor flight data for maintaining flight safety standards, for performance monitoring and for accident investigation. It is an authorized facility to repair, maintain and certify flight recorders.

The HR Smith Group, purveyor of airborne antenna systems and emergency location and rescue equipment, distributes and supports Flight Data Systems products in the European Union region. Airinc, which specializes in air incident prevention and air accident investigation, is a distributor of Flight Data Systems ground-support equipment in the Americas region. Hawker Pacific provides aviation sales and product support in Australasia, Asia, the Pacific and the Middle East, while Glendale International distributes Flight Data Systems from Essex, England. o

It’s A Bird, it’s a...Plane?

MARIANO ROSALES

High Tech Finishing (Booth No. N1317) is raffling off a beautifully polished pedal plane at its exhibit. The winner will be chosen and announced today.

UK’s Gama Group expands into Asia

by Liz Moscrop

MARIANO ROSALES

The UK’s Gama Group (Booth No. N3305) is set to expand into Hong Kong this year. General manager Dave Edwards said that the charter, management and maintenance company is to replicate the successful model it developed in its

expansion into the U.S. and the Middle East markets. Speaking about the challenges encountered in entering a developing market such as Asia, he said, “We have experienced similar issues going into the Middle East with staff shortages and

it just sucks things in A Hawker engine nacelle usually is drawing air into an engine. This one was drawing NBAA attendees into the GKN Aerospace exhibit.

educating the market. What we do is take some of our key staff with us, so we bring the Gama model to our new region, and it works well for us.”

Edwards said that the decision to enter Hong Kong came from requests from customers to manage aircraft in Asia, as management companies there are exceptionally busy. He also said that Gama would work with the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department toward establishing an air operator’s certificate.

The company will also look into purchasing an aircraft to provide much-needed charter services in the region. Given the difficulties in flying over China–many flights are not given permission to operate at optimum altitudes– the likelihood is that the company will buy a large airliner variant, or a Gulfstream G550, which can do a one-stop hop to London, for example.

Edwards also acknowledged the shortage of hangar space in Hong Kong. “We are working with local partners to resolve these issues,” he said.

Edwards will head the new entity, which will open in the first quarter of 2012, with the operator’s certificate to follow likely by the end of the year. In the lead-up to a full Asian presence, Gama Aviation has also entered into an exclusive partnership with loyalty program Asia Miles to provide business jet service to its 4.1 million members. Asia Miles members can earn miles when chartering aircraft from Gama’s global fleet and network in order to connect with airlines such as Cathay Pacific and Dragonair. o

Piper debuts upscale M-Class singles

by Jeff Burger Piper Aircraft has introduced improved versions of its M-Class single-engine business aircraft, which include the turboprop Meridian, the pressurized piston Mirage and the unpressurized piston Matrix.

The biggest design changes, according to the company, result in greater pilot comfort, thanks to such enhancements such as a cockpit assist handle to aid access, a fold-down copilot seat that converts to a work surface and more elbow and hip room. In addition, the cockpit side panels have bigger map pockets capable of holding pilots’ iPads.

Top-of-the-line Piper M-Class airplanes now have brighter external LED taxi and landing lights and navigation illumination. Cabin reading lights and threshold lights have also been replaced with LEDs, which are more durable and use less power

than traditional lighting.

Bose A20 headsets are now standard in the cockpit and cabin, where you’ll also find Bluetooth phone connectivity for pilots and passengers. Moreover, the Meridian now has two 110-volt outlets for recharging mobile devices while the Mirage and Matrix each have one.

Finally, the Matrix and Mirage cockpits have newly engineered ducting and adjustable directional air-flow vents for improved heated air distribution. A shutoff has been added to the modulation valve in the unpressurized Matrix for cockpit control of external air. The piston Matrix and Mirage have more durable cabin vents.

Piper Aircraft, which is based in Vero Beach, Fla., is exhibiting at Booth No. C6610 and has a fleet at the Convention Center static display. o

Inertial nav keeps Cessna Ten on track

navigation needed for flying in RNP airspace.

Capable of following highly efficient, exact routes, the LCR-100N is supporting air traffic management system modernization programs including Single European Sky and its American counterpart, NextGen. “We are pleased that Cessna will be among the first companies to benefit from the launch of our LCR-100N,” said Litef managing director Eckehardt Keip.

The LCR-100N consists of a hybrid navigator unit, which accepts satellite-based GPS position and velocity data and a calibration programmable read-only memory device. o

by Harry Weisberger

The Cessna Citation Ten will feature a new hybrid fiber-optic inertial/GPS navigation system developed by Northrop Grumman subsidiary Litef. An improved version of the former Litton company’s LCR-100, the new hybrid LCR-100N provides aircraft position, heading and attitude even when GPS data is unavailable. It offers the precise

Australian Training Company Buys Embraer Phenom 100 Embraer has sold one of its Phenom 100 entry-level jets to a flighttraining academy in Australia. The jet will be delivered to CAE Global Academy Perth by the end of this year. It is the first Phenom 100 to be purchased by a flight-training academy in the Asia-Pacific region.

The Phenom 100 is ideal for pilot training because it is designed for high utilization and has a pilot-friendly cockpit, claimed Embraer’s Jose Eduardo Costas, v-p of marketing and sales, Asia Pacific.

Brazilian manufacturer Embraer (Booth No. N5132) introduced the Phenom 100 in 2005. Powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada PW617F-E engines, it has a range with four occupants of 1,178 nm with NBAA IFR reserves. Maximum cruise speed is 390 knots.

According to Embraer, more than 250 Phenom family jets (Phenom 100 and 300) have been delivered to date.

–J.B.

www.ainonline.com • October 12, 2011 • NBAA Convention News 9

Elite interiors to mirror those of the G650

by Mark Huber Gulfstream Aerospace is showing its newly announced “Elite” interiors for the G550 and G450 here at NBAA. The extracost package incorporates much of the look, feel and functionality of the clean-lines interior the company developed for its new flagship G650 ultra-long-range business jet. “The Elite package is built on the brand DNA of the G650,” said Gulfstream president Larry Flynn.

The Elite includes the new wireless Gulfstream Cabin Management System (GCMS) with dual media servers and many of the aesthetic touches found in the G650, including metallic accents; LED lighting throughout the cabin with automatically activated lighting in useful places such as drawers, cabinets and closets; and high-tech-looking galleys with stainless steeltrimmed appliance stacks, simple touch controls, more work surface area and high-gloss paint.

The GCMS provides digital cabin control through on-board touchscreens, touch switches and passenger control units, or via the passenger’s own wireless

device loaded with the GCMS app. It can control lighting, temperature, speakers, video, the CabinView passenger information system and attendant calls from anywhere on the aircraft.

The 27-inch-wide single executive club seats are new and feature telescoping headrests with flexible wings, one-touch fullflat berthing, continuous leg rest and electric lumbar controls with optional heat and massage.

Full-powered seats are offered in the forward-facing “command” positions and include single-position memory preset and press-and-hold controls for full upright and full-flat recline positions. As in the G650, the divan has been reworked to provide a more comfortable backrest angle pitched at 104 degrees,

and the seat cushion is closer to the floor. It berths into a 78-inch by 39-inch sleeping area.

The sidewall tables and the cabin monuments also have the look and functionality of their counterparts aboard the G650.

The electrically activated sidewall tables in the club seating grouping are larger and have a stiffer support structure. There are spaces on both sides of the credenza opposite the conference group seating area, providing a more open and spacious look or, for passengers who choose, a handy place to stash a briefcase or a carry-on bag.

Initially, Elite interiors will be installed at Gulfstream in Savannah, but the company’s other large-cabin completion centers eventually could share in the work. On the G450, the Elite package is base priced at $1.5 million. While the Elite is an interior “package,” a spokesman stressed that customers would still be able to choose from a variety of textiles, leathers, and finishes to personalize the their airplanes. o

The Elite package includes automatically activated lighting and high-techlooking galleys with stainless steel-trimmed appliance stacks.

Indiana Jones in the temple of zoom

CY CYR

Harrison Ford speaks during the NBAA Pilots’ Roundtable discussions yesterday. Aerobatic pilot Sean Tucker, who was the moderator of the panel, listens as the actor-aviator talks.

12 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

ACSS showcases its surveillance avionics

by Matt Thurber Aviation Communication & Surveillance Systems (ACSS), a joint venture company of L-3 Communications and Thales, is riding a wave of interest in surveillance-type avionics products such as TCAS units and transponders. Key ACSS products that the company is highlighting at the L-3 booth (No. C8132) include the TCAS 3000SP (surveillance processor), which runs the latest TCAS change 7.1 software and the RCZ-852 transponder, which wascertified on Cessna’s Citation Mustang. ACSS also announced that Hawker Beechcraft selected TCAS 3000SP for the Hawker 4000.

Change 7.1 is expected to be required under a mandate by EASA, according to Jean-Michel Clairis-Gauthier, ACSS vice president of sales, marketing and business development, although an announcement about that mandate remains pending.

When the mandate is finalized, Clairis-Gauthier expects that change 7.1 will need to be included in newly built aircraft operating in European airspace no later than March 2012 and December 2015 for retrofit installations. The mandate, he said, “should be coming any time.”

The 7.1 upgrade is a software change for the ACSS TCAS 2000 and 3000SP. “It is a significant safety enhancement,” he said. “We have developed the software and it is certified by the FAA and EASA. All ACSS products are compatible.” While the change 7.1 software is approved under an FAA TSO and EASA ETSO, it does need certifying on some aircraft platforms in which ACSS equipment is installed. “In some cases we have certification and a service bulletin,” he said, “and in some cases it is imminent.”

“Our message is that the update is available,” said ACSS spokesman Steve Henden, “so contact your service center or authorized dealer.”

The other key activity at ACSS is the upcoming ADS-B mandate, which hits in Europe earlier than the U.S. In Europe, the mandate for transponders equipped for ADS-B out functionality applies to new

aircraft in 2015 and retrofits in 2017. The U.S. mandate is not until 2020. “This is a critical big change for our industry,” said Clairis-Gauthier. And once equipped, all these aircraft with ADS-B will enable some interesting new functionality, beyond the basics of the non-radar surveillance that is fundamental to ADS-B. “The initial driver is to simplify the ground infrastructure,” he explained, “to get rid of radar and the cost of maintaining

Using SafeRoute-M&S (top), aircraft line up for arrival. (Bottom), ownship is position and hold on 9L. USA 1234 is on final approach for 9L.

huge radar systems. Once we have that operational, we can do a lot. The sky is the limit, [and capabilities such as] intrail procedures, merging and spacing, and interval management will improve efficiency.”

Some advanced capabilities like ACSS’s SafeRoute won’t be able to run on TCAS 2000 units, so those would need to be upgraded.

The bottom line is that ADS-B is coming sooner rather than later, and pilots need to begin learning the technology. One way to do so is by visiting companies like ACSS while attending the NBAA show. o

quick, find the runway

Crabbing on approach in extreme conditions—high crosswinds and low visibility. Is it better to look up or look down?

Much has been said about the value of head-up flying. We decided to put the conventional wisdom to the test.

We shot the same approach, pitting HUD against Honeywell Primus Epic® with EVS/SVS technology. The outcome HUD with Synthetic Vision

surprised a lot of people, including whole planeload of pilots and aviation reporters. Honeywell Primus Epic gives you a full-color, daylight representation of the terrain and runway. All relevant flight data is provided in the same screen. This dramatically reduces pilot workload, particularly during the most critical stages of flight. In contrast, the heavy HUD is oriented to the nose of the aircraft, placing the field of vision considerably off of the runway centerline. The monochromatic representation of synthetic vision, combined with some conditions-related bounce,

Primus Epic® EVS/SVS

can make the runway tough to spot, much less negotiate. Decide for yourself. Watch the side-by-side fly-off between Honeywell Primus Epic and HUD and then tell us what you think. Engage Safety.

Compare these two approaches to synthetic vision at QuickFindTheRunway.com Scan this code to view the video and decide for yourself ©2011 Honeywell International Inc.

Wherever you go, there We are. only aircell offers all three of the most popular inflight digital netWorks.

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Let us build one for you, and keep you digitally connected wherever you fly.

To get things started, go to www.aircell.com/nbaa or visit NBAA booth N3527. Š2011 Aircell. All rights reserved. Aircell, Aircell Axxess & Gogo Biz are registered trademarks of Aircell Business Aviation Services LLC and its affiliates.

All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Socata traces its history back to 1911, when aeronautical engineer Raymond Saulnier and Léon Morane began developing monoplanes, rather than the biplanes that were more popular at the time.

At left, centenary Socata TBM 850 wears a paint scheme designed by French studio Happy Design.

After its first 100 years, Socata could enter jet age

by Jeff Apter

T

here is some real aviation pedigree gathered in Las Vegas for the 2011 NBAA show, but you won’t find a company with a richer heritage than France’s Daher-Socata, which this year marks its 100th anniversary in aircraft manufacturing. The company’s ancestor MoraneSaulnier was established in 1911–eight years after the Wright brothers took to the air for the first time.

French family-run industrial group Daher, Socata’s current owner, is 150 years old itself. At the end of 2008, it acquired a 70-percent stake in Socata from the EADS group. The anniversary has been marked with a series of special events throughout 2011, but most notably by the introduction of a special centenary edition of its TBM 850 single turboprop business and utility aircraft.

Milestone Flights

company established a reputation and won business was to set prestigious records, which is what many early aviation pioneers set about doing. With their achievements, Jules Védrines, Roland Garros, Albert Fronval, Marie-Louise “Maryse” Hilsz and many others contributed to Morane-Saulnier’s success by using the company’s aircraft in their flights. Roland Garros gave his name to the famous Paris Open tennis ­tournament, but in 1912 he gained fame as one of the pilots who demonstrated the merits of Morane-Saulnier aircraft. After setting a new world altitude record of almost 17,000 feet, he made the first successful crossing of the ­Mediterranean Sea aboard a MoraneSaulnier-built airplane.

MS aircraft subsequently accumulated 1,000 miles of flight during a number of historic maritime crossings, boosting the

It all started in October 1911 when Raymond Saulnier, claimed to be the first aeronautical engineer to publish a scientific treatise on airplane flight, began to put his research into practice with Léon Morane, already a famous pilot. Together with Léon’s brother, Robert, they developed monoplanes with trapezoidal wings with performance far superior to the biplanes that were more in vogue at the time.

The canvas and wooden structures of Morane-Saulnier’s aircraft offered unrivaled quality of flight for the era. Their logo, superimposing the M of Morane and the S of Saulnier atop each other inside a circle, symbolized their partnership and the creation of one of the world’s first aerospace brands.

At the time, one of the ways a

16 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

idea that aviation could become an effective transportation tool. Among these milestone flights were the first crossing from Key West, Fla., to Havana, Cuba, performed with a MS airplane piloted by Domingo Rosillo in May 1913.

Some manufacturers already had experimented with high-wing monoplanes, and Morane-Saulnier emerged with a state-of-the-art version. Known as “Parasols” because of their unusual configuration, they were designed initially for reconnaissance missions. During World War I they were assigned to combat duties in 1915 and became the first fighter aircraft.

After the war, Parasols were designed as trainers that subsequently were used by pilots the world over. Parasols also acquired a reputation as highly capable aerobatic platforms and combat aircraft.

In 1932, the company’s design office conceived the MS 325, its first low-wing metal aircraft, which launched the MS 405, a revolutionary new fighter aircraft designed around the Hispano-Suiza V12 engine The MS 405 featured retractable landing gear, wing flaps and a variable-pitch propeller. It became the first aircraft ever to be equipped with an ejectable sliding canopy, a patent adopted by many manufacturers.

In 1935, the MS 405 prototype, in its maiden flight, reached a speed of almost 260 knots, impressing the military pilots responsible for assessing the new aircraft. More than 1,000 MS 406 production aircraft were built during its manufacturing run but the aircraft

Beech Aircraft briefly marketed Morane-Saulnier’s MS 760 in the U.S. The four-place Paris Jet never gained traction in the U.S., with Beech selling only two copies of the $250,000 jet.

suffered big losses against the more modern Messerschmitt Bf-109s it faced in 1940. During World War II MoraneSaulnier came under German control and built several German-type aircraft, including the Fieseler Storch, known after the war as the MS 500.

Develops the Paris Jet

The company’s initial activity as an aerospace equipment supplier began in the 1940s with the construction of elements for the Dassault 315, followed by fuselages and wings for the Fouga Magister. In 1954 it developed the MS 760 (the Paris Jet), the first four-seat jet with two engines mounted on either side of a pressurized cabin. It quickly attained a speed of 340 knots. In the same year, Diomède Catroux, the new French secretary of state for aviation, used the MS 760 for a trip to Germany with the flight from Paris completed in under an hour–considered a revolution in intra-European transportation.

Four years earlier, the group started to provide services with the packaging of replacement parts for Dassault’s Super Mystère SMB2. Over the years this activity expanded to include packaging of complete aircraft for shipment, with the group developing innovative woven glass and polyester resin shuttle packs for the most fragile parts.

The first aircraft sold as a Socata– the French abbreviation for “Société de Construction d’Avions de Tourisme et d’Affaires” (business and leisure aircraft construction company)–was the “Rallye,” in 1959. The aircraft’s wing ribs were electrically welded to a skin made of large aluminum panels for a maximum industrialization of the assembly process that quickly achieved a production rate of 50 aircraft per month.

