All General aviation articles – Page 576
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Mergers
* Lufthansa subsidiary GlobeGround has agreed to buy US-based Hudson General in a move that should end a take-over battle for the airport services provider. The GlobeGround offer tops earlier bids from Ranger Aerospace, Ogden and a group of Hudson managers. GlobeGround - which already owns 49% of Hudson affiliate ...
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Manufacturers are on a high over sales prospects
Helicopter manufacturers are projecting increased deliveries this year, based on their order backlogs. Eurocopter has benefited from a strong US market, says president Patrick Gavin. The company delivered 216 commercial helicopters last year, up from 211 in 1997, and booked orders for 272. These include 32 upgraded versions of ...
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Mooney's Eagle spreads its wings
Mooney Aircraft has delivered the first M20S Eagle, less than six months after the single-engined aircraft was unveiled. The four-seat Teledyne Continental IO-550-powered Eagle, which won US Federal Aviation Authority certification in early February, is a derivative of the popular M20R Ovation, offering the same extended-length fuselage and powerplant - ...
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Boeing business move claims refuted
Dutch-owned MD Helicopters has reaffirmed its intention to keep the newly-acquired former Boeing commercial helicopter business based in the USA, despite claims to the contrary made by rival Bell. MD Helicopters chief executive Hank Schaeken says: "We will maintain the technical and industrial base in the USA. We decided ...
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Helicopter operators face airspace restrictions
A major challenge facing helicopter operators in the next millennium will be maintaining the freedom to fly in unrestricted airspace, says Helicopter Association International president Roy Resavage. Speaking at the show, Resavage said that a proposed bill before Congress effectively would give US communities the power to control the ...
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Safire proposes new aircraft
Kate Sarsfield/LONDON Safire Aircraft is to develop two jet-powered aircraft aimed at business and private owners. Both aircraft are in the conceptual design stage. The first machine, the Safire S-26, is a six-seat, composite, entry-level business jet, powered by two Williams FJX-2 turbofans, and being developed as part ...
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AASI is on the brink of Jetcruzer certification
Advanced Aerodynamics & Structures (AASI) hopes to clinch US type certification for its Jetcruzer 500 low-cost corporate turboprop by mid-1999, with first deliveries beginning by year-end. The manufacturer, based in Long Beach, California, was originally due to begin deliveries by the end of 1998, but has suffered substantial delays ...
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Heli Expo hosts revamped S-55 Whisper Jet and S-61N Short
New versions of two older helicopters, Vertical Aviation Technologies' S-55QT Whisper Jet and Helipro International's Offshore S-61 Short, were displayed for the first time at the show. Certification of both conversions is imminent. Florida-based Vertical Aviation has completed flight testing of a five-blade rotor on its turbine conversion of ...
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Shifts criticised
A proposal to allow European pilots to work 14-hour shifts twice-weekly on two-crew aircraft, included in the proposed pilots' flight time and duty limitations (FTDL) regulations, is described by the International Federation of Airline Pilots' Associations as a "recipe for disaster. The FTDL will now be controlled by the EC ...
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Managing or flying?
It may be desirable to include pilots in airline management, but how far is it economic? Organisation of cockpit crews must rank among the airline industry's most sensitive management issues. And central to that debate is the question over the extent to which pilots themselves should be involved in ...
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In need of a check-up
The systems onboard ageing aircraft in the USA are coming under closer scrutiny, raising the prospect of higher maintenance costs. In the USA, old aircraft don't die: they get hushkits and a new paint job. In stark contrast to their counterparts in Europe and Asia, US passengers routinely find ...
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Avionics on the front line
The move towards preventative maintenance has sparked a fierce battle between two major avionics vendors to supply the dominant operating system. Avionics manufacturers in the USA are poised on the threshold of a new technology that could have major implications for maintenance in the airline industry. But just as ...
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Demand for civil helicopters 'robust'
Two engine manufacturers are forecasting continued robust demand for civil helicopters despite concerns over some operating sectors. AlliedSignal Aerospace is projecting deliveries of 2,350 new turbine-powered helicopters over five years from 1999 to 2003, while Rolls-Royce (formerly Allison) has produced a broadly similar forecast for 5,410 civil deliveries over ...
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LoPresti captures SwiftFury rights
LoPresti Speed Merchants has obtained the production rights and tooling for the two-seat SwiftFury sports aircraft, developed nearly 10 years ago by the former Piper Aircraft. LoPresti, which designs and manufacturers a host of after-market kits for improving the aerodynamics of factory airplanes, launched the SwiftFury with Piper in ...
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News in Brief
Airborne Conference PictureTel and the German Aerospace Centre have completed live airborne videoconferencing trials in Italy. They are expected to have a significant impact on the future of multimedia in aviation. According to Slough, UK-based PictureTel, "-the event was set up to prove the feasibility of future multi-media communications ...
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Eagle to boost US production
Australian composite light aircraft builder Eagle Aircraft plans to treble its production over the next 12 months, following FAA type certification of its aerodynamically-upgraded Eagle 150 sports trainer in the FAR 21.17(b) Special Class Very Light Aircraft (VLA) Category. Under a new Australia-USA bilateral agreement, the bulk of the ...
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NASA awards cockpit contract
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC NASA has awarded Avidyne and AvroTec a contract to develop a low-cost glass cockpit for general aviation aircraft. Team members Lancair and Raytheon will handle aircraft certification issues, and both AlliedSignal and Rockwell Collins will help with symbology development. The "highway in the sky" contract ...
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Piston power gets a boost in Asia
Australian light utility aircraft manufacturer Gippsland Aeronautics believes that it could increase production of its new utility passenger and agricultural aircraft to around 200 a year by 2002. Managing director George Morgan says assessments suggest an unexpectedly large market for piston-powered commercial utility aircraft. Morgan believes "bush operators" have ...
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BAe AMT grows Latin Jetstream fleet
British Aerospace Asset Management - Turboprops (AMT) is targeting Aerolitoral, a Mexican-based regional operator, as the next major Latin American customer for Jetstream J32EPs coming off lease from airlines in the USA. The move, which the airframe manufacturer hopes could result in up to 26 Jetstreams replacing the airline's ...
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Eurocontrol plans air traffic management role for pilots
Julian Moxon/BRETIGNY Researchers at Eurocontrol's Bretigny centre in France have embarked on a programme aimed at giving pilots flying in crowded airspace limited involvement in air traffic management (ATM). The hope is that controller workload can be reduced, or at least stabilised, as air traffic continues to increase. ...