All General aviation articles – Page 562
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News
Diamond Star flight test programme begins
Austria's Diamond Aircraft has begun flight testing its production configuration DA40-180 Diamond Star, four-seat piston single, for which it already has more than 200 orders. Four pre-production prototypes have already been flown from its Wiener Neustadt base. During the two-month programme the all-composite, Textron Lycoming IO-360-powered aircraft will perform ...
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Police label SilkAir investigation as 'suicide cum murder'
The Singapore Police Force has classified its investigation into the crash of the SilkAir Boeing 737-300 in Sumatra on 19 December 1997 as "suicide cum murder". The police stress that the label has been adopted "solely to assist us in our investigation. It is not an indication of our ...
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Global Echo
Orbcomm Global has teamed with Boulder, Colorado-based Echo Flight to launch a satellite-based weather information service for general aviation pilots. The service datalinks hourly Nexrad weather radar images to aircraft through Echo Flight's StratoCheetah Flight Manager III system and Orbcomm's network of low earth orbiting satellites. The pilot can request ...
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Raytheon output rise may not be enough
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Raytheon Aircraft has increased planned production of its new Premier I and Hawker Horizon business jets to meet demand, but faces challenges meeting the programmes' schedules. Production of the entry-level Premier I will be increased by 25% to 60 a year, while production of the ...
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Mergers
Thomson-CSF subsidiary Sextant has become the sole owner of in-flight entertainment provider Sextant In-Flight Systems after acquiring the 49% of shares held by B/E Aerospace. Sextant took an initial 51% stake when the joint venture was created in January. The European Commission's review of the proposed AlliedSignal-Honeywell merger has entered ...
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EH101 Landmark
EH Industries' EH101 multirole utility helicopters have clocked up more than 10,000 flying hours since the long-range machine's first flight in October 1987. The European consortium, which includes GKN Westland of the UK and Italy's Agusta, has orders for about 100 military EH101s and is targeting the Heliliner at civilian ...
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FAA grounds Eurocopter BK117s and BO105s
The US Federal Aviation Administration has followed the recommendations of the German airworthiness authority and issued emergency airworthiness directives (ADs) grounding Eurocopter BK117 and BO105 helicopters until tension-torsion (TT) straps contained in the main rotor head are inspected and replaced as required. The US aviation agency says that 130 ...
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PC-12 sharing plan takes off in Switzerland
Kate Sarsfield/LONDON The first European shared ownership programme operating single-engined Pilatus PC-12 turboprops has started up in Zurich, Switzerland. Share Plane, which operates under private Swiss civil aviation authority regulations, is aimed at three "key" market segments within Switzerland, southern Germany, northern Italy and western Austria, which have had ...
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AAIC calls police in SilkAir 'suicide' crash
Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE Indonesian accident investigators say they have contacted police after formally confirming that a SilkAir Boeing 737-300 may have been deliberately crashed by one of the crew in December 1997, near Palembang, Sumatra. All 104 passengers and crew on board the 737, which was operating flight MI185 ...
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TAG acquisition
Global aviation services company TAG Aviation Group is to acquire New York-based business aircraft management and charter firm Wayfarer Aviation. The combined company will have over 125 aircraft and a presence in more than 50 locations worldwide. Last year, Switzerland-based TAG acquired Aeroleasing of Geneva, San Francisco-based Aviation Methods and ...
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AOPA plea
The US Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) has called on the US Federal Aviation Administration to reconsider its airworthiness directive (AD) on turbocharged twin-engined Cessnas, claiming that the requirements are too costly, too complex and not necessary. "While the FAA estimates that the inspection mandated by the AD would ...
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United offers more business legroom
Jane Levere NEW YORK Battling, like every other carrier, for the higher-yield market, United Airlines is installing improved seating at the back of the cabin in its domestic fleet in order to reward its most frequent or full-fare economy passengers. The carrier is reconfiguring the first six to 11 rows ...
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A crowded market
Lois Jones BEIJING & SHANGHAI Still shuddering from Asia's economic crisis, China's aviation industry is restructuring with domestic tie-ups and the home market high on the agenda. The Hainan Airlines aircraft took off and spread its wings over the sprawling mass of Guangzhou, south China - one of the most ...
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Mind games
Twenty months into one of the most controversial accident investigations of the decade, SilkAir has told the world that a pilot who apparently intended to kill himself and 103 others was "by the best standards of the industry-fit to fly". To put it charitably, this demonstrates a disturbing readiness ...
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Management teams
Carriers in need of change are looking to new boardroom teams for results. Analysis is by Michael Bell, who leads the Global Aviation Practice for senior-executive search firm Spencer Stuart The past few months have brought into focus a new form of leadership at troubled carriers around the world: management ...
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Piper singles
New Piper Aircraft has begun delivering 15Archer IIs, two Arrows and two Seminoles to Deer Valley, Arizona-based Westwind Aviation Academy, to replace Cessna 172s used for ab initio training. Source: Flight International
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Price slashed
MD Helicopters has cut the price of the seven/eight-place MD 600N tail rotorless single-turbine helicopter by $50,000 - to $1.2 million. The company plans to deliver 56 helicopters this year, including 20 MD 600Ns, up from the 36 delivered by Boeing last year. Source: Flight International
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Stormy weather
Carole Shifrin WASHINGTON DC Air traffic delays are not unique to Europe. The USA is also being forced to look hard at upgrading services After some fierce attacks by several top airline officials on the Federal Aviation Administration's running of the US air traffic control system, airline and FAA ...
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Taiwan institute redesigns ARL-1 as 19-seat utility aircraft
Andrzej Jeziorski/TAIPEI Taiwan's Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology (CSIST)has redesigned the five-year-old ARL-1 twin turboprop aircraft concept as a 19-seat utility after seeing the results of market research. The ARL-1 began life as a six- to nine-seat concept designed by the Aeronautical Research Laboratory of the former ...
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AASI makes plans for US Part 135 Jetcruzer certification
Advanced Aerodynamics & Structures (AASI) plans to certificate its Jetcruzer 500 turboprop to US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) single-engine Part 135 rules in an effort to increase the market share of its delayed six-seat pusher. AASI says the "inexpensive add-on certification" Part 135 could boost overall sales by "a ...