The product’s image was supported by an advertising slogan that stressed both the low cost and remarkable safety of this light aircraft, “Le kilomètre-sécurité le moins cher,” (the most effective for cost and safety per kilometer). About 3,300 Rallyes comprising 34 different models were exported to nearly 65 countries.

To accompany these developments, the company established after-sales service, laying the foundation for future maintenance, repair and overhaul contracts.

In January 1962, Morane-Saulnier

Continued on page 42 u

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Tyrolean Air picks ACJ318 for worldwide charter role

by James Wynbrandt Airbus introduced the latest operator to add an Airbus Corporate Jet (ACJ) to its charter fleet at NBAA. Tyrolean Air Services (TAS) of Innsbruck, Austria, has taken delivery of an ACJ318.

“This is a significant extension of our fleet,” said Martin Lener, CEO of TAS, which currently operates seven business

jets ranging from light to ultra-longrange aircraft. “This is a new business tool we are very excited to offer to VIP clients, many from the entertainment and business world, and government.”

The 19-passenger aircraft is now available for worldwide booking. Established in 1978, TAS has an Argus Platinum rating,

IS-BAO registration and has a waiver for flights to, from and within the U.S. Clients have included Henry Kissinger, Stevie Wonder and Steven Spielberg.

“This is a state-of-the-art aircraft,” Lener said, regarding the choice of the Airbus versus a Boeing Business Jet. “The interior concept is the best in size and in height of the cabin, and it’s European manufactured. In the short time we have had experience with this OEM [and the relationship] has been very successful.”

Charter cost for the ACJ318 ranges from about $13,700 to $21,000 per hour, Lener said. o

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STCINews 75311 Frs (R3) AD • 7.38” x 4.78” • B&W 18 NBAA Convention • October 12,NBAA_Hanger 2011 • www.ainonline.com

9/30/11 7:31 PM

Raisbeck looks beyond Learjets and King Airs

by Matt Thurber Raisbeck Engineering is enjoying surging interest in Learjet and King Air performance modifications that continues to outpace the sluggish economy. “In the first six months of 2011, we sold 245 systems, which were installed on 123 different aircraft,” said James Raisbeck, founder and chairman of the Seattle-based company.

Information on Raisbeck modifications is available at Booth No. C7827. “Nobody’s buying new airplanes,” he added, “they’re fixing up what they have. We had the best June in the history of our company.”

Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have not always been thrilled about third-party modifications, even if these companies offered significant performance improvements for aircraft owners and operators. But in recent years, those attitudes have mellowed and OEMs are working with companies like Raisbeck Engineering as part of their efforts to keep customers satisfied with the original product. And hopefully, returning some day to buy new aircraft.

“We have a great relationship with Hawker Beechcraft,” said Mike McConnell, Raisbeck Engineering president. And that relationship has developed to the point where if Hawker Beechcraft has a problem that the skilled engineers at a company like Raisbeck can help solve, both companies now work together on a solution that benefits the aircraft owner.

“Bombardier is a fabulous partner for us,” McConnell added. During Raisbeck’s project to develop aft fuselage lockers for the Learjet 60, Bombardier was more than helpful. Bombardier provided aft fuselage components so that Raisbeck engineers could see how the newly designed lockers would fit. “We can do fit checks and understand where they put the stringers and where the APU is,” he said. “You rarely get the benefit of the doubt in this industry; you have to prove yourself. And that’s why we think our relationships are extraordinary with those two [companies]. Those are the two OEMs that we are partnering with.”

The fruits of those partnerships are a growing inventory of designs for useful modifications of King Airs and Learjets.

The Learjet 60 wing lockers are the most current program–and due for certification in the first quarter of 2012–but Raisbeck Engineering has been improving Learjets and King Airs for many years.

While Learjet and King Air mods have been the backbone of Raisbeck’s oeuvre, McConnell and Raisbeck would welcome the challenge of solving problems with other airframers’ products. o

Mitsubishi and SimCom sign new deal Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and SimCom Training Centers (Booth No. N3311) have signed a new ten-year deal.

Under the agreement, SimCom will continue to provide simulator training for Mitsubishi’s MU-2 twin-engine turboprop for the next decade. Next year SimCom plans to upgrade its second MU-2 simulator to a Level 5 training device. SimCom took over MU-2 training from FlightSafety International in 2001.

–M.H.

Stan Yokoi (left), Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, and Tracy Brannon, SimCom Training Centers.

Signature marshals customer teams for London Olympics

by Jeff Burger In anticipation of the summer 2012 Olympics in the UK, Signature Flight Support has announced a dedicated customer-support team and a 24-hour hotline to assist customers with arranging slots, parking, hotels, catering, rental cars and other needs. The company– the world’s largest FBO network with more than 100 locations on five continents–has also issued a reference guide to assist operators and pilots with flight planning. (The guide is available at Signature’s Booth No. 3900 and at www.signatureflight.com/2012.)

“With our extensive UK network of FBOs and surrounding reliever airport locations, customers will have the flexibility and convenience of working with one flight-support company throughout their stay for the Olympics,” said Joe Gibney, managing director for Signature’s operations in Europe, the Middle East and Africa. The company–which has 17 FBOs in England, Scotland and Ireland–urged customers to contact it as soon as possible regarding slots, which will be assigned beginning in November.

Signature, meanwhile, announced a program it calls Signature Select.

According to the company, the program gives independent FBOs access to its systems, service and safety standards and to its marketing and purchasing power.

The program covers Signature’s proprietary training and audit programs–Service with a Leading Edge and Safety with a Leading Edge–as well as its FBO management technology suite, Signature SigNet. Participating companies will be promoted along with Signature’s network by its worldwide sales and marketing staff. Participants will display the Signature Select badge but will otherwise maintain their independent brand.

Signature Select FBOs will offer the Signature Status customer loyalty program, which issues rewards based on the frequency of visits to Signature facilities. Signature Status has been enhanced to include services from Ontic Engineering and Manufacturing, a sister company. Free Ontic MRO services available through the program include aircraft component evaluation, return shipment on

component repair or overhaul and phone technical support. Members who commit their components to Ontic Engineering early can also receive 1,000 gallons of jet-A at any of Signature’s U.S. locations.

In other Signature news, the company’s Montreal location has been named best FBO in Quebec and in Canada overall in a Wings Magazine industry survey.

It was only last year that Starlink Aviation signed a licensing agreement that made the Montreal facility a Signature location.

“We have outperformed the local market every month since joining the Signature family,” said Glen Lynch, president and CEO of Starlink. “Our significant market-share gains and the recognition

by Wings are evidence that being part of a customer-centric network was the right choice for our customers.”

Signature president and CEO Michael Scheeringa noted here at the show that the company has added five FBOs in the past year, in Edinburgh, Scotland; Bozeman, Mont., San Juan; Boca Raton, Fla.; and Frankfurt. The Frankfurt location is expected to open in December and will be the second FBO in Germany for Signature, which also operates in Munich. o

www.ainonline.com • October 12, 2011 • NBAA Convention News 19

news clips

Heads Up Technologies lights up Lumin

z OVIV Introduces 280 L Security System

by Kirby J. Harrison

French aircraft security system maker OVIV Security Technologies is at Booth No. N2116 to introduce its newest on-ground aircraft security system. Based in Merignac, OVIV says its Sentinel 280 L will enable operators to manage their own security at any business-jet-capable airport in the world. The 280 L’s capabilities include establishing a secure perimeter around an aircraft in less than two minutes, immediately notifying designated persons of any perimeter intrusion, delivering real-time video of an inprogress intrusion to a smart phone and storing video for later retrieval and use for insurance or legal purposes. The Sentinel 280 L system is immediately and easily deployable without aircraft retrofit or modification.

Heads Up Technologies of Carrollton, Texas, has unveiled Lumin, a new cabin management system (CMS) that combines both innovative technology and highly flexible design.

Heads Up (Booth No. N4712) has created unique Lumin features such as touchscreens that are customized to blend seamlessly into the cabin interior, preserving the integrity of the cabin design. At the same time, the Lumin technology can be used to create a design that is unique to the OEM brand or the owner’s personal tastes.

“The goal was to create a timeless and elegant design that

z Fargo Jet Completes 8th Missionized King Air Aircraft services provider Fargo Jet Center (FJC) of Fargo, N.D., announced delivery of its eighth special mission King Air this year at the NBAA Convention. “2011 has been a very busy year for our repair station,” said Darren Hall, Fargo Jet v-p of marketing. “Our special-mission modifications have grown significantly over the past two decades by combining the special-mission aircraft needs of our international clients, sister company Weather Modification and Fargo, N.D.-based Spectrum Aeromed.”

This year’s modification jobs encompassed a combination of cloud seeding, atmospheric research and air medical transport system installations. The most recent completion, for the Armed Forces in the Republic of Senegal, features the latest-technology cloud-seeding equipment, windowmounted air-sampling inlets and wing-mounted atmospheric research probes.

was easy to use,” said Heads Up president and CEO Rob Harshaw. “Lumin adopts the current trends in consumer technology [and] abstracts the complexity, allowing the user to simply enjoy the experience.”

Technically, Lumin employs fiber-optic, distributed processing, wireless and digital content management technologies.

Passengers can enjoy an intuitive touchscreen user interface that is customized to support the branding of the cabin interior. The system incorporates Blu-ray, digital audio libraries, Internet connectivity, seat-toseat texting and cabin control

Pratt & Whitney Canada Launches China Facility Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) has formed a joint venture with China Aviation Engine Holdings, which will operate in Zhuzhou in China’s Hunan province. The joint venture, to be known as Zhuzhou Tonghui Aero Engine Maintenance Company (AEMC), will offer in-country maintenance, repair and overhaul for civil-certified PT6A- and PW100-series engines.

“China is obviously a key emerging market for P&WC, and AEMC will allow us to provide PT6A and PW100 MRO services quickly and efficiently in the country,” said P&WC president John Saabas, who attended a jointventure signing ceremony in Beijing in September. “AEMC will enable operators of PT6A- and PW100-powered aircraft in China to benefit from in-country engine services–from line maintenance to overhaul–providing them with faster turnaround times and lower costs.”

Pratt & Whitney Canada, which has more than 47,000 engines in service with operators in 198 countries, is here at the NBAA show at Booth No. N5633.

–J.B.

z Financing Deal for P&WC Maintenance Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) and Bank of America Merrill Lynch (B-of-A Merrill) have announced a joint marketing agreement that will result in preferred financing terms for customers who finance their aircraft through B-of-A Merrill and enroll in P&WC’s Eagle Service Plan, its pay-by-the-hour engine-maintenance program.

Greg Miller, product manager of that program, said, “By giving preferred financing to ESP program customers, B-of-A Merrill is endorsing P&WC’s belief that an aircraft with engines enrolled in our program…retains its value longer and provides for higher resale valuation.”

Michael Amalfitano, managing director and executive head of B-of-A Merrill Global Corporate Aircraft Finance, said, P&WC’s ESP program “has proven popular with thousands of its clients” and that “its global reach aligns with ours.”

Pratt & Whitney Canada (Booth No. N5633), which was founded in 1928, currently has more than 47,000 engines in service in 200 countries. Its support network includes more than 30 company-owned and -designated service facilities.

Tokyo Narita Airport opens first bizav FBO

by Liz Moscrop Japan’s Narita International Airport (Booth No. C12338) is to open its first executive aviation terminal next year. The announcement is an endorsement of the efforts Narita and the Japan Business Aviation Association have put into

developing private aviation in the country. The facility–slated to open in April 2012–will offer customs, immigration and quarantine and a passenger lounge, plus 18 parking stands.

Narita is the ninth busiest airport in the world in terms of

CY CYR

z NetJets Opening New Van Nuys Facility NetJets (Booth No. C8121) has signed an agreement with Maguire Aviation at Van Nuys (Calif.) Airport to design a private terminal for NetJets customers and operations.

One of the existing Maguire facilities will be custom designed by NetJets to accommodate the fractional-share provider’s owner-passengers. Amenities will include modern furnishings, conference rooms, a business center, crew lounge and rest areas and flight-planning facilities. Todd Baumgartner, NetJets senior v-p of aviation infrastructure and services, said, “This facility will be customized for NetJets and will provide our owners with exceptional service and amenities at one of their most popular destinations.” Serving the Los Angeles area, Van Nuys is perennially one of the busiest general aviation airports in the country.

functions. At the same time, said Harshaw, Lumin reduces weight and power consumption. And he added, it is highly scalable “from the smallest to the largest aircraft. We wanted to create a CMS with flexibility, to give OEMs a solution that is uniquely their own,” he explained. “This system lets you define the level of luxury, functionality and control of each cabin.”

Lumin technology, on display at the Heads Up exhibit, powers the Clairity cabin technology that is standard on the new Citation Ten and Latitude and will be optional on the new Citation M2. o

Ken Murayama (left) of Narita International Airport Corporation and Akira Takano (right) of Ministry of Land, Transport and Tourism are paving the way for bizav traffic to Narita Airport.

20 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

international departures, with some 56.5 percent of all international flights in Japan departing from the field. It is about 37 miles away from Tokyo, or about 20 minutes by helicopter. Akiyoshi Watanabe, executive officer and vice president of Narita’s ground operations department, said that the airport has expanded its landing slots to 50 per day for business aviation operations and will look to increase this number in the future.

“Business aviation is coming back to Japan now after the problems earlier this year with the Tsunami,” said Kazuyuki Tamura, director of the Japan Business Aviation Association.

He added that the Japan Civil Aviation Bureau is working on relaxing some of the stricter regulations that hinder the development of private aviation, such as ease of registration in Japan, which should encourage development of charter operations. At present there is an installed fleet of around 20 aircraft on the J register, including both turboprops and jets. o

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STATE OF THE INDUSTRY > Dassault Falcon

French airframer preps for economic upswing

by Mark Huber Dassault Falcon (Booth No. Lumpur, Malaysia, on May 25.

N2104) is taking advantage of Dassault identified the 7X the current business jet produc- problem with a certain lot of tion lull to implement more effi- horizontal stabilizer electronic cient production procedures, control units and got replaceunveil new modularized inte- ment parts to the affected riors, continue work on its aircraft. While EASA reauthoSMS new jet program and per- rized flight for the entire 7X haps forge alliances with other fleet on July 7, its flight envelope OEMs as a way to expand its was limited to Mach 0.85 Mmo market footprint into new air- instead of 0.9 until a software Slated for deliveries begincraft categories. modification was imple- ning in 2013, the Falcon 2000S For Dassault, as for mented in September. is Dassault’s value-added entry most other business jet into the super-midsize marCelebrates OEMs, the delivery ket, with a $25 million aircraft Falcon 2000S numbers for year-tothat has shorter range (3,350 date have been less That bit of turbu- nm) and standardized interithan robust. Mealence aside, Dassault ors compared to the $32.1 milsured in dollars for has reason to cele- lion, 4,000-nm Falcon 2000LX. the first six months of brate some positive Dassault claims the 2000S “is 2011 they were down developments, includ- a large-cabin aircraft with fuel 44 percent from the ing EASA and FAA cer- economy and operating costs same period in 2010, tification of the new that are much less than smaller Charles Edelstenne representing an aggreFalcon 900EX EASy aircraft in the mid-sized busigate value of $846.5 million this II cockpit and the launch of the ness jet category.” year versus $1.854 ­billion a year Falcon 2000S program this year However, the 2000S is ago. The scorecard: 19 aircraft at the EBACE show. more than just a shorterdelivered through June versus The EASy II cockpit is built legged 2000LX. The aircraft can 45 for the first six months of around the Honeywell Primus access airports heretofore not 2010. On a positive note, for the Epic system and includes Smart- available to 2000s thanks to its first half of the year the com- View synthetic vision, RNP-AR lighter weight and the addition pany booked 22 net new (minus and satellite-based augmentation of new inboard wing slats that cancellation) Falcon orders. system LPV approach capability, allow it to fly steeper approaches Across all of Dassault, oper- SmartRunway, automatic descent into shorter runways. The slats, ating income declined by 62 per- mode, ADS-B out, XM WX and combined with standard autocent for the first half of 2011 dual Jeppesen charts display. brake, cut the approach speed compared to the same period in 2010. However, the OEM still has plenty of cash to fund new programs, almost €3 billion at the end of June, even as the company finds itself being hit by both the impact of the weakened global economy and the U.S. dollar’s continued slide against the euro.

The Falcon 2000S is a lower-cost deriviative of the Falcon 2000. The 2000S has less In his mid-year financial range and a less customizable cabin than the Falcon 2000, but Dassault is betting report, Dassault Aviation chair- that those are trades customers will make to keep the price under $25 million. man Charles Edelstenne noted this “dollar weakness” that “penalizes our production costs in France” and said that across America and Europe “too many uncertainties remain before growth earnings” translate into new investments. He also noted a global market shift. “China is becoming our first market since the beginning of the year.”

However, overall, he said, the global business jet market is “recovering slowly.” But that is not stopping some customers from deferring deliveries, which were also negatively affected by the temporary grounding of the Falcon 7X fleet following a runaway pitch trim incident on an aircraft approaching Kuala

22aaNBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

Earlier in the year, the 7X fleet was grounded briefly after a runaway pitch trim incident, but a software fix has eliminated the problem.

to 108 knots. High/hot and time-to-climb performance also improves. The updated Pratt & Whitney Canada PW308C engines (7,000 pounds of thrust each), equipped with new Talon II combustors, cut emissions by up to 40 percent. Combined with winglets, this helps the 2000S burn “10 percent less fuel than aircraft that are 20 percent smaller,” according to Dassault.

