All General aviation articles – Page 546
-
News
Kaman wins MD Helicopters deal
Kaman Aerospace has signed a 10-year agreement with MD Helicopters to supply all of its MD500/600 series helicopter fuselages in a deal worth up to $100 million. The work reduces Kaman's heavy reliance on the SH-2G Super Seasprite and K-Max niche product lines. The agreement forms part of a ...
-
News
Differences
There is no longer any doubt that the safety standards between cargo and passenger operations are massively different - and the latest figures prove it. According to a study by the Netherlands National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR), the most dangerous commercial aviation activity in the world is ad hoc cargo charter ...
-
News
Luscombe starts to flight-test Spartan
Luscombe Aircraft has begun certification flight testing of its Spartan light aircraft, a reincarnation of the 1946-vintage Luscombe 11A. The first of two conforming pre-production prototypes flew in March and US Federal Aviation Administration flight testing is expected to begin within three months, says Joe Courtney, director of administration ...
-
News
Air Harrods stocks twin turboshaft EC135 at Stansted
Air Harrods, subsidiary of the London department store, has taken delivery of a twin turboshaft Eurocopter EC135. The aircraft, completed by Eurocopter UK distributor McAlpine Helicopters, will join the London Stansted Airport-based operator's fleet in September, after receipt of a UK air operator's certificate. Air Harrods has two Sikorsky S-76s ...
-
News
Air Methods' Mercy adds rescue service
US emergency medical service specialist Air Methods is to acquire the St Louis, Missouri-based Area Rescue Consortium of Hospitals (ARCH) air ambulance service. The deal expands the Denver, Colorado-based company's turnkey medical transport operations. ARCH will be acquired through Air Method's Mercy Air Service subsidiary. Air Methods operates air ...
-
News
New rules calm down 'air rage' passengers
The inexorable rise in passenger disruption on aircraft has been stemmed in "countries where procedures and legislation have been put in place" to combat the problem, says the International Air Transport Association (IATA). As a result, the 64 airports, airlines and other organisations that met at an IATA seminar ...
-
News
Piper for Argentina
New Piper Aircraft's first Malibu Meridian for Latin America will be delivered to an Argentinian customer in November, says the Florida-based manufacturer. The Meridian is "on track" to be certified by the end of July, says the company, which has stopped taking new orders until it settles on a new ...
-
News
Europe proceeds with hushkit ban
Julian Moxon/PARIS The European Union (EU) is on a collision course with the USA over noise regulations after the European Parliament voted on 30 March for a proposed ban to go ahead on limiting the operation of hushkitted aircraft. Last-minute talks between senior European and US officials failed to ...
-
News
Enaer unveils Cessna upgrade
Enaer has taken the wraps off its proposed Cessna A-37 Dragonfly avionics upgrade, while partner Snow Aviation hopes to begin work on re-engining a T-37 demonstrator in August with a new Williams FJ33 powerplant. The Chilean manufacturer has produced a cockpit mock-up of a proposed A-37 upgrade based around a ...
-
News
Chile sales push
Ilyushin has signed Aero Santa Maria of Santiago to help push a sales campaign in Chile for the four-seat Il-103 utility aircraft. The company kicked off a 30-day demonstration tour at the FIDAE show, having recently secured the sale of six to neighbouring Peru. Ilyushin has produced 25 for customers ...
-
News
FAA makes TAWS compulsory
The US Federal Aviation Administration has issued an airworthiness directive making terrain-awareness warning systems (TAWS) compulsory in all US turbine-powered aircraft with six or more passenger seats. Aircraft built before 29 March, 2002, must have the appropriate equipment by 29 March, 2005, and aircraft manufactured from the end of March ...
-
News
Eaglet on target for June swoop
EuroEnaer, the Chilean-Dutch joint venture company developing the Eaglet light aircraft, expects to begin delivering the first examples in early June, pending the successful completion of certification by the European Joint Aviation Authorities by June. EuroEnaer managing director Michael Van Tooren says: "We need another two months to get ...
-
News
Eclipse tests
Eclipse Aviation has completed initial windtunnel testing of its Eclipse 500 personal jet. The trials were conducted over three weeks on a 22%-scale model. "The tests found some discrepancies, leading to changes that optimised the wing root fairings, but, overall, we verified the stability, control and handling characteristics of the ...
-
News
Balancing act
ALAN GEORGE BRUSSELS While keen to work within a global framework, Europe has its own environmental agenda, says Eckard Seebohm, the man charged with leading aviation environmental policy in Brussels For Europe, at least, next year's assembly of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), will mark a defining moment in ...
-
News
Ansett leasing arm finds a buyer
DAVID KNIBB SEATTLE The owners of Ansett Worldwide Aviation Services (AWAS) appear to have found a buyer for the aircraft lessor. A unit of Morgan Stanley Dean Witter (MSDW) has agreed to buy AWAS in a deal expected to close in April. MSDW has been circumspect about its plans. ...
-
News
Hushkit row threatens to boil over
COLIN BAKER LONDON The simmering row between the USA and Brussels over the issue of engines hushkitted to meet Chapter III noise standards has escalated, with the USA carrying out its threat to issue a complaint through the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). ICAO president Dr Assad Kotaite has carried ...
-
News
Play by the rules
David Knibb WASHINGTON DC As momentum grows to liberalise the skies, the rules for fair and open competition become more important. But few agree on what they should be. When Grupo TACA accused Continental Airlines last November of predatory pricing and capacity dumping, a charge the latter denied, it ...
-
News
16 Air Assault Brigade Joint Helicopter Command
The AAC's Apaches will be operated by three regiments - 3 and 4 at Wattisham, Suffolk and 9 at Dishforth, Yorkshire - each with two squadrons of eight aircraft. Each regiment will also have a squadron of light utility helicopters, likely to be Lynx, incorporating an upgrade proposed by GKN ...
-
News
FLIR launches airborne camera system variant
FLIR Systems, the Portland, Oregon-based infrared (IR) thermal and visual imaging specialist, plans to unveil a new version of its digital Ultra Media aerial-broadcast camera system for television news helicopters at April's US National Association of Broadcasters meeting in Las Vegas. The Ultra Media III incorporates a Sony BVP-570 ...
-
News
Morrow Aircraft close to Boomerang twin funding
Morrow Aircraft is close to securing extra funding needed to resume development of its Rutan-inspired Boomerang piston twin. But first deliveries are still set for late 2002, despite the delay in clinching the required investment. Dale Johnson, Morrow's vice-president of product management, says: "We are at the point where ...