BMW/Designworks Interior

While the 2000S’s 10-passenger interior was standardized into three distinct color/fabric/material “harmonies” and one seating configuration, Dassault took care not to scrimp on functionality. The Falcon Cabin HD cabin management ­system, based on the Rockwell C ­ ollins Venue, delivers all the bells and whistles including Blu-ray, widescreen monitors and links to Iridium satcom. The Cabin HD system can be commanded via wireless mobile devices. The cockpit gets new trim and paint and the EASy II avionics system.

Dassault worked with BMW Group DesignworksUSA to develop the harmonies. The two companies previously worked together to develop award-winning optional interiors for the 7X, which became available this

year. The schemes developed for the 2000S use the same “design language” while “keeping the same elevated, premium look and feel of a Falcon,” according to Designworks executives.

But there are differences they said, including the use of different veneer styles and textile and leather combinations that emphasize “lightness and spatial definition” and create “a more open, room-like feel.” A 2000S interior has been installed in a 2000LX and that aircraft is on display at this year’s NBAA show.

Standardizing the 2000S is just one way Dassault is taking costs out of the interior.

The company is implementing new design, manufacturing and assembly processes at its Little Rock completion center, with the goal of reducing the amount of time it takes to finish new aircraft flown over from France. New lean processes include establishing an assembly line for interior components and bringing new digital design tools on line. These methods eventually will be applied to all Dassault aircraft, including those under development.

This includes the SMS twinjet that is expected to be powered by the new Snecma Silvercrest engine and employ fly-by-wire controls. Relatively little is known about the program so far, but approximately 1,000 Dassault and contractor employees are working on the project, which is expected to fall into a size category between super-midsize and large jets and come to market near 2016.

Piaggio Aero, now jointly owned by Ferrari family members–Mubadala and India’s Tata Group–also is thought to be in discussions with several OEMs, including Dassault, on a co-development deal for the Piaggio 1XX jet. Co-development deals could make sense for Dassault as a way to expand into nontraditional business jet market segments. o

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London Airports get set for next year’s Olympics

by Charles Alcock Business aircraft operators heading to the UK next summer for the 2012 London Olympics face an array of headache-inducing complications. But several airports and FBOs from around the British capital have arrived here at the NBAA show to offer solutions that should smooth your passages to the games.

Here in Las Vegas you’ll find the following facilities vying for your Olympic handling business, all with experts on hand to explain the maze of restrictions put in place for the event: Farnborough Airport (owned

by TAG Aviation–Booth No. C7626); Biggin Hill Airport (Booth No. C9613), also represented by Jet Aviation (Booth No. C11411); Cambridge (Booth No. N1622); Luton (represented by Harrods Aviation at Booth No. N4412 and Signature Flight Support at Booth N3900); Oxford (Booth No. N616); and Stansted (represented by Harrods and Universal Aviation at Booth No. C8926).

Arrangements for the London Olympics are about to change again, but it could be a change for the better. The UK’s National Air Traffic Services is proposing to establish a new airspace structure specifically to accommodate business aviation during the period around the 2012 London Olympic Games. The Civil Aviation Authority and other agencies overseeing aviation arrangements for the Olympics are considering the proposal and further details are expected to be confirmed during November.

Airspace across a wide area around the UK capital is to be segregated between a restricted area and a prohibited area over central London. This will apply for the period from July 14 to August 15.

Book Slots Now

At a special seminar on arrangements for the London Olympics held as part of the Business and General Aviation Day (BGAD) event on September 20 at Cambridge Airport, operators

Operators planning to fly in to London for next year’s Olympic Games should secure slots early, according to London-area airport managers. Many airports, such as Farnborough, are taking slot bookings now and others will begin doing so in the coming months.

also heard that they must soon start applying for slots that will be required for arrivals and departures at airports across southern and eastern England between July 21 and August 15. The UK government also has granted approval for some general aviation airports to open around the clock, including Cambridge, Northolt, Lydd and Southend.

At the seminar, London-area airport and FBO managers said they will require nonrefundable deposits to take slot bookings to prevent operators making block bookings to guarantee arrival and departure times. Operators who are unable to book early may find they can’t get slots at their usual London-area airport and so they are urged to consider a wide range of alternatives.

Airport Options

A wide area over central London will be restricted (above) during next year’s Olympics, while a smaller portion of airspace will be prohibited (below).

Slot bookings are already being taken for the following airports and airfields: Biggin Hill, Blackbushe, Cambridge, Chalgrove, Coventry, Cranfield, Damyns Hall, Denham, Duxford, Elstree, Fairoaks, Farnborough, Goodwood, Leeon-Solent, Leicester, Lydd, Oxford, Manston, Northampton, Northolt, North Weald, Old Sarum, Peterborough, Redhill, Rochester, Shoreham, Southend, Stapleford, Truxton, White Waltham and Wycombe.

From November 30, slot bookings will open at Stansted, Birmingham, Luton and Bournemouth. Reservations won’t open until Feb. 1, 2012, for Southampton and for London City Airport. In fact, it remains unclear whether business aircraft will be able to operate to and from London City.

So far there have been few details as to how landing fees and handling rates will be bundled.

Operators will need to think

24 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

carefully before deciding at which airport they will book slots for the Olympic period.

Demand for hotels closer to London will force prices up, and with aircraft parking at a premium it may make sense to land farther away from the main sites.

Of the airports exhibiting here, Oxford and Cambridge have the advantage of being outside the restricted zone. This means transatlantic operators can approach from the northwest without having to get clearance for the zone.

Oxford has invested heavily in improving infrastructure over the last year or so, and will have new primary and secondary radar in service by the time of the London Olympics.

According to data from Eurocontrol, Oxford is now the fifth busiest business aviation gateway in the UK, with an average of 7.8 daily departures.

Ahead of it are Luton with 34.2, Farnborough with 27.5, Biggin Hill with 14.5 and London City with 8.9. Stansted has slipped to eighth place with a 5.5 average, behind the airports of both East Midlands and Bournemouth.

With the exception of London City, Biggin Hill is probably about the shortest distance to the Olympic stadium in east London. It is a 20-minute drive from Ebbsfleet rail station, which will offer direct connections to Stratford International station, which is a short walk to the stadium. o

London Biggin Adds Hangar and More Parking London Biggin Hill Airport has opened a new 52,000-sq-ft hangar alongside its main executive terminal, with several offices available for rent on a short- or long-term basis.

Aircraft parking capacity has been further expanded with the addition of about the same area of new ramp space adjacent to the terminal. The hangar can comfortably accommodate aircraft up to the size of a Boeing Business Jet. Unusually for a London-area airport, Biggin Hill (Booth No. C9613) has plenty of scope for expanding business aircraft traffic since it is well within its annual movements limit of 125,000. There is also plenty of space for developing other new buildings, including a planned new 75room hotel. The privately owned airport’s management has local government approval to build the hotel next to the new Rizon Jet FBO and is now seeking a partner with which to start the development. –C.A.

London’s Biggin Hill Airport has opened a new hangar with ample ramp parking space immediately adjoining the main terminal building.

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SAFE FLYING AWARDS > Support Services

The people on the ground form the backbone of safe flights Ops

2010 NBAA Top Support Services Awards Presented to avionics and technical support service technicians at NBAA member companies engaged in the support of the business aviation industry.

by Mary F. Silitch

Name

The NBAA Aviation Support Services Safety Award is presented to aviation personnel employed for three or more consecutive years by NBAA member companies primarily for support of corporate/business flight operations and whose company has had no aircraft accidents during their employment period. AIN spoke with three of the recipients receiving the award for 2010.

Safe Frank Macartney

Chairman Aerodynamics, Inc. Waterford, Mich.

51 years

Just two weeks before Frank Macartney talked to AIN for this article, he had sold his interest in Aerodynamics, Inc. (ADI), a company he founded, he said, “20,952 days before.” (ADI has been acquired by Scott Beale, former president, founder and co-owner of FlightWorks.)

Macartney said he has spent 59 years in aviation.

Aerodynamics is a full-service FBO, based at Oakland County International Airport in Waterford, Mich., and was

a Beechcraft distributor for 34 years. It has an interior shop and avionics facility, and provides fuel and maintenance, repair and overhaul services.

ADI runs a shuttle operation on the West Coast, with seven turbine-powered aircraft moving 194,000 passengers a year.

Over the years, ADI has operated “Pipers, Beechcrafts, Gulfstreams and everything in between,” Macartney said.

On the subject of safety, he said, “We believed from day one that we would provide excellence in service and we took every precaution to be safe in everything we did in the pursuit of excellence.” Many people provided top-notch help over the years,

CLIMBING

and Macartney cited ADI vice president Robert LeMay (recipient of an NBAA Top Maintenance/Avionics Technician Award this year), who has been with the company for 42 years, and ADI president Cheryl Bush, with ADI for 32 years.

A pilot with more than 10,000 hours logged, Macartney said his favorite corporate airplane is a Gulfstream III. He was an Air Force jet pilot in Korea and became interested in aviation, he said, at the age of four when he saw an airplane up in the sky and thought, “Wow! That’s nice!”

Macartney turns 80 in December, and one has to talk to him a only short while to think that he’s still saying, “Wow!”

Company

Years

Frank Macartney

Aerodynamics, Inc.

51

Tommy Walker

Scottsdale AirCenter

46

James Grove

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co.

43

Dexter Bourland

Emerson Flight Operations

41

George Paupst

Million Air

38

Robert Murtha

IBM Flight Operations

35

George Kokinakis

JM Family Enterprises

33

Jim Such

ExxonMobil

33

Verna Blount

Chevron Corporation Aviation Services

30

Diane Magruder

International Jet Aviation Services

30

Kevin Roberts

Indefensible/DJMD

30

Mitchell Trahan

The Coca-Cola Co.

30

Daniel Mansfield

Citigroup Corporate Aviation

29

Tim Cattell

The Cleveland Jet Center

28

Kimberly Hopple

Leading Edge Operations

28

\ Tommy Walker

General manager Scottsdale AirCenter Scottsdale, Ariz.

46 Years

Tommy Walker has been general manager of Scottsdale AirCenter since it

H IGHER

was formed 10 years ago. The FBO is owned by Ross Aviation, which owns a number of FBOs and operates a corporate Cessna Citation I and a Hawker 800.

Walker said he became interested in flying “many moons ago.” He worked at

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26 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

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the airport in Andrews, Texas, and when Vietnam came along he joined the U.S. Air Force and became a pilot. After his military service, he worked for LTV Jet Fleet, based at Dallas Love Field. The company was one of the first large-aircraft Part 135 operations, Walker said. He subsequently worked for several Part 91 compa-

engineering services for a wide range of industrial, commercial and consumer markets.”

He was not at liberty to say what kind of aircraft the flight department operates now or what he operated since its beginnings in 1973.

Bourland said he became interested in aviation when he joined the U.S. Navy in 1965

and was stationed aboard an aircraft carrier. He served three tours in Vietnam. He was an aircraft director, which, he said, “molded me for aviation.”

After leaving the Navy in 1969, Bourland worked as a line manager for the Remmert Werner FBO at Lambert Field in St. Louis, then in 1974, he was

customer service manager for Midcoast Aviation at Lambert.

He became line manager for Avtec at St. Louis Downtown Airport in 1990, and in 1995, he moved to Emerson.

Bourland attributes his long safety record to “a hands-on safety program that involves all employees; that is we are IS-BAO certified.” o

Dexter Bourland

A joint venture between Lufthansa Technik AG and Panasonic Avionics Corporation

See us at NBAA 2011,

Tommy Walker

Booth C9625

nies, then moved to Orange County in Santa Ana, Calif., and formed an FBO, which ended up as a Signature Flight Support facility. He was general manager of Toyota’s AirFlite FBO in Long Beach for 15 years.

Walker said his long safety record is due to safety always having been paramount.

Dexter Bourland,

Line service/facility manager Emerson Electric St. Louis, Mo 17 years.

Dexter Bourland has been line service and facility manager for Emerson Electric Co. for 17 years. He told AIN, “I manage aircraft ground support personnel, including training and related facility, passenger handling and aircraft ground support operations.”

Emerson Electric, he said, is “a major multinational corporation that manufactures products and provides

News Note NBAA announced the 2012 schedule for its Business Aviation Regional Forums. The events are miniature versions of its annual convention held in venues throughout the continental U.S. Dates and locations for forums in 2012 are: February 2, Landmark Aviation at New Orleans Lakefront Airport; April 12, TWC Aviation and Maguire Aviation at Van Nuys (Calif.)

Airport; June 7, First Aviation at Teterboro (N.J.) Airport; September 20, Clay Lacy Aviation at Seattle Boeing Field/King County International Airport. n

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www.ainonline.com • October 12, 2011 • NBAA Convention News 27

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The Rockford Area Aerospace Network was formed in 2010 to increase job growth in the Chicago and Milwaukee area.

Its members include airplane and helicopter manufacturers as well as local businesses.

NBAA president Ed Bolen, below (right), recently met with RAAN chairman Jeff Kaney to discuss job opportunities in the region.

Illinois economic council boasts white-glove service The Rockford Area Aerospace Network (RAAN), a committee of the Rockford (Ill.) area economic development council (RAEDC), is here at the NBAA show highlighting its “white-glove service” to the aerospace industry.

The more than 60-member RAAN (Booth No. N3129) includes tier-one and -two aerospace companies in the greater

Rockford area as well as in Chicago’s suburbs, DeKalb, Ill., and Milwaukee. It was formed in 2010 to increase job growth in the regional aerospace cluster. Hosting the Midwest’s largest concentration of aerospace manufacturers, the region is positioned to help customers enjoy extremely short and reliable lead times from what the development council calls

the “white-glove supply chain,” which it says “gives aviation business customers one-stop shopping.”

In order to grow market share and jobs, RAAN members share best practices, network about business opportunities,

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30 75627-Million_Air-B-Maintenance_r2.indd NBAA Convention News 1 • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

9/30/11 7:16 PM

advance workforce development and address future legislation. The group offers a one-stop resource for information on manufacturing, assembly, maintenance, repair and overhaul services, warehousing and distribution opportunities in the Rockford region.

RAEDC promotes the Rockford region as promising cost-effective availability of technical talent, a diverse industrial market, a development-friendly airport–Chicago Rockford International–and a supply chain of more than 150 companies that support all aspects of the aerospace industry. Here, this week, RAAN is featuring two examples of success in gaining and expanding business: Ardekin Precision and Energy Dynamics.

Ardekin Precision in Rockford provides its customers the cell phone number of its prototype assembly technician, who is available on a 24/7 basis. “We are an extension of our customers’ prototype development department,” said Ardekin president Bruce Larsen. Technicians work with customers’ engineers to develop products and set up the production processes, including tooling, to optimize ease of manufacturing.

Larsen said a trust relationship established over 20 years in the aerospace business lets Ardekin routinely begin prototype work before a purchase order is issued. The company often provides same-day or 24-hour turnarounds.

Ardekin can handle all aspects of a project including outside processes, production, assembly, inspection and logistics to achieve true one-stop contracting.

Energy Dynamics in Machesney Park, Ill., recently won its first major Department of Defense contract to repair, overhaul and upgrade U.S. Navy aircraft parts with very short lead times. Under the $50 million, five-year contract, the company provides precision machining, testing, plating and heat treating with precise recordkeeping and on-time delivery.

Company president Pat Bye said, the white-glove service helped Energy Dynamics win the DOD’s confidence and the contract. –H.W.

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STATE OF THE INDUSTRY > Bombardier

Development projects stretch Canadian OEM

by Mark Huber The demands of four new jet legacy narrowbodies. New comaircraft development programs, petition from the Russian Sukcoupled with anemic sales of its hoi Superjet and aircraft under Learjet business jet brand and development in Japan and China regional jets, fueled a cash burn could also crimp its CSeries pyre that persuaded analysts ambitions.

There are also hints that the to issue a fresh round of stock downgrades for Bombardier in CSeries may not make it to market by 2013 as scheduled, and September.

In the last quarter, the OEM they are being dropped by Bombardier Aerospace president drew down $1 billion of cash Guy Hachey. Big chunks reserves against $211 milof the $3.5 billion devellion of net profit, douopment program have ble for the same period been outsourced as a year ago. Its market part of a complicapitalization is $7 cated global supply billion and the cash chain. This includes burn rate set off caufuselage manufacture tion lights for stock to China’s Shenyang analysts. The news is Aircraft, part of statenot cataclysmic; most owned AVIC. now rate the company as Over the summer “market perform,” but Guy Hachey, Hachey conceded that from early July through Bombardier Aerospace “areas” of the CSeries the end of September, president were “off our schedule” Bombardier stock lost but said that the company was 43 percent of its value.

Hopes that the company’s not ready to issue a revised pronew CSeries single-aisle “super- gram timetable–yet.

While no one envisions probregional” 110- to 149-seat jet would take big market share lems for the CSeries of the same away from Airbus and Boeing magnitude that Boeing suffered appear to be fading, at least for on its recently certified 787, the now, as both of those compa- CSeries does pose considerable nies announced re-engining pro- manufacturing and technical grams and big orders for their risk because of both the degree

Bombardier expects to certify the all-composite Learjet 85 in 2013.

The CSeries “super regional” jet aims to lower operating costs with fly-by-wire composite wings and geared turbofans.

of outsourcing and the large amount of new technology being incorporated into the aircraft.

That includes composite wings, a high-tech metal alloy fuselage with aluminum-lithium skins, the new Pratt & Whitney PW1521G geared turbofan engine and flyby-wire controls. It is this technology that Hachey believes will deliver a large enough operating efficiency advantage to differentiate the CSeries from competitors.

Learjet 85 Still on Schedule

The all-composite Bombardier Learjet 85 similarly represents above-average technical risk and creates a new niche between midsize and super-midsize business jets. It is scheduled for certification in 2013.

That program for the 3,000-nm jet (four passengers) remains on schedule for now, but over the summer Bombardier admitted that certain capital expenditures related to the program have been “moved to the right.”

Like the CSeries, the $17.2 million (2008 $) Learjet 85 relies on a global supply chain, but this one is more within Bombardier-owned companies. Plans to outsource fuselage development and early production to Germany’s Grob Aircraft faded when that company filed for insolvency in 2008.

Throughout Bombardier, approximately 1,250 employees are dedicated to the Learjet 85 program and it is using the company’s engineering and manufacturing assets in Canada, Europe, Mexico and the U.S. The Belfast, Northern Ireland, facility will make wing planks, spars and other parts using resin transfer infusion technology (RTI), the same composite technology tapped for the CSeries airliner. Bombardier’s Queretaro,

32aaNBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

Mexico plant will assemble the wings and the fuselage before they are trucked to Wichita for final aircraft assembly.

Bombardier has tried to take as much variability as possible out of the Learjet 85’s composite manufacturing process by making it repeatable using a process whereby digital engineering drawings of the composite plies are projected onto the mold. This allows precise placement of each ply and layer of composite material and should aid in weight control. Bombardier is now focusing on getting the process down to where it is repeatable at the correct production volume.

While drawing heavily on company resources for the Learjet 85, Bombardier still is relying on 41 “major” suppliers for the aircraft and is using a collection of 63 test rigs at these companies to ensure that all of the aircraft’s components work properly when installed. Major vendors on the 85 include Pratt & Whitney Canada (engines), Rockwell Collins (avionics), Lufthansa Technik (cabin management system) and C&D Zodiac (interior).

Flexjet Launch Customer

For some time Bombardier has said it has approximately 60 orders for the aircraft. This summer it announced that its fractional shares arm, Flexjet, would be the launch customer with an order for seven aircraft. The 85 could help rejuvenate the languishing Learjet brand that delivered only 28 aircraft in all of 2010, but is slowly recovering with 19 deliveries in the first six months of 2011. Still, the Learjet production backlog currently is just six months.

There is good news from the Globals. Bombardier’s large-­ cabin jets, the XRS/6000 and 5000, continue to be popular sellers and have a healthy backlog that extends out 36 months. The Global line was further buoyed by a $2.8 billion order in March from fractional provider NetJets for 30 current production Globals and 20 new-generation Global 7000 and 8000 aircraft expected to come on line beginning in 2016. NetJets also took options for an additional 70 Globals that could boost the deal’s total value to $6.7 billion. Deliveries of the in-production aircraft begin late next year.

Bombardier also has received orders for its 7000/8000 Globals from fleet operators, including VistaJet and AVWest.

The new Globals will use the same fuselage cross section as the current production Global aircraft but it will be longer; the 7000 by 11 feet, three inches and the 8000 by two feet, three inches, and feature larger cabin windows. Not all details for the aircraft have been announced, but Bombardier has said that the aircraft will feature a new thin high-speed wing, fuelefficient GE TechX engines (16,500 pounds of thrust each) and a Global Vision avionics suite (likely based on the Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion system, but that has not yet been confirmed).

Bombardier said that both aircraft, at Mach 0.90, will beat the new Gulfstream G650’s range. At Mach 0.85 the Global 8000 has a range of 7,900 nm and the 7000 has a range of 7,300 nm. Both aircraft are expected to sell in the $65 million (2010 $) range and have a maximum takeoff weight near 105,000 pounds. o

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Avinode app delivers charter info to phones

by Charles Alcock Online charter portal Avinode state of the market by generating (Booth No. C7818) is introducing forward-looking indices showa new suite of mobile applications ing projected demand and prices for iPhones and iPads to put real- over the coming 30-day period, time aircraft availability data in calculated from between 80,000 and 150,000 flight requests for the palm of the user’s hand.

The Sweden-based group up to 3,000 aircraft processed developed the apps so that char- through its online portal each ter operators and brokers can month. This includes 1,700 make them available to their cli- logged on a real-time availabilents, sparing them the chore of ity feed, while operators manudoing the complex development ally log the remaining 1,300. work themselves. They include Some Bright Spots charter search and request tools Figures produced in Septhat the brokers and operators can use, with or without empty- tember showed the demand leg search capability, as well as a index averaging 15 to 25 points stand-alone empty-leg sales tool. higher than the equivalent peri“We believe that finding a ods in 2010. Meanwhile, flightprivate jet should be as simple hour prices are still below levels charged prior to the and flexible as traveling 2008 financial criin one,” explained Per sis and, while they Marthinsson, managhave generally recoving director for Avinode ered over the past 12 Americas.

“So we months, those gains are designed a suite of apps being undermined by that would allow our rising operating ­­costs– marketplace members most notably fuel. to give their clients easy Avinode business access to available char- Per Marthinsson, intelligence manager ter aircraft with real-time Avinode Americas Magnus Henriksson price and availability information pulled straight from pointed to some bright spots in the 2011 charter recovery, parthe Avinode marketplace.”

International charter broker- ticularly the Russian market. ing group Air Partner Interna- “We’ve seen the Russian Bear tional has been one of the first waking up during the spring, driving a strong demand for Avinode clients to use the app. ­ It has taken advantage of the executive charter to and from white-label design to brand it as the Moscow region,” he commented. The company also its own application.

Avinode keeps tabs on the has continued to see growth in

­ astern Europe and in new marE kets such as Turkey.

Other demand spikes seen this year were clearly prompted by the so-called Arab Spring political upheaval in the North African states of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya. The Avinode system has revealed charter bookings clearly related to movements of people out of the country at times of heightened tensions.

The Avinode database has also highlighted tangibly different trends in charter markets around the world. For instance, as the U.S. economy softened a few years ago there was a move from chartering heavier jets to the super-midsize and midsize categories. “The market [for business aircraft use] has been far more established in the U.S. since the 1970s, so consumers there try to avoid the need to stop flying,” said Henriksson. “Instead, they just try to fly cheaper, and so while they still need a certain amount of range, they have been downgrading from the heavy iron.”

In the U.S., according to Avinode, the most popular jets for charter so far this year have been Bombardier’s Learjet 60 and 35, as well as the Gulfstream GIV. Henriksson maintained that the U.S. market has been “bouncing back slowly but surely,” with supply of aircraft once again tightening around peak periods.

Europe Bucks the Trend

Though buffeted by the same economic storm, charter trends in Europe have been moving in the opposite direction. Europeans have displayed no such pragmatism in altering their charter habits to avoid having to go back to airline service. This has

SchedAero Lightens Load for Smaller Operators Avinode is stepping up the development of the SchedAero online flight-scheduling system that it acquired when it merged with Charter X last year. The latest new feature allows operators to check the names of an aircraft’s crew and passengers automatically against the TSA No-Fly List, as they are now legally required to do by the Transportation Security Administration.

SchedAero has been developed specifically with smaller aircraft operators and charter brokers in mind. “We realized that many smaller companies are still using things like whiteboards and Word and Excel software for their flight scheduling,” said SchedAero managing director Niklas Berg, explaining that its system is intended as an affordable but fully functioning alternative to the much more elaborate systems used by larger operators.

In fact, SchedAero has been developed to handle more than just the basic flight-scheduling functions. With increasingly complex regulations requiring operators to account for factors such as pilot hours and airframe and engine utilization, the system also offers a single collection point for all this data.

It also can be interfaced directly with both the Avinode online charter availability and flight quoting database, as well as with

the operator audit function of its sister company Wyvern, saving the need for users to re-enter data.

With SchedAero operating online, the operators can access it anywhere and they don’t have to deal with the trouble and expense of hosting it within their own IT setups.

The scheduling module uses a web-based calendar to keep track of crew rosters and aircraft availability in real time.

The system also features a document management system that can attach specific data such as trip information or Wyvern audit data to a specific project or client file. It can also attach documents such as insurance, operator licensing and crew training details. Berg said more features will be introduced incrementally.

SchedAero has attracted more than 100 customers since it was launched last year. The company, which is run as a standalone profit center separate from Avinode, provides training and support for operators so that they maximize their use of the system. “Operators need to make this the heart of their operation,” said Berg. “It’s not just about swiping a credit card [to sell the software], it’s about changing habits so that smaller operators aren’t buried in manual double-entry data collection and spending hours to quote for trips.” –C.A.

34 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

Avinode’s iPad and iPhone apps offer clients access to its charter search and request tools.

seen the light-jet sector hit badly as those who can no longer justify the cost simply drop out of the market. At the same time, presumably because the superrich have tended to stay at least rich, demand at the top end of the market has accounted for a growing proportion of charter activity (rising from 23 percent in 2008 to 29 percent this year).

Among the most popular models in Europe in 2011 so far have been the Embraer Legacy 600 and the Bombardier Challenger 604, 605 and 300. The Cessna Citation XLS has also been in demand and, bucking the antilight-jet trend, also the Citation Mustang. “So, even though 60 percent of charter flights booked

in Europe through Avinode are of only one to two hours duration and carry one to three passengers, Europe has tended toward larger and newer aircraft, while the U.S. has gone for smaller, older ­aircraft,” said Henriksson.

Generally, the Avinode database is full of paradoxes. In Europe, the average distance flown per trip has reduced, resulting in more price-conscious charter buyers. “Even though prices have increased, by doing shorter trips the overall revenue [for operators] is reduced,” said Henriksson. “On the U.S. side there is a trend toward charter buyers doing both longer trips in smaller aircraft and shorter trips in larger aircraft.” o

Wyvern Adds to Wingmen Ranks The ranks of the Wyvern Wingmen aircraft and engine hours. are set to increase with 26 new and re“After the audit we have a reliable turning charter operators taking safety way to check on the operation after audits during the months of September each mission,” Moldowan told AIN. “It and October. It is now 20 years since pushes the reporting system back to the Trenton, N.J.-based safety consul- the charter buyer and they can run the tancy established the Wyvern Standard data against the Wyvern Standard or and not one of the operators approved any industry average. Brokers can use under this has suffered a fatal accident it to ensure that an operator is legal.” in this time.

The system can check whether a speFor charter buyers needing a de- cific aircraft (filtered by tail number) is pendable vendor management tool, still registered under a particular air Wyvern has always been about more operator’s certificate or whether it has than knowing that an opmoved to another operaerator passed an audit on tor’s certificate. a one-off basis, according Improving paperless to managing director Brent efficiency for operators as Moldowan.

“Post-audit they seek to remain coman operator is required to pliant is the fact that trainkeep up with particular reing and maintenance data porting requirements,” he can be collected directexplained. “Operator, airly and automatically from craft and crew background Brent Moldowan the providers of these serchecks happen 24/7 in the Wyvern da- vices. Now Wyvern, a subsidiary of tabase. This ensures that The Wyvern Avinode following its acquisition of Audit is more than just a snapshot of Charter X last year, is repackaging its what the audit team saw while they various services and databases to dewere on site with the charter operator.” liver a more complete service to opTechnology is continuing to take erators and buyers. These include the application of Wyvern methods to its Pilot and Aircraft Safety Survey new levels, with proactive data mining (PASS), which builds around 3,200 used to obtain accurate, real-time data, mission-specific safety intelligence reincluding training documents, the cur- ports each month, with an alert given rency of crew qualifications, insurance to Wyvern staff if an anomaly is dislevels, maintenance standards and covered. –C.A.

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Cambridge Airport beckons U.S. travelers

by Charles Alcock Traffic is growing at the UK’s Cambridge Airport following a rebranding and change of management at the start of 2011.

The privately owned facility has come to the NBAA show (Booth No. N1622) to encourage more North American operators to try out the convenient access it gives to large parts of southern and eastern England.

According to new airport director Archie Garden, the number of business aircraft movements is up by 15 percent compared with the same period in 2010. Fuel sales have increased by 37 percent and revenues from aircraft parking fees climbed by 90 percent.

The upsurge in corporate, private and charter flights has been supplemented by growing volumes of air ambulance services, taking passengers to leading hospitals nearby. Also increasing has been flight-training activity.

The airport is investing in a GPS system that will allow its precision approach path indicators to be adjusted to allow training for

steep approach landings (such as those required for the 5.5-deg approach at London City Airport). ILS, NDB and DME procedures are also available.

Cambridge’s 6,447-foot runway is capable of receiving intercontinental business jet arrivals, including aircraft up to the size of a Boeing 757. It has Category 7 fire and air traffic control status (under UK Civil Aviation Authority codes) and approach radar coverage up to 13 nm.

The airport is situated about 60 miles north of London, and is close to the many high-tech businesses that have sprung up around one of the world’s top universities in Cambridge. The airport can be open around the clock and has been approved to exercise this option during the 2012 London Olympic games, for which it is well placed just to the north of the prohibited airspace area that will be in place for this event. Operators arriving from the north will be able to completely avoid the inconvenience of the prohibited area.

Iacobucci HF launches seat division, new design

by Kirby J. Harrison Iacobucci HF, the Italian maker of galley appliance inserts, is continuing its venture into the aircraft seating business with the introduction at NBAA of a new business unit–Iacobucci Seat Division–to manage that endeavor.

Iacobucci (Booth No. N2526) made its first foray into the seat arena at the 2010 NBAA convention with the introduction of a model created in collaboration with BMW Group DesignworksUSA of Newbury Park, Calif. The theme, according to Iacobucci, was the “right mix of technology, innovation and design [offering] favorable conditions to conceive a premium seat design.”

The seat features a single 45- to 46-inch upright and 21-inch wide backrest structure and a seven-inch deployable and extendable leg rest. A “cradle” recline design employs a seat-pan tilt that prevents the

passenger from sliding out of the seat when it is the recline position. Coordinated with the recline feature is an armrest that retracts fully to allow for a fullflat sleeping berth. Finally, the headrest movement includes vertical, horizontal and tilt features. The seat also has a floortracking mechanism and comes

Iacobucci’s newest seat, being introduced here at the NBAA convention, offers a 360-degree swivel feature.

The recent facility improvement project at Marshall Business Aviation Centre included the construction of a 21,500-sq-ft hangar that houses the company’s Cessna Citation service center. NetJets Europe also uses the facility as a maintenance hub.

Two years ago, Cambridge Airport’s private owners, the Marshall Group, invested just over $7 million in the development of a new business aviation terminal, including meeting rooms, passenger and crew rooms, as well as bedrooms and showers. Adjoining this is a new 21,500-sq-ft hangar that now houses the factory-authorized Cessna Citation service center that Marshall has operated at Cambridge since 1974. The facility is used as a maintenance hub for fractional ownership provider NetJets Europe. The airport’s sister company, Marshall Executive Aviation, bases its charter fleet in Cambridge.

It operates a Citation Bravo and an XLS, as well as a Bombardier Challenger 300. o standard as a manual articulation variant. An electrically articulated seat is optional.

A second seat in the line is being introduced at this year’s convention. It features a 45-inch backrest and is 23 inches wide. The three-way headrest has a wide range of adjustments, including vertical, horizontal and tilting features as well as headrest flaps. It has a fixed track-fitting installation, 360-degree swivel, multiple-lock drop-down armrest and extendable leg rest, as well as a folding manual footrest.

“The project team developed a seat ergonomically responding to the form of the human body,” said Iacobucci HF Group marketing director Riccardo Palmeri. “The mechanical swivel enhances the useful space while the light structure and smooth movements make it easy to install and maintain.”

Both seats meet 16-g certification requirements as well as FAA and EASA build-up and burn tests. According to Palmeri, they have been created with extreme care to all details including extensive pressure-mapping tests, minimal weight and meticulous attention to detail. o

36 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

Representatives from privately owned London-area Cambridge Airport are here at NBAA to promote the airport’s merits, particularly for North American operators.

Caymans promoting offshore registry The Civil Aviation Authority of the Cayman Islands (CAACI) is in Las Vegas this week (Booth No. C11231) to promote its offshore aircraft registry, which currently has around 175 aircraft registered in the private aircraft category. This comprises jets from all the major manufacturers, including Gulfstream, Embraer, Dassault, Cessna, Airbus and Boeing, according to the Registry.

The CAA’s Air Safety Registration (ASR) personnel manage the registration process, which includes airworthiness inspections as part of the safety and technical oversight role, and flight operations assessments, including the validation of personnel licenses. Senior CAACI personnel are on hand at the NBAA show to answer questions on anything from registering mortgages to finding adequate legal and financial solutions for its “diverse, globally based clientele.”

CAACI is led by Richard Smith, the Cayman Islands’ director of civil aviation, who

qualified as a Boeing 737 pilot with Cayman Airways in 1993.

Potential clients have to pass a financial and legal due ­diligence process, but if successful they can look forward to receiving a registration (VP-XXX) and a few documents, such as certificate of registration, certificate of airworthiness, noise certificate, acceptance of maintenance arrangements, maintenance schedule acceptance, radio station installation approval, designated airspace approval and maintenance authorization(s). o

News Note The butt sketcher is back at the Jet Works Air Center booth (No. N6313). NBAA attendees are invited to stop by for a free butt sketch by the Original Butt Sketch company. And while at the booth, Denton, Texas-based Jet Works will highlight its maintenance, ­ completions, avionics upgrades and paint services. 

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CMC updates SmartDeck avionics, hooks iPad to EFB

by Harry Weisberger Esterline CMC Electronics (Booth No. N5507) is featuring the latest version of its SmartDeck avionics suite as well as an array of its PilotView electronic flight bag (EFB) products. CMC’s attention to EFBs also includes Tandem, a new software app that helps integrate mobile devices such as the iPad with CMC’s certified EFBs. CMC says its Tandem software will let operators make optimal use of tablets computers on the ground and Class 2/3 PilotView EFBs installed in their aircraft.

Pilots will be able to use their iPads away from the airport to acquire weather information, compose and file flight plans, review aircraft documents, calculate

weight and balance data, determine fuel requirements and other preflight activity.

Upon arriving at the aircraft, the crew can use their iPads to interface with the aircraftmounted EFBs, transferring data to the aircraft, taking advantage of the iPad’s and the EFB’s capabilities. For many aircraft operators, the robust nature and extensive testing of the Class 2 certified EFB is a requirement. But with Tandem, crews can plan flights well ahead of time and wirelessly connect to the cockpit system.

CMC has announced STC approvals for its 10.4-inch Class 2 PilotView EFB on the Boeing BBJ as well as the -600, -700C, -800, -900 and -900ER models of the 737. The cockpit information system

has also gained EASA certification for installation on the Embraer EMB-135BJ regional airliner. A recent PilotView EFB enhancement is introduction of the new Intel Dual Core i7 processor into all versions to deliver high-end graphics capabilities.

The Quebec, Canada-based firm is also showcasing its SmartDeck integrated avionics suite, which now features a new, second-generation highway-in-the-sky display symbology and a new three-display, dual-pilot configuration. The new symbology is geared to meet the needs of pilots of Class II and Class III aircraft. Greg Plantz, director of marketing and sales for SmartDeck, said, “Our primary goal will be to provide clear, understandable information that pilots can use, while eliminating much of the clutter that adds no measureable benefits.” Plantz said the SmartDeck’s advanced architecture supports scalability to various types

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Esterline CMC Electronics is showing its EFB system with a wireless interface with an iPad. Information can be transferred between devices to further simplify data gathering and transfers.

Prominent at Esterline CMC’s Booth 5507 is this futuristic flight display being used to demonstrate how evolving synthetic vision “highway in the sky” and presentation technologies can simplify and expand information presented to pilots.

CUSTOMER PROPERTY OVERHAULS

of aircraft, including growth capability for future advances in air traffic management associated with the development of the next-generation air traffic control system (NextGen).

CMC president Greg Yelden told AIN the company is coming off a second consecutive record fiscal year this month.

“It’s been a very active and successful period of time, especially over the last couple of years,” he said. CMC’s business profile is roughly 50/50 commercial/ military, with the commercial side split roughly 60/40 between retrofit and OEM business, respectively. o

API displaying trio of blended winglets here

by Mark Huber Aviation Partners is showing three new blended winglet designs at this year’s NBAA show, all on display in the company’s booth (No. C8110).

The new Scimitar design features a new tip-cap and provides a 10-percent performance improvement over existing blended-winglet technology. Drag is reduced by an additional 0.5 percent at long range cruise over the 7.3-percent improvement provided by the previous Scimitar design.

The new design is certified on the Hawker 800 and the first customer installation currently is taking place. Aviation Partners is contemplating offering the modified tip cap design as a retrofit for its existing Hawker 800 winglet customers.

The Spiroid winglet first demonstrated on the Falcon 50 in 2010 has been shown to provide a drag reduction of more than 11 percent and the company continues to study possible applications.

Meanwhile, Aviation Partners is readying its new blended split-tip Scimitar winglet for flight test. The new design adds a blended verntral fin and Scimitar tips. o

Aviation Partners is preparing to flight test this dramatic-looking split-tip Scimitar winglet.

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38 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

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Learn how you can fly a corporate aircraft into Reagan Washington National Airport today at the “Demystifying DASSP DCA Access Program Roundtable.” The meeting will be held in Room N253 from 3:30 to 5 p.m. and features representatives from the TSA and DCA FBO Signature Flight Support and others, including moderator Bill Garvey, editor-inchief of Business & Commercial Aviation magazine. For more information or to RSVP, contact Patrick Sniffen at (321) 276 7232 or patrick.sniffen@signatureflight.com.

z Amsterdam Software To Demo FBO One System Exhibiting for the first time at an NBAA show this year, Amsterdam Software (Booth No. C10847) will demonstrate its FBO One system to American audiences. The Web-based FBO One software–tested at facilities outside the U.S. for the past four years–organizes almost every element of FBO operations, from tracking fuel sales and inventory control, to aircraft parking needs, catering requests and a variety of crew demands. Its developers view FBO One as a service designed to automate excruciating amounts of paperwork that used to take hours to track.

The system offers operators the opportunity to link multiple locations as well as regularly evaluate all operations with reports sent through secured networks to mobile devices, including iPads. This new-to-the Americas software also supports a number of local FBO details such as workflow, taxes, currencies, airport fees and customs obligations.

Amsterdam’s software evolved from a partnership between founder and CEO Ries Vriend and KLM. “With a proven track record in Europe, the Middle East and Asia and with clients such as KLM, Jet Aviation and Swissport, we are now coming to the American continent,” said Vriend. As a private company, Amsterdam Software began testing the FBO One service with KLM Jet Center’s two facilities in the Netherlands, which eventually grew to serving a network of 40 FBOs all across Europe. FBO One also easily integrates with EuroControl CFMU and FlightAware flight-tracking as well as handling orders for NetJets Europe and Universal Weather and Aviation.

z AJW Aviation Adds Preferred-Spares Service A J Walter Aviation (AJW) has introduced a preferredspares support service for corporate and private clients.

The service, which is being offered in conjunction with Washington, D.C.-based Loudoun Aviation, has already signed several clients. UK-based Acropolis Aviation, a charter and aircraft management firm, has chosen AJW (Booth No. N612) to provide leasing pool access support for its ACJ319 and Comlux Aviation Group is using AJW for its Boeing 767 and Airbus fleet. In addition, Global Jet Luxembourg will be working with AJW for exchange, loan and repair management on its Boeing and Airbus fleet.

In other news from AJW, the company has begun building a new headquarters near London’s Gatwick Airport. The facility, which is scheduled to open by summer 2012, will initially provide 240,000 sq ft for office and storage facilities.

Aviation Green Alliance

by Jeff Burger Jeppesen (Booth No. C8810) announced here at the NBAA show that it will serve as a founding member of the Lindbergh Foundation’s nonprofit Aviation Green Alliance. The alliance was established earlier this year to encourage aviation-related companies to seek solutions, communicate ideas and acknowledge progress with regard to environmental problems. The alliance offers multiple platforms for members to share findings, strategies and ideas. It also provides environmental news and information and grant funding

to promote the discovery and development of technologies.

Jeppesen said it will bring together stakeholders to address environmental issues facing the

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z Roundtable To Unravel DCA Acess

Jeppesen joins Lindbergh

aviation industry, including emissions, noise and operational efficiency. “We are thrilled that Jeppesen will be among our elite group of founding members,” said Lindbergh Foundation chairman and CEO Larry Williams.

“With its 77-year history of innovation, Jeppesen continues to be an excellent model for other companies in our industry by leading the way once again–this time for our environment.” o

Larry Williams (left), chairman of the Lindbergh Foundation’s Aviation Green Alliance, welcomes Jeppesen president and CEO Mark Van Tine.

Duncan doles advice on NextGen, Fans, Wi Fi

by Harry Weisberger Duncan Aviation is at Booth No. C8127 to share with operators innovative programs for economizing costs and cutting downtime for interior refurbishments, explaining the FAA NextGen initiative and Future Air Navigation System (Fans) and answering common issues about Wi Fi installations for business aircraft.

Duncan is demonstrating a video series and a field guide explaining how phasing interior maintenance with regularly

z JetFlite Sets Up New Russian Entity Charter and management firm JetFlite International (JFI) has signed a partnership agreement with Moscow’s Best-Jets to help JFI penetrate the Russian market. Named JFI Russia, the new entity comes partly as a result of Best-Jets acting as JFI’s handling agent in the country for the past five years.

JetFlite CEO Bill Cripe said, “With JFI located in California and New York, trying to get a foothold in Russia is nearly impossible without having staff there.” JetFlite (Booth No. N3136) expanded its presence in Moscow last month with the addition of a Bombardier Challenger 601 based at Vnukovo Airport. This joins a Gulfstream G200 already in place there.

According to Cripe, there is a great deal of opportunity for the charter/management sector in Russia.

40 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

scheduled maintenance events benefits passengers, prevents damage and controls long-term costs. Duncan’s Phased Interior Maintenance program can improve an aircraft interior and help refurbishments last longer, by timing portions of interior upgrades to coincide with maintenance events. The program provides operators with plans unique to their specific aircraft, said Nate Darlington, Duncan interior modification sales. “We work with you to review your

interior’s current condition, taking a look at how the aircraft is used and create a plan that you can take with you, all at no cost or obligation.”

Duncan avionics specialists give operators a quick overview of the FAA NextGen initiative in an e-book titled, Straight Talk About NextGen. There is much to understand on the topic, said Steve Elofson, Duncan installation sales rep, who hopes the release of the NextGen e-book will address many operators’ concerns. According to the company, “We believe our efforts in finding and condensing this information will clarify the subject.” A companion Straight Talk e-book offers information to give operators a closer look at Fans and its relationship to NextGen. o

I Wanna Win Mike Wilson, who works for the FAA in Atlanta, strikes a pose for an iPad promotion put on by Business Jet Center Dallas. The picture has to be posted on Facebook.

“I want to win an iPad,” said Wilson, as Lisa Peterson looks on.

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news clips

API receives Chinese customs OK Aerospace Products International (API) announced this summer that its subsidiary in Shanghai, China, received Class-A enterprise certification from China Customs, a status that eases government restrictions on the facility.

API China is a distributor of original equipment manufacturer (OEM) aircraft parts and also provides supply chain management services, including vendor-managed inventory and third-party logistics programs.

The company has 16,000 sq ft of office and distribution facilities and a climate-controlled warehouse. It also has a forward stocking location in Beijing.

API (Booth No. N1916), based in Memphis, Tenn., is a wholly owned subsidiary of First Aviation Services of Westport, Conn. The company’s focus on distribution of OEM parts and supply chain functions

allows customers such as manufacturers, MRO facilities, FBOs, airlines and aircraft owners and operators to concentrate on their core competencies. API distributes products from more than 150 parts and component

manufacturers and suppliers.

In late June, Purdue University selected API as logistics management supplier to support the university’s new fleet of Cirrus SR20 training aircraft.

Also earlier this year, API and Oviv Security Technologies of Merignac, France (Booth N2116), entered into a worldwide distribution agreement authorizing API

to distribute Oviv’s Sentinel 100L security system.

The Sentinel 100L uses a combination of high-frequency motion detection and highresolution CMOS cameras to provide a surveillance perimeter with 360-degree coverage around a parked aircraft. The system can be deployed by pilots or ground handlers. –B.C.

Customs Certifications

Companies that perform import and export activities in China are categorized into classes by China Customs. Certifications are awarded by class based upon compliance with local laws and customs policies as well as by business performance. The class of certification awarded to a company determines the level of oversight that China Customs places on the qualifying company.

According to API, the qualifying organization must have less than 3 percent of customs clearance errors with no violations of China Customs policies and regulations. It must be in full compliance with China Customs accounting and financial reporting guidelines. Further, it must have no policy violations on record with the Central Bank of China, the Tax Bureau, the Standards Bureau and the Foreign Exchange Bureau.

News Note Banyan Air Service has ex­ panded the hours of operation of its maintenance shop at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport in Florida. After adding a second shift, the shop’s hours now extend from Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to midnight, and Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. On-call service is available on Sundays.

Banyan was also recently named an authorized service center for the Quest Kodiak single-engine turboprop. The company also announced that it has rebranded the Hangar63 pilot shop at Executive Airport as well as its online store, TropicAero.com, to Banyan Pilot Shop and BanyanPilotn Shop.net, respectively.

®

www.ainonline.com • October 12, 2011 • NBAA Convention News 41

Parabellum from Otonomy offers wireless security

Come see us at Booth C10229

316.733.9240 www.GLOBALPARTS.aero 24-hour AOG line 316.351.5511 ISO 9001:2000/AS9120:2002 Certified ASA-100 Accredited Authorized Hawker Beechcraft Spare Parts Distributor for Mexico & Central America

As more business and private jets travel further abroad, often to airports where ground security is nonexistent or minimal at best, Otonomy Aviation (Booth No. N608) has a growing family of solutions for security concerns.

The company, based in Bordeaux, France, has launched Parabellum, a new wireless security system for parked aircraft. The system integrates a new range of 1080i high-definition digital cameras (CamHD) and provides a security perimeter around an aircraft, triggering an alarm upon any intrusion or impact.

A dedicated camera records video of the area and allows the operator to view the footage from any remote computer, smartphone through the GSM/3G network or via an optional satellite connection.

According to Otonomy, Parabellum

After first 100 years, Socata considers jet uContinued from page 16 was taken over by Potez and became SEEMS and, in 1966, its civilian models were spun off to form Socata. This company was subsequently purchased by Aérospatiale, one of the companies that later became part of EADS, which has retained a 30-percent holding in Socata.

Morane-Saulnier’s industrial activity developed with the production of airframe elements for other aircraft makers, marking the start of aerostructures manufacturing as an important component of its business. The business grew strongly to include, for example, production of Section 16 for the supersonic Concorde jetliner in the 1970s. Meanwhile, Daher, which previously had shipped engines for the early Caravelle jetliner, became very much involved with the newly created Airbus consortium, transporting rear sections of Europe’s pioneering A300

In 1974 the Morane Saulnier MS-760B, an upgraded version of the Paris Jet, appeared at the Reading Airshow.

42 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

has a battery life of more than 30 days and the video event storage has a 300-hour capacity. The stand-alone Parabellum box weighs slightly more than 11 pounds.

The CamHD 1080i high-definition cameras were introduced earlier this year at EBACE. CamHD provides up to eight HD-SDI 1080 NTSC and Ethernet H264 signals to any in-flight cabin entertainment system or cockpit display. At the same time, video can be pushed to a Wi-Fi connected tablet, such as an iPad, thanks to a dedicated wireless link.

The CamHD package is based on four components: the VCCU unit to monitor and duplicate video for the IFE-connected system; the CamHD-1 tail- or belly-mount high-definition camera; the CamHD-4 camera pod to provide a 360-deg view around the aircraft; and the CamHD-Z camera, which can zoom to 120X. Powered directly by the aircraft’s 28-volt DC power source and connected to the in-flight entertainment system, each camera can be used as a stand-alone unit as a means of simplifying installation and reducing embedded weight. –K.J.H. medium-haul widebody aircraft, as well the Concorde’s landing gear.

With the market for light business airplanes dominated by U.S. manufacturers, Socata’s single-engine turboprop TBM 700, designed to carry six or seven passengers in a pressurized cabin and capable of operating from relatively short runways, became the first European aircraft to penetrate this segment when it achieved certification in 1990. The announcement in 2005 of the introduction of Socata’s TBM 850–as the so-called very fast turboprop–built on the success of the TBM 700 to meet the challenge of the very light jet and gave the manufacturer a muchneeded boost after a stagnation of its aircraft sales in 2003 and 2004.

The commercial success of the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-66D-powered TBM 850 has sustained activity in DaherSocata’s aerostructures programs. It may also have paved the way for Daher-Socata (Booth No. C6521) to enter the jet age, a concept for which the French firm is currently evaluating its options. o

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Global Jet Services personalizes mx training

by Robert P. Mark When aircraft manufacturers sell a new business aircraft, it’s typically delivered with a couple

of slots at a major training provider for pilots and the maintenance technicians who are going

to keep that specific airplane humming smoothly. Mention pilot and maintenance training and big brands like CAE SimuFlite and FlightSafety International usually come quickly to mind. But there’s another player in the maintenance training game, Weatogue, Conn.-based Global Jet Services.

Small in size when compared

to the more well-known brands, Global Jet employs a dozen seasoned maintenance classroom instructors and 17 more support folks behind the scenes tasked with keeping the company’s curriculum up-to-date and stimulating. Company spokesperson Darla Fricker calls Global Jet Services “a small, flexible company that’s expanded with the

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Visit us in Las Vegas at NBAA booth C8810 • jeppesen.com/nbaa3

You fly. We plan. International travel, simplified.

International Trip Planning from Jeppesen FliteSupport Services. Take away the complexities and worries from your global travel. Our dispatchers and planners work as an extension of your flight department to ensure that each trip is flawless.

InterTripPlan_03.indd 2 44 Jeppes112213 NBAA BA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com BAILEY LAUERMAN Jeppesen Planning Ad

9/21/11 11:44 AM

marketplace.” She said one of Global’s key features is “our more personal teaching style.

Our instructors don’t lecture to customers.” She added, “We’re also very cost-effective for medium-sized operators who can’t afford the competition.”

While Global Jet offers an alternative training opportunity, it also has a shared resources partnership with FlightSafety to cover topics the latter does not, or to step in when clients can’t make it to a FlightSafety location. Unlike FlightSafety and SimuFlite, Global Jet customers don’t train in specific locations, the company sends its instructors on the road to teach at the customer’s site.

Global Jet offers an initial or recurrent maintenance course for just about every manufacturer of turbine equipment, including Bombardier, Cessna, Hawker Beechcraft, Embraer, Dassault Falcon and Gulfstream. The company is also a training provider for Eclipse and CASA, as well as the former Swearingen/ Emivest (now SyberJet) SJ30.

Global Jet Services classes are certified by EASA, CASA (Australia) and Transport Canada. In the past year-and-a-half, Global Jet Services instructors have trained U.S. Air Force crews on the Hawker Beechcraft King Air, as well as members of the Iraqi air force and military personnel in Mexico, Spain, Afghanistan and Ecuador.

The company offers a broad curriculum in addition to customary maintenance subjects, such as avionics, and professional development courses like leadership, which also happen to be NBAA PDP-approved.

Fricker said Global Jet evolved its unique teaching style by appreciating the fact that technicians are hands-on kinds of people.

For instance, before the first class begins the company offers each maintenance student a stress-ball.

“We learned early on that these students simply learn better when they’re doing something with their hands,” she said.

The Global Jet Services information technology team works closely with instructors to keep the curriculum up-to-date. For example, during a slow period when others might be downsizing they take advantage of the time to develop new programs.

Global Jet controls the quality of its programming by using its own people from the beginning of the course development idea through video and graphic creation, as well as writing, editing and printing all company coursework. o

Students captivated by globe-girdling tales

by Kirby J. Harrison School to attend the NBAA convention and meet Irving, who was the youngest pilot to fly solo around the world and the first African American to do so. He now leads the Mitsubishi MU-2 Dream & Soar Program.

Recalling the flight, Irving said the best part was the return home, landing in Miami. The worst? Flying from Japan across

MARIANO ROSALES

Some 50 students from a Las Vegas magnet school crowded the Mitsubishi MU-2 exhibit (Booth No. C6920) to hear Barrington Irving describe his around-the-world flight in a Columbia 400, in his own words.

The event was sponsored

by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America, and NBAA provided tickets for the students from Rancho High

Barrington Irving speaks with a group of students attending the NBAA convention.

the frigid Bering Sea and searching for his next stop, remote Shemya Island. Home to a U.S. Air Force base, and not much else, Shemya is a bit of rock at the end of the Aleutian chain, just two miles long by one mile wide.

“It’s not the end of the world, but you can see it from there,” Irving remembered.

Irving’s smile lit up the exhibit as the students crowded close, many of them from the kind of challenged neighborhood where Irving was born.

“NBAA supports efforts to inspire the next generation of visionaries to consider careers in aviation,” said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen. “We salute Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America and Barrington Irving for their outstanding work to ensure that our nation’s youth have access to the exciting and rewarding opportunities the [aviation] industry has to offer.”

Irving also heads Experience Aviation, a non-profit program to encourage students to enter the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

Looking around at the Las Vegas trappings surrounding him as he spoke, Irving emphasized the importance of an education in these fields, adding, “This is the gamble they should be taking.” o

ICG, Overlook team on polar routes International Communications Group (ICG) is teaming with Overlook Consulting to bring operational approval services for Future Air Navigation System (FANS1/A) and polar routing to pilots and flight

departments using ICG’s NxtLink Iridium transceivers.

“With the FAA, Eurocontrol and others moving from flight deck voice to datalink communications,” said ICG CEO Scott Trainum, “operators are

Most meritorious

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Ed Bolen (left), president and CEO of NBAA, presents Clay Lacy with the 2011 NBAA Meritorious Service to Aviation Award yesterday.

compelled to decide how they will address the situation. Overlook Consulting has a background in developing the major elements for FANS operational approval, including the associated manuals, training and documentation.”

ICG (Booth No. C9830) has also collaborated with Talon Air Maintenance Services to complete the first installation of an ICG SB-200 Sora Lite Inmarsat high-speed data and voice satcom system on a Cessna Citation III. The announcement coincided with news that the first production units of ICG’s new ePhone cordless cabin telephone system will become available in December. Initial units will be used in testing for supplemental type certificate approval for installation of the handset on various aircraft models.

The ICG ePhone handset has screen quality equivalent to that of handheld personal devices and incorporates active cabin noise reduction, Bluetooth compatibility and power control to extend battery life with an autoshutoff feature.

–H.W.

news clips z XJet Expands in Denver, Plans Paris Campus XJet announced at the NBAA show that it plans to add 50,000 sq ft of ramp to its campus on the south side of Centennial Airport in Englewood, Colo., and that it will build a new facility in Paris. The Centennial facility includes a terminal with espresso and cocktail bar, two climate-controlled hangars, auto storage and auto spa facilities, a conference room and a pilots’ lounge. XJet, which began operations in 2007, plans to continue its Denver expansion next year with construction of a third hangar and what it describes as a “lavish” terminal.

Meanwhile, the company is moving ahead with the project on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. XJet (Booth No. N5121) has won approval from Aeroports de Paris for a campus at Paris Le Bourget Airport. The facility will occupy 18 acres along the northeast side of the airport and will include a private club, transient terminal and 80,000 sq ft of hangar space.

z Win a Ride in B-25 ‘Grumpy’ The Ninety-Nines is encouraging NBAA attendees to drop by its booth (No. C11846) to learn more about the organization.

Drop off a business card to participate in the daily drawings for classic posters, T-shirts, patches and bags. This afternoon at 4 p.m., the women pilots group is choosing the winner for its grand prize: two seats on a flight of the World War II-era B-25 Mitchell “Grumpy.” Participants need not be present to win.

z Bahrain Airshow 2012 Could Be a Sellout Bahrain International Airshow (Booth No. N308) is on track to be a sellout, according to organizer Farnborough International.

Manufacturers already committed to the Jan. 19-21, 2012 event at the Sakhir Airbase include Airbus, Boeing, Bombardier, Cessna, GE, Lockheed Martin and Sikorsky, and exhibitor space is filling up quickly. Amanda Stainer, Farnborough International events and exhibitions director, is in Las Vegas this week to promote the event. She said, “We now have only one chalet left.

The demand from industry for opportunities to participate in the show has been very high, [which was] expected following such a successful launch event in 2010.” Some $1 billion in orders were announced at the inaugural show in 2010.

z Westair and JetEx Will Run Shannon FBO JetEx, a worldwide flight-support business, has entered into a joint venture with Westair to operate its Shannon, Ireland FBO. The facility–which features more than 40,000 sq ft of hangar space plus terminal buildings, a pilots’ lounge, flight-planning room and offices–provides ground-support equipment, weather data access via computer and EASAapproved line and base maintenance support for several aircraft types. Shannon is notable as the first airport outside the Americas to offer full preclearance facilities for passengers traveling to the continental U.S. It is strategically located for technical stops for flights crossing the Atlantic from Eastern Europe and the Middle East. JetEx Flight Support, which is based in Dubai, is exhibiting at Booth No. N2534.

z Jet-Care iPad App Monitors Engines In-flight Jet-Care has introduced an iPad application called iEcho GPA. The software allows operators of turbine engines to gather and send information about the engines to the company for processing and evaluation. The data can be entered via the iPad (in airplane mode) during a flight and then saved until a network connection is available, at which point it can be submitted to Jet-Care.

The app automatically records aircraft speed and air temperature along with engine parameter data such as shaft speeds, turbine temperature and fuel flow. Jet-Care’s engineers compare recorded trends against a model for the particular engine/airframe combination. The company promptly alerts operators about any significant changes in trends and reports monthly on normal trends. Jet-Care, which has customers in more than 140 companies, is exhibiting at Booth No. N4916.

www.ainonline.com • October 12, 2011 • NBAA Convention News 45

LHT makes ‘nice HD’ even nicer Lufthansa Technik is presenting its new “Innovation Corner” at the NBAA show (Booth No. C9919), featuring prominently its next-generation “nice HD” cabin management and in-flight entertainment system.

According to the German MRO, completion and refurbishment specialist, the open architecture of nice HD is “highly configurable and flexible, allowing Lufthansa Technik to offer a wide number of cabin equipment packages.”

“Customers can experience innovative ways to control cabin communications and entertainment functions with our thirdgeneration user interface,” said

director of the innovation business unit Andrew Muirhead.

The system incorporates an animated graphical user interface (GUI) with an integrated scroll wheel and touchscreen.”

The scroll wheel allows the passenger, using a thumb or finger, to simply roll a small barrel, which corresponds to the animated GUI. Once the selection is chosen, the user can simply push to select the function.

Rounding out the user interface, the system also offers nice wireless remote for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. The app is available for download from the Apple App Store.

One of the more important additions to the original nice system is a Hollywood-approved encryption/decryption package that allows streaming of highdefinition video to each seat location without breaking digital rights management protection requirements.

Other new upgrades include: • Consolidation of numerous nice system components into fewer, smaller and lighter LRUs with more functionality.

• Increased network bandwidth and capacity with gigabit Ethernet to each seat.

•R emote system access for maintenence and product support. o

Smyrna Begins Flight Testing H80 Engines Smyrna Air Center has begun flight testing its Power90 Conversion for the King Air 90 with the 800-shp GE H80 engines. The H80s are expected to deliver enhanced performance and are capable of full power up to 107 degrees F at sea level. Performance will be measured up to the aircraft’s 30,000 foot ceiling. The company calls the H80 engines “the next step up in performance for the Power90 conversion.” A Power90 King Air is on display at the Convention Center static area.

Smyrna Air Center (Booth No. N1731) was founded 26 years ago as a full-service FBO and later added maintenance and modification capabilities for the Beechcraft King Air 90 series twin turboprop. Currently the company offers the Power90 conversion with the GE/Walter M601 engines (705 shp each) and 14 have been done since 1999. The

H80 engine upgrade will be added to Smyrna’s supplemental type certificate (STC) for that conversion.

GE acquired assets of Czech Walter Engines in 2008. A 2010 analysis of the Power90 conversion with the M601engine by Conklin & de Decker found that the $532,000 conversion provided enhanced safety and performance, reduced operating costs and firmed up resale value over the stock Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-21 engines. The conversion increases maximum cruising speed by nine knots to 256 ktas, increases range by 60 nm to 1,185 nm and boosts the one-engine inoperative ceiling to 18,000 feet from 16,500 feet. Overall, Conklin & de Decker found that the Walter engines burned 14 percent less fuel than the stock Model 90 engines over the course of a typical year and were substantially less expensive to maintain. n

They’ve got an app for that

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Ryan Frankhouser of Arinc poses with an iPad announcing Arincs’s latest app. In business for 80 years, the Annapolis, Md. company has been providing worldwide communications and flight support, including flight planning, fuel, weather services and international trip planning.

46 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

MARIANO ROSALES

by Kirby J. Harrison

Flying Colours furthers its Asian ambitions through its first international alliance with Hong Kong-based Metrojet. John Gillespie (left), CEO of Flying Colours, and Bjorn Naf, CEO Metrojet, sign the memorandum of understanding here at the show.

Flying Colours, Metrojet join on Asian refurb center Flying Colours, which specializes in interior completions and refurbishments, has partnered with Hong Kongbased Metrojet, a charter, management, maintenance, acquisition and sales company. Under terms of a memorandum of understanding signed here at the show, Flying Colours will open an operations base in Asia that will focus on interior refurbishment for mid- to large-size

business jets, including models from Bombardier, Dassault, Embraer, Gulfstream and Hawker Beechcraft. Specifics of the deal are still being finalized, and ratification is expected by mid-2012. “This is the first time that Flying Colours has partnered with an international company, so we are excited by the opportunity it offers,” said John Gillespie, CEO of the company, which is exhibiting at Booth No. N5500. –J.B.

WSI recreates Fusion with new wx software Weather Services International (WSI) has released a new version (4.0) of its Fusion software, which it bills as a “workflow-based aviation-planning/ decision-support tool.” The latest version adds more meteorological features, including an easy-tounderstand graphic presentation of weather events and conditions.

Among the new features are the North American Radar Mosaic, which provides a comprehensive view of radar across the continent without the need to overlay multiple radar types; a Hot Storm Index, which determines the potential impact of severe weather events; and High Definition Convective Weather Layers, which among other things features a new EchoTop mosaic that offers better spatial resolution and clearly shows the highest tops of greatest concern.

WSI touts Fusion as a way for operations management to gain early insight into changing flight, airfield and airspace conditions and to streamline

the decision-making workflow.

It combines global, public and proprietary weather information with data on airspace constraints, flight tracks and navigation.

The company has also just debuted an iPad app for its WSI Pilotbrief Optima service.

With it, a pilot can retrieve the information needed for a flight directly from the device. Among the data available on the app: high-definition weather layers; route-specific weather and Notam briefings; recently FAAcleared flight routes; tropical storm tracks; textual aviation weather reports and forecasts; and 10-day forecasts.

WSI (Booth No. C9213) is a Weather Channel company headquartered in Andover, Mass. –J.B. AINonline iPhone App NOW AVAILABLE

With the TrueNorth full-cabin telecommunications package, passengers can access Wi Fi, high-speed data, fax, high-def voice and corded and cordless handsets.

by Kirby J. Harrison TrueNorth is rapidly becoming one of the better-known cabin communications specialists. Here at the NBAA show, the Canadian firm ran up another flag with the announcement that it has been selected by global cabin completions giant Jet Aviation to provide its full cabin telecommunications package for

high-end interior outfitting.

TrueNorth’s Simphone OpenCabin system provides Wi Fi, high-speed data integration, fax, high-definition voice and corded and cordless handsets with credit card readers.

It also offers worldwide Iridium, Inmarsat and high-speed Ku-band satcom, all available

FlightSafety adding simulators

by Jeff Burger FlightSafety International (FSI) has announced a variety of new offerings aimed at enhancing its ability to train customers in current and forthcoming aircraft. For example, it is designing and manufacturing 14 Level D-qualified simulators that will be installed in its learning centers in 2012 and 2013.

Next year, moreover, it will add training locations for Gulfstream’s G450 and G550 in Dallas and Hong Kong. It will also increase its number of G650 simulators from one to three by 2013. In 2012, FSI will open a Hong Kong learning center as well as a maintenance training center for Cessna in Wichita.

And the company will increase the number of locations where Pratt & Whitney Canada engine training is available.

FSI is expanding its training programs into new areas, including night-vision-goggle training and helicopter crew resource management, and is introducing a training course material

presentation and electronic distribution system that it says will significantly enhance the training experience of its customers.

The system should make life easier for students, by delivering pre-study and course material such as manuals and PDFs via the myFlightSafety customer portal instead of on compact disks or USB drives. Students will be able to access this material after registering for courses and also during training at FSI learning centers. FSI eventually plans to add 3-D graphics, video and other enhancements to these electronic materials.

Given the growing popularity of tablet computers like Apple’s iPad among business aircraft pilots, it’s no surprise that FlightSafety has developed its own iPad app. The app allows students–after registering for a course–to download training materials to their iPads. Initially, the materials are for the Gulfstream GIV, GV, G450, G550, G280 and

G650. Other aircraft will be added, as well as apps for other mobile devices, “if customer demand warrants,” according to FSI. FSI plans to make the iPad app able to tap into a revisions service for course materials. The app also can transfer customer notes and bookmarks to subsequent document versions and seamlessly between

that English is the international language of aviation, we also understand that business aircraft operators–the actual users of airborne telecommunications systems–may be more comfortable and more productive using a telecom system with an operating system that works on their own terms,” said van Berkel.

Van Berkel also announced that TrueNorth is now an EASA Part 145 approved organization, complementing its Transport Canada and FAA status as an approved manufacturer for aeronautical products and an approved maintenance organization.

“As a world company serving the elite operators of large-cabin intercontinental aircraft, we see this as a important step in bringing the quality, reliability and performance of our Simphone OpenCabin system and other products to an even broader audience, said van Berkel. o

TrueNorth unveiled its Stylus, which can be programmed to operate in any language, including those with dedicated character sets such as Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and Russian.

Gulfstream’s new PlaneBook app and FlightSafety publications.

FSI also announced that it has received FAA approval for a corporate cabin attendant training program, which it offers at customer locations and also at its facilities in Long Beach, Calif.; Teterboro, N.J.; Savannah, Ga.; and Paris. The approval allows FSI to deliver Part 135 records of training and the training meets Part 135.331, ICAO and IS-BAO requirements. The Long Beach

center now offers full-size fire and evacuation trainers, including Gulfstream, Falcon, Hawker, Challenger and Global over-wing exits and a fully operational Gulfstream door.

FSI has announced training programs in several aircraft models at various locations. Its Dallas/Fort Worth learning center will offer the first of the company’s aforementioned Level D-qualified simulators and Part 142-approved training for the Falcon 900LX, Gulfstream G280 and Pilatus PC12. o

a lot to see for all Both young and old can be captivated by the action at an NBAA static display.

Just wait until they see what’s in store for them inside the exhibit halls.

www.ainonline.com • October 12, 2011 • NBAA Convention News 47

MARIANO ROSALES

Jet Av taps TrueNorth for cabin communication

on aircraft types ranging from the Airbus ACJ line and Boeing’s BBJ to large-cabin types from Bombardier, Dassault, Embraer and Gulfstream.

A software-centric system, the Simphone (pronounced “symphony”) OpenCabin system is designed for high reliability, ease of operator control and versatile communications capabilities. By comparison with other systems that are not software-centric, Simphone is lighter, less expensive to install and operate and relatively easy to upgrade with software changes.

“With its experience in serving some of the world’s most demanding aircraft operators, we’re delighted that Jet Aviation has chosen TrueNorth as its airborne telecom partner,” said TrueNorth president and CEO Mark van Berkel.

Also at NBAA, TrueNorth has unveiled the TrueNorth Stylus, which the company said is “business aviation’s first multilingual handset.” Stylus incorporates TrueNorth’s intuitive, one-button interface; highdefinition voice quality for near-broadband quality voice communications; wired and wireless configuration options; and personalization options that include custom materials to match the cabin décor.

Stylus can be programmed to operate in any language, including those with dedicated character sets such as Chinese, Japanese, Arabic and Russian.

“Even though we realize

news clips z Sierra Industries Retrofits Legacy Aircraft Sierra Industries and sister company Skyway Aerospace Technologies (Booth No. C9847) are providing retrofits and retrofit engineering support for popular legacy aircraft.

Sierra announced that is has received FAA supplemental type certificate approval for a Garmin G1000 retrofit for the Cessna Citation 501SP, which it brands as the G501SP. The first customer aircraft with the retrofit is on display here at the NBAA static display at Henderson Executive Airport. The aircraft also features Sierra’s Stallion modification, which features Williams International FJ44 engines.

The G501SP flight deck is available, installed, for $284,000 and includes two Garmin GDU 10.4-inch primary flight displays and a single centrally mounted multifunction display.

Optional add-ons include twin Cobham LCD engine displays, Jeppesen charts, XM Radio, TAWS-A or B, pedestal-mounted alphanumeric keypad and Garmin SVT synthetic vision.

z AmeriCares Benefit Raises $1.4 Million The 24th annual AmeriCares Airlift Benefit–which took place October 1 at the Panorama Flight Service hangar at Westchester County Airport in New York–raised $1.4 million for the organization’s worldwide relief efforts. More than 700 guests attended the event, which was hosted by Mika Brzezinski of MSNBC’s Morning Joe show. The evening ended with 75 of the guests boarding an airlift flight to the Dominican Republic to observe AmeriCares programs first-hand. Panorama Flight Service is exhibiting here at Booth No. C10235.

z Meridian Earns Argus Platinum Rating Meridian Air Charter, based in Teterboro, N.J., has received a Platinum rating from Argus International. The rating–assigned to operators that meet Argus’s highest safety standards–was formally presented here at the NBAA show to Meridian Air Charter president Dennis O’Connell and director of sales and client services Andrew Ladouceur. Meridian added a second Hawker 800XP last week, bringing its charter fleet to a total of 18 aircraft. The company is a division of Meridian (Booth No. N5512), which also offers aircraft management and maintenance and operates an FBO at Teterboro Airport.

z JetFlite Sets Up New Russian Entity Charter and management firm JetFlite International (JFI) has signed a partnership agreement with Moscow’s Best-Jets to help JFI penetrate the Russian market. Named JFI Russia, the new entity comes partly as a result of Best-Jets acting as JFI’s handling agent in the country for the past five years. JetFlite CEO Bill Cripe said, “With JFI located in California and New York, trying to get a foothold in Russia is nearly impossible without having staff there.”

JetFlite (Booth No. N3136) expanded its presence in Moscow last month with the addition of a Bombardier Challenger 601 based at Vnukovo Airport. This joins a Gulfstream G200 already in place there. According to Cripe, there is a great deal of opportunity for the charter/management sector in Russia. He said that one of the company’s managed fleet flew 80 charter hours in a month.

JFI also announced that it has become launch customer for Honeywell’s Mechanical Protection Plan, an extended warranty program for the OEM’s avionics and cabin control systems.

z Tool Testing Lab Has the Tools To Test Tires Precise determination of tire pressure is far more critical for aircraft than for the family auto, which is why Tool Testing Lab is at NBAA’11 with a line of super-accurate, high-resolution tire pressure gauges. The Vandalia, Ohio company is at Booth No. C11046 with a half-dozen digital and analog tire inflator and pressure measurement devices ranging in price from $96.75 to $292.50 and a strut inflation tool with gauge and hose rated at 3,000 psi. The latest Tool Testing Lab model, a digital 0-to300-psi gauge, features a 0.5-percent tolerance and 0.1-psi resolution and includes a tire-tread depth gauge.

CAE expanding; plans four new locations

by Kirby J. Harrison Aircraft training provider and simulator manufacturer CAE is bringing a growing global footprint to this year’s NBAA convention, revealing plans to expand its training network with new locations, joint ventures and a growing fleet of flight simulators and training devices.

Jeff Roberts, president of civil products training and service for the Canadian company (Booth No. N4633), told AIN recently that uncertainty all over the world had kept CAE in a cautious mode.

Now, CAE is in the process of doubling the number of locations in its business-aviation training network from four to eight over the next 18 months.

The move will add training access “in every major region of the world, including the first business jet training centers for high-growth markets in Latin America and Asia.”

The new CAE business aviation training locations are: • Amsterdam, where training began earlier this year with Level D full-flight simulator programs for the Challenger 300 and Challenger 604.

• Mexico City/Toluca, which will be the first business-jet training center in Mexico, opening in 2012 with simulation training for the Learjet 45 and Bell 412 civil helicopter.

• São Paulo, Brazil, where a joint venture of Embraer and CAE will be expanded to include training programs for Embraer Phenom 100 and 300 pilots and maintenance technicians. Training will begin in 2012, and this facility will be the first source of simulation-based business-jet training in South America.

• Asia (city to be determined), which will be the industry’s first full-service business aviation training center in the region. It is expected to open in 2013. Aircraft models for which training will be offered will be determined by market demand.

CAE already operates training programs in Dubai; Biggin Hill, UK (near London); Morristown, N.J.; and Dallas/Fort Worth. Earlier this year, a Falcon 900EX EASy and Falcon 2000EX EASy full-flight simulator opened for training in

48 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

Dubai, in addition to a Falcon 7X simulator already in operation.

A Citation Sovereign simulator was added to the CAE Northeast training center in Morristown and was ready for training this summer. CAE has also been chosen as the exclusive training provider for the Nextant Aerospace 400XT, a Beechjet 400/Hawker 400XP makeover.

All this activity will increase the total number of CAE

success, he said, is diversification in terms of market segments (civil, military, etc.) as well as products, services and geography. Emerging markets have been strong and evenly spread, he added, pointing out that approximately one-third of revenues are from North America, one-third from Europe and the remaining one-third from the rest of the world. “We have intentionally set out to be a global company,” said Roberts.

While CAE will be emphasizing global investment in business aviation here at the NBAA convention, Roberts added that the company is introducing its Real Case program. Real Case takes incidents and accidents from the

Four CAE 5000 series full-flight simulators line up at the Morristown, N.J. training center; (l-r) Gulfstream G200, Bombardier Challenger 300, Cessna CitationJet and Cessna Sovereign.

In São Paulo, Brazil, CAE plans training programs for the Embraer Phenom 100 and 300, with training scheduled to begin in 2012.

business aviation simulators to 65 or more by the end of next year (not including those planned for Asia). That represents an increase of nearly 40 percent since 2009.

The activity also reflects a company emerging from the recession intact and growing. The company reported its first quarter financial results for fiscal year 2012 in August and the numbers showed revenue up 17 percent and net income up 16 percent, compared with the first quarter 2011. Equally encouraging was a $3.5-billion order backlog.

“Like everybody else,” said Roberts, “we took a hard look at the future and emphasized increased efficiency and wise investment. We reacted and responded pretty quickly, and at the same time we didn’t jeopardize our core business. We also invested in technology and formulated an execution that allowed us to navigate through a difficult time.”

One of the keys to CAE’s

real world and infuses them into a training paradigm that allows students to work through the same event and learn from how they react under the same circumstances. He said, “We’ve identified 12 to 15 case examinations from incidents that happened in the real world and documented and analyzed them carefully.” He added that each case will be tailored to the needs of the individual operator.

Also new is what Roberts described as “the very first e-learning-based recurrent training program–CAE Virtual Ground School.” The program allows students to complete all the ground school preparatory work online and to spend as much time preparing as the student feels necessary. The program can reduce the time in actual ground school by as much as half, said Roberts.

CAE is looking forward, he said, “to continuing to invest and to grow.” o

Arinc broadens bizav global apps

by Ian Sheppard Having started life mainly focused on the airline sector, Arinc (Booth No. N4421) has further expanded its horizons into business aviation, especially so since the U.S.-based group opened its international division in the UK back in 2000. Since the EBACE show in May, Arinc Direct has added more than 50 business aircraft to the international fleet it supports. Here at the NBAA convention, the company is launching an iPad application, which will provide access to its Arinc Direct flight-planning tools.

Arinc plans to make its electronic flight bag technology, developed for major carriers such as Cathay Pacific, available in the bizav sector. And

now some of the technology transfer is going back in the other direction, with the company planning to make available for commercial airliners the Wi-Fi services it currently provides for business jets.

The Arinc Direct business unit that serves corporate aviation also has enhanced its flightplanning services in other ways.

For example, it helps operators to comply with the requirements for safety management systems by incorporating an “SMS Risk Factor Form” that allows users to assign numerical values to risks, resulting in a total risk score for any given flight.

This past summer, Arinc Direct also entered into a partnership with FlightRisk.com (Booth No. C12434), which

provides automated risk assessment and preflight risk awareness tools. It also incorporates postflight feedback from pilots to help with planning.

The latest release of Arinc Direct’s flight-planning software also has enhanced graphical capabilities, with pilots now able to graphically manipulate routes on charts. “With our latest release, we have implemented the ability to dynamically modify a flight-plan route using our SkyVector mapping application,” explained the company’s director of flight operations, Gary Gambarani. “The resulting route on the map is then used to compute and file a flight plan.”

Arinc Direct senior business manager James Hardie described this process as “rubber

Arinc Direct has been boosting its presence in Europe, and has added 50 aircraft to the international fleet for which it provides support.

banding.” The graphical interface also includes overlay features such as Sigmets, weather radar and turbulence.

According to Randy Pizzi, vice president of Arinc’s international division, the company is stepping up investment in VHF Acars for wider coverage, as it is a core datalink

communications service. It is part of what he described as the “e-enabled aircraft” with EFBs, Wi-Fi onboard via satcom links and web-based flight planning.

Andy Hubbard, managing director of Arinc’s international division, said an initiative in Europe through which the company is working with Eurocontrol will lead to a new datalink testbed and a “world first that will set the standard for digital messaging.”

Satellite Communications

The enhanced graphical capabilities of Arinc Direct’s latest flight-planning software allow the pilot to graphically manipulate routes on charts. The system uses the route on the map to compute and file the user’s flight plan. The system also overlays data such as Sigmets, weather radar and turbulence.

Frakes stacks up 50 years in bizav Frakes Aviation, now in its fifth decade, manufactures exhaust stacks for modification companies and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), but there is a lot more to the company’s history than just exhaust stacks.

Founded by Fred Frakes in 1967 and located in Cleburne, Texas, near Fort Worth, the company’s original main activity through the mid-1980s was converting piston-engine airplanes to turbine power. Its most significant projects were reengining of the Grumman AgCat and Mallard, in both cases replacing the original radial

engines with Pratt & Whitney ­Canada PT6A turboprops.

Eventually Frakes Aviation (Booth No. C10843) saw the need to diversify and ventured into aftermarket exhaust systems for PT6-powered aircraft. As the airframe modification business dwindled, the exhaust business took hold and Frakes now holds supplemental type certificates (STCs) for exhaust systems on several different airframes. It also is the OEM exhaust provider on some new aircraft, including the Quest Kodiak.

The most recent STC in which Frakes Aviation participated is Blackhawk Modification’s

re-engining of the Cessna Caravan with PT6A-42 turboprops.

Those taking Blackhawk’s scheduled demo flights on the PT642-modified Caravan from North Las Vegas Airport during the NBAA convention can get a close-up look at the Frakes stacks.

The company still holds a number of airframe modification STCs (and even a couple of type certificates for nowclassic aircraft), but, said president Joe Frakes, “We’re not really trying to push those projects nowadays. It’s just not our core business. Maybe if someone internationally had an older King Air, for instance, we might take a look. But now we refer engine-change business to the companies that specialize in engines, and there are a lot of them out there today.”

Frakes Aviation manufactures

50 NBAA Convention News • October 10, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

replacement exhaust stacks for all Beechcraft King Air and Piper Cheyenne turboprop models. These polished stainless steel stacks have proven to virtually eliminate exhaust staining on nacelles and wings and come with a seven-year unlimitedhour warranty. The company holds FAA-PMA and EASA approvals for the stacks, which fly on more than 1,000 aircraft worldwide. Installation is available by approved ­installers around the globe.

Should a problem arise, Frakes will provide a loaner or exchange stack even after warranty expires, normally ­ within 24 hours, and will repair stacks under warranty or replace any covered non-repairable stack at no charge. All repairs must be made or authorized by the ­company. –H.W.

Meanwhile, satellite communication is moving forward as well, with Inmarsat having appointed Arinc as a distributor for its SwiftBroadband service last year. Services in the higher bandwidth Ka band, which will offer, for example, live video conferencing on board because of the wider bandwidth possible, are expected in around 2014.

Arinc is seeking to roll out SwiftBroadband connections for airlines, partly thanks to Inmarsat’s new pricing structure, which makes it possible for the company to provide users with flat-rate services that can be offered over inflight Wi-Fi. It can obtain supplemental type certificates for aircraft and install the Wi-Fi router equipment to link with the satcom equipment.

Senior business manager Hardie said a bizjet Wi-Fi hotspot has been built and tested and the company is “looking forward to engaging with the customer to launch.” Arinc is “building the infrastructure and connectivity,” he added. o AINonline iPhone App NOW AVAILABLE

YOUR SILENCE MAY BE GOLDEN!

If you missed last night’s NBAA/CAN Charity Benefit, it’s not too late to bid in the silent auction!

Stop by NBAA’s Booth #N2504, bid on fabulous items, and support cancer patients through Corporate Angel Network.

SAFE FLYING AWARDS > Milestones

Six lauded for half-century-plus of safe ops

by Mary F. Silitch

In 1998, the National Business Aviation Association started honoring member companies that have flown 50 years or more without an accident, and in 2006, the association added companies that have 60-year records. In 2010, three companies were honored for having 75 years of safe operation: Lane Aviation, Columbus, Ohio; South Carolina Aeronautics Commission, Columbia, S.C.; and Exxon Mobil, Dallas, Texas.

AIN talked with this year’s honorees to find out about their operations and the secrets of their successes.

60-Year Award Recipients 3M

St. Paul, Minn.

John Kummer, director of aviation

The 3M flight department started 60 years ago flying Douglas DC-3s and Cessna 310s. Based at St. Paul Downtown Airport/Holman Field, it now operates Gulfstream Vs and G550s. Director of aviation John Kummer flies both models and told AIN that the G550 is his favorite corporate aircraft to fly. He has been with 3M for 16 years, as line pilot for eight years, a training pilot for two years and chief pilot for three years before becoming director of aviation three years ago. He became interested in aviation because his father flew in the U.S. Air Force. Kummer also was an Air Force pilot, flying C-130s, and served with the Minnesota Air National Guard.

He attributes the company’s outstanding 60-year safety record to “a safety culture that starts at the top, outstanding employees, and relentless training.”

In 60 years, the 3M flight department has morphed from operating DC-3s to Gulfstream GVs and G550s.

Idaho Power

Boise, Idaho Rick Johnson, chief pilot

Idaho Power, the state’s largest utility, is receiving the NBAA 60-Year Safe Flying Achievement Award this year, in addition to being in the top five companies receiving Corporate Business Flying Safety Awards. Idaho Power has actually achieved 64 years of safe operations and has just provided NBAA documentation of its history.

50-Year Award Recipients Archer Daniels Midland

Decatur, Ill. Roger Gates, general manager of aviation

Archer Daniels Midland (ADM) operates in 70 countries, with annual revenue of $80 billion. The fight department, based at Decatur Airport, where the company is headquartered, started in the 1950s with a Shrike Commander and in the 1960s acquired its first jet, a Sabreliner. ADM

now operates three Dassault Falcons– two 2000LXs and a 7X–a Cessna Citation Mustang and a Citation Excel, and it flies a King Air 350 in São Paulo, Brazil. The flight department has 14 pilots and a total staff of 24.

Roger Gates, who has been with the company for 26 years and as general manager for three, told AIN that the ADM safety record is due to the tremendous amount of diligence on the part of

The Archer Daniels Midland flight department comprises 14 pilots and 24 support staff.

the pilots and the mechanics and what he called the ethics of safety. He said that company leaders always provided the resources needed to operate safely and never asked the pilots to do anything dangerous. He said the culture of safety increased in the last few years under the current CEO, who puts safety on a “high level.” The company as a whole strives for zero accidents.

Gates said his favorite airplane to fly is the Falcon 7X–“it’s a nice airplane.” He said his father was interested in airplanes, but was not a pilot. For Gates’s fifth birthday, his father arranged a flight for him with a farmer who took other farmers up to see their crops. After that, he said, he always wanted to fly and was able to take lessons while attending the University of Illinois. He didn’t fly in the military but he mentioned that his son will start Army helicopter training in November.

Coca-Cola

Atlanta, Ga.

Although the company declined to comment for this article, a trip through AIN’s archives reveals that the Coca-Cola flight department had its origins in a single DC-3 purchased in 1952 and based at Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta. That airplane was replaced five years later with a Howard Super Ventura, which was replaced in 1961 with a Convair 440 and shortly joined by a DC-3, creating a multi-plane fleet of two!

The DC-3 was replaced by a GI, supplemented with a second. Through the ’60s the GIs were replaced by a succession of GIIs. Significantly, now, one of the GIIs was the second U.S. corporate aircraft

00 aaNBAA 52 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 10, 2011 19, 2010 • www.ainonline.com

to fly into Peking, China, which it did in March 1979. In 1966, the department acquired its first jet–a Lockheed JetStar.

By the close of the next decade it had ordered two Challengers and was fielding three GIIIs in a hangar at Hartsfield.

2010 Safety Milestones In 1998, NBAA started honoring member companies that have flown 50 years or more without an accident, and in 2006 the association added companies that have flown safely for 60 years. Here is the list of companies that achieved these significant milestones in 2010.

60 Years 3M Co. Idaho Power Co. 50 Years Archer Daniels Midland The Coca-Cola Co.

Dot Foods

Mount Sterling, Ill. Paul Reynolds Walker, captain

Dot Foods, a large food redistributor, delivers food products from manufacturers to distributors in all 50 states.

Capt. Paul Reynolds Walker told AIN that Dot was a pioneer in the industry, its flight department starting out 50 years ago with a Cessna 140. Over the years, it flew a Cessna 180, a Piper Comanche and a Cherokee Six. Today, there are five aircraft in the fleet, based at Mount Sterling Municipal Airport: a Cessna Citation Bravo, a Citation Mustang, a TBM 700, a Cessna 414 and a single-engine Cessna 206. The company also leases a Citation II. There are two company owners who fly, plus three full-time pilots and seven part-time. A total of 12 people work in the flight department.

Walker said Dot has always put safety at the top of the list, with the company providing training at FlightSafety International and SimCom. Pilots are not pushed to fly if they are uncomfortable with the weather or have other concerns, he explained.

Walker has been with the company since the early 1990s, having worked for it first in a part-time capacity, transitioning to full time seven years ago. As for his early flying experience, he said at age 18 he took a $5 airplane ride and afterward wanted to fly, but thought it was beyond reach. He eventually earned all his certificates and ratings, training with a retired corporate pilot. Walker’s favorite airplane to fly is the Bravo, he said.

Dow Chemical

Midland, Mich.

Angela DiBiase, lead dispatcher, office manager Ashten Tullier, shuttle dispatcher, Gulf Coast operations

Dow Chemical is a multinational corporation, providing plastics, chemicals and agricultural products with a presence in more than 175 countries.

The flight department is based at MBS International Airport, Freeland, Mich., and it now operates two Bombardier CRJ700s and a mix of Gulfstreams and Dassault Falcons.

“The Dow Chemical Company’s flight department began in 1946,” said Angela

Dot Foods The Dow Chemical Co.

DiBiase, lead dispatcher and office manager. We have grown over the years keeping Dow’s values–integrity, respect for people and protecting our environment– in the forefront. We have been in the shuttle business since the early 1970s. Last year, we moved more than 40,000 people on our corporate shuttle.”

DiBiase has worked for Dow for 12 years, 10 in her current position. She said, “I’ve grown up in a family of aviation enthusiasts. My father is an avionics technician and my uncle a pilot. Growing up, the big trip on summer vacation was to Oshkosh for the EAA fly-in. I feel fortunate to work in such a dynamic and fascinating industry. I absolutely love what I do.”

Ashten Tullier, shuttle dispatcher for Gulf Coast operations, has been with the company six years, three in her current position. “As a child I was always fascinated with airplanes,” she said. “Every time my parents would say we were going

Dow Chemical operates Bombardier CRJ700s and a mix of Gulfsteams and Dassault Falcons.

on vacation, my first question was, ‘Are we flying there?’ When this job opportunity presented itself, I went at it full force.

It’s a privilege to be in the role I am in and be able to do something that I love on a daily basis.”

DiBiase told AIN that “safety is our number-one concern.” She added that Dow’s long safety record could be attributed to “disciplined adherence to standard operating practices. We’ve recently adopted IS-BAO certification with a robust safety management system.” And no doubt, part of the success is due to enthusiastic employees such as DiBiase and Tullier. o

Cessna’s Citation M2 to offer L-3 avionics

by Jeff Burger

Can’s–Not charlie’s–angels Corporate flight departments that volunteer valuable time in their jets to fly cancer patients for treatment are supported by generous donations to the Corporate Angel Network (CAN). On Monday, ConocoPhillips presented a check for $21,000 to CAN, proceeds from an advertising program recognizing the generous donations of empty seats by flight departments. The program is co-sponsored by ConocoPhillips, Safe Flight Instrument and Business & Commercial Aviation magazine. Pictured at the ceremony are (left to right): Ron Huge, chief pilot, Parker; Bryan Faria, manager, GA, ConocoPhillips; Greg Hamilton, president Aviation Week; Peter Fleiss, executive director CAN; Doug Schwartz, manager, corporate aviation ConocoPhillips; and Randall Greene CAN n chairman and president/CEO Safe Flight Instrument.

China

uContinued from page 1 market for at least 1,000 jets over the next decade. Francis Chao of the China Civil Aviation Report and Zhao Quijiang, president of Beijing Capital Group, pointed to the rapid growth of the installed fleet over the last three years. They cited figures of 28 jets in 2008, 46 in 2009 and more than 90 today.

Other experts put the number at something between 130 and 150. Jean-Noel Robert, president of the Asian Business Aviation Association (AsBAA), said that in April there were 130 private jets on China’s B-register, and he expects that figure to rise to 170 by year-end. There are several new deliveries slated for the next 12 months, with all the major OEMs reporting sales.

The difficulty is in finding people to manage and support the jets. Management firms in Hong Kong are reportedly turning down aircraft as they do not believe they can support them effectively. Zhang Bo, v-p of Minsheng Financial Leasing, (which has announced $2.6 billion of orders at the show), said that aircraft support was as important as the product itself when his company was inking finance agreements with buyers.

However, firms are reporting

that it is difficult to recruit Western pilots and technicians to live and work in the country.

Both Liao and Chao were extremely bullish about the market potential, not only for aircraft, but also for related services–maintenance, training, pilots and the like. The truth is that they are right. However, as they pointed out, there are enormous challenges to overcome before the market evolves to anything like the levels we see in North America. Problems include lack of available lift to develop a charter market, plus a dearth of FBO and MRO facilities and fuel shortages in some areas.

Finance Needed

The 10-year projections from Bombardier and Embraer forecast around 1,000 bizjets in China by the end of the decade.

To get there, however, there must be a huge investment in resources, most particularly in manpower. Fortunately, the central Chinese government has promulgated an outreach policy to attract Western skills. Part of the 12th five-year plan is to make business aviation one of the country’s economic pillars.

To bring some of the issues to light, NBAA ran a panel discussion on the first day of the show, comprised of 16 experts who have lived and/

or worked in China for many years and know the market well. Put together by NBAA board members Jay Mesinger and Jeff Lee, the panelists pointed to the difficulties of operating in the country.

The FAA’s foreign affairs specialist Robyn Cicero pointed out that municipal governments privately own all but three airports in China. Beijing and the two high-altitude fields in Inner Mongolia are still under the government umbrella. (Inner Mongolia is one of the fastest-growing areas in the world in terms of new wealth thanks to the commodities there).

Monopolies are banned in China, so extra services, such as towing vehicles, are considered separate companies and are therefore frequently patchy at best.

The speakers on the panel showed deep knowledge of the subject. However, attendees would have benefitted had more Chinese aviation participants been on the podium and had local operators been available to discuss how they are coping. The session concluded with an invitation from Robert to join AsBAA, which is as good a place as any to stimulate the much-needed dialog between East and West to make things happen for everyone. –L.M.

Cessna Aircraft Company has selected the L-3 Avionics Systems Trilogy ESI-1000 Electronic Standby Instrument as standard equipment for the newly introduced Citation M2.

Cessna is also offering L-3 Aviation Recorders’ FA2100 Solid State Cockpit Voice Recorder as an option on the aircraft.

The Trilogy ESI series standby instruments provide altitude, attitude, airspeed, slip/skid and optional heading data on a 3.7-inch backlit display. Key features, according to L-3, include an integrated air-data computer, solid-state design, standard 3-ATI mounting cutout and logically grouped flight data. Grand Rapids,

Mich.-based L-3 is demonstrating the Trilogy ESI-1000 at its booth, No. C8132.

Also on display at the booth is a new electronic-flight-bag (EFB) application from L-3 and Milwaukee-based Astronautics.

The EFB incorporates charting and moving-map applications and provides increased situational awareness in relationship to air traffic, terrain, weather and airport features. Users can build enhanced chart clip lists by preselecting standard terminal procedure charts, arrival and departure charts and airport origin relative to the flight plan. The new charting application can use such databases as Jeppesen, Lido/ RouteManual and NavTech. o

Dassault

just not releasing specific details for competitive reasons,” he said.

Villa also noted that 2012 will be a record year for R&D funding at the company.

The highlight of the early morning breakfast was speaker Andre Borschberg, CEO of Solar Impulse, the Swiss project that is developing a solar-powered longrange airplane. Earlier this year, working with balloon pilot Bertrand Piccard, Borschberg flew 26 hours using only solar energy.

He spoke about the project, which took seven years from conception to execution and said that the Solar Impulse team is working on a second prototype. The mission of the second aircraft, registration number HB-SIB, will be to cross the Atlantic next year, and in 2013 fly around the world in five legs, without fuel or polluting emissions. He anticipated it could be up to 50 years before the world would see large passenger aircraft powered only by solar energy.

Borschberg pointed out that 95 percent of Solar Impulse’s backers come from non-aviation fields, because the purpose of the project is to demonstrate that if an aircraft is capable of flying day and night without burning fossil fuel, it is perfectly possible to do the same for motor vehicles, heating systems, air conditioners or computers.

Dassault has backed the project from the outset, and Rosanvallon concluded the breakfast by joking that guests from Honeywell and Pratt & Whitney Canada should be worried as Falcons of the future may well be solar powered. o

uContinued from page 1 Edelstenne also pointed out that the most important market for most manufacturers now is China, given financial troubles in the U.S. and Europe and political instability in the Middle East. He pointed to the fact that Dassault has invested heavily in Southeast Asia to add parts inventory and extra manpower, and said that the company is evaluating adding a new facility, which would likely be near Beijing, China.

Perhaps more revealing about current doings at Dassault, however, was the revelation by senior vice president of civil aircraft Olivier Villa that the detail design phase for its mysterious new model has begun and more than 1,500 engineers are working on the program using Dassault Systèmes’s new four-dimensional Catia design software.

A Falcon spokesman told AIN that the super-midsize SMS will be in a category above today’s Falcon 2000 series. He confirmed it will be a twinjet with fly-by-wire controls and it will use the latest iteration of the EASy flight deck (EASy II is the most current version). Entry into service of the Falcon SMS is still pegged for 2016.

While the French aircraft manufacturer isn’t releasing specifications or performance details, Dassault Falcon Jet president John Rosanvallon told AIN in no uncertain terms that the SMS program is “100 percent go,” meaning it is in fact a green-lighted program. “We’re

www.ainonline.com • October 12, 2011 • NBAA Convention News 53

What’s Happening at NBAA 2011 Wednesday, 10/12/2011

today at

7:30 a.m. - 5 p.m.

FAA Inspection Authorization (IA) Renewal

8 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Exhibitor, Press & Attendee Registration, Las Vegas Convention Center

8 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Exhibitor, Press & Attendee Registration, Henderson Executive Airport

9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Exhibit Halls and Silver Lot Static Display Open

9 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Static Display Open

9 a.m. - 4 p.m.

Careers in Business Aviation Day, Explore the Possibilities

9 a.m. - 11 a.m.

Domestic Operations Committee Meeting

N260

9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

12th Annual Friends & Partners of Aviation Weather

N256

11:30 a.m. - 2 p.m.

UAA Reaching Future Business Aviation Professionals: Career Seminar for College Students

N237

The NBAA 64th Annual Meeting & Convention offers an expansive schedule of

N221

to a multitude of exhibits at the Las Vegas Convention Center. In addition dozens

The NBAA 64th Annual Meeting & Convention (NBAA2011) offers an expansive schedule of Education Sessions, Maintenance & Operations Sessions (M&Os) and special events.

of aircraft are on display at Henderson Executive Airport, with a smaller number on

EXHIBIT HOURS

display in the convention center’s parking lot. Shuttle buses are operating between the

Wednesday, October 12

convention center and the Henderson Airport static display. For up-to-the-minute

STATIC DISPLAY HOURS

show information, a comprehensive exhibitor list, static display maps and Twitter

Wednesday, October 12

education sessions, maintenance & operations sessions and special events in addition

9 a.m. - 4 pm 9 a.m. - 3 p.m.

feed, download the NBAA iPhone app.

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Jet Aviation beefing up global customer services footprint

by Liz Moscrop Jet Aviation is bolstering its global presence with key management appointments and facilities expansions worldwide. To cater to the burgeoning Latin American market, the General Dynamics-owned company has appointed Norbert Ehrich as vice president and general manager for Central and South America.

Ehrich has been with Jet Aviation for almost 20 years and has had significant international experience, including running Jet Aviation’s Singapore maintenance base.

In North America, John Langevin is to take the reins as vice president and general manager of all the company’s U.S. FBOs. Langevin has also served for almost two decades with Jet Aviation, most recently heading up the firm’s Teterboro and Boston facilities.

Teterboro has just opened a new avionics shop and added a limited instrument and radio ratings to its repair station certificate. The additional approvals apply to Jet Aviation’s foreign certificates as well.

Jet Aviation is also expanding its operations in the Middle East, and its Abu Dhabi facility has just earned approval to provide line maintenance from a new branch at Al Bateen Executive Airport. Stephen Jones, general manager at Al Bateen, said, “With its global network and extensive experience, Jet Aviation is an important association for us and we look forward to a long-term business relationship.”

Farther East, Jet Aviation Hong Kong has received approval from the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department to perform line maintenance on Dassault Falcon 2000EX EASy/ LX models. The company also received EASA Part 145 approval for the Bombardier Global Express and Challenger 601 families, as well as Gulfstream’s GV and the Falcon 7X, 900EX EASy and F2000EX EASy. Asia is an important market for the firm and Jet Aviation Van Nuys has teamed with the firm’s EMEA & Asia charter/management team to offer global maintenance support

54 NBAA Convention News • October 12, 2011 • www.ainonline.com

for N-registered aircraft based in those regions. The company is also offering owners the opportunity to operate their aircraft under Jet Aviation’s U.S. Part 135 certificate, which means their aircraft can be used to generate charter revenue.

In the Western hemisphere, London is gearing up for the Olympics, and Jet Aviation is preparing for an onslaught of international visitors to its Biggin Hill facility by signing a lease for an additional executive terminal. The freshly refurbished facility will be available in time for the 2012 games.

Meanwhile, because the market for new aircraft is still fairly flat, many owners are choosing to keep their current airplanes, and Jet Aviation has honed in on the refurbishment market. Customers wanting a cabin refurb can head to the firm’s St. Louis facility, the former Midcoast Aviation, and take advantage of the Jet Aviation design studio for interior upgrades.

Jet Aviation St. Louis also offers green completions services.

A new Jet Aviation customer innovation comes in the form of a mobile app that pushes FBO pre-arrival forms directly to smartphones or tablet computers. Pilots can also use the “my concierge” function to make hotel or travel arrangements. o

Log onto AINtv.com and AINonline.com for exclusive video and in-depth Web coverage.

Blackhawk Signs New Dealer Blackhawk Modifications (Booth No. C6516) signed another new dealer to its worldwide network of authorized installation and service centers for turboprop engine performance upgrades.

Flying Colours of Peterborough, Ontario, and Chesterfield, Mo., joins Blackhawk’s roster of 77 authorized dealers for its upgraded engine installation programs. Sean Gillespie, director of marketing for Flying Colours, said the agreement with Blackhawk gives the company an opportunity to “return to our roots” serving the large turboprop market in Canada and the U.S. Blackhawk is signing other new dealers here at NBAA including ExecuJet Africa and Premium Jet in Brazil.

Blackhawk also announced it had received EASA certification for its XP42A conversion for the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan. Blackhawk received FAA approval for the conversion in June.

The conversion replaces the stock P&WC PT6A114A engine with the more powerful Dash 42A model and achieves substantial performance improvements in fuel consumption, cruise speed, rate-of-climb and useful load. The conversion also includes a new engine cowling, new Frakes exhaust stacks and a new Hartzell 100-inch fourblade propeller.

–M.H.

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