Here’s one example of what the current tight used-bizjet market has wrought: an eight-passenger 1984 Cessna Citation II—with almost run-out engines—is for sale for just $299,000. That equates to monthly payments of only $1,900—about what you’d pay to rent an upscale one-bedroom apartment in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
The former Customs and Border Protection aircraft has 11,800 hours of total time on the airframe and a couple hundred hours left on the engines. It comes with a stock executive interior—but it’s not installed, and some assembly is required. You’ll also need to replace the windshield. In addition, several phase inspections are coming due. The panel has minimal updates—a Garmin GNS 530 navcom and old radar—and could stand a few more: there is no ADS-B and the altimeter is not RVSM-certified.
BJT: Used Bizcraft Market Downshifts but Stays in Gear
A shift in the preowned business aircraft market that accelerated through the end of last year has continued into 2023, with declining sales, increasing inventory, and softening prices. More on what these trends mean for buyers and sellers in a moment, but first some data points illustrating the change, and the forces driving it.
Preowned business jet and turboprop transactions in the fourth quarter—historically the year’s busiest time—dropped from 1,021 in record-setting 2021 to 636 in 2022, according to Amstat, a 37 percent decline. Back in the fourth quarter of 2020, as post-Covid demand jumped, sales hit 979 units, also bettering the last quarter of 2022’s volume by more than a third.
While much attention is paid to safety leadership, equally important is leadership on family assistance, attendees at the Air Charter Safety Foundation 2020 Air Charter Safety Symposium were told. “It’s a responsibility of everyone in this room,” said Don Chupp, president and CEO of Fireside Partners, which specializes in emergency response programs. “The best countermeasure to protect your house after a bad event is through the people that were most directly affected.”
Chupp introduced Tricia Coffman, who shared her experiences involving the loss of her husband, 34-year-old David Coffman, in the Feb. 16, 2005 crash of a Circuit City-operated Cessna Citation 560, N500AT, four nm east of Pueblo Memorial Airport. Eight in all were killed in the accident. Coffman noted the NTSB probable cause of “the flight crew’s failure to effectively monitor and maintain airspeed and comply with procedures for deice boot activation on the approach, which caused an aerodynamic stall from which they did not recover.”
Boeing said Tuesday that it has won commitments from new Saudi airline Riyadh Air and current flag carrier Saudia for as many as 121 Dreamliner widebodies. Under the terms of the tentative contracts, each airline will sign a firm order for thirty-nine 787s and reserve options for 43 more. Riyadh Air’s firm order would specify 787-9s, while the Saudi order would involve 787-9s and 787-10s. Neither of the airlines nor Boeing specified delivery dates.
The agreements form part of Saudi Arabia's wider plan to transform the country into a global aviation hub. The orders support the Kingdom’s goal of serving 330 million passengers and attracting 100 million visitors by 2030.
It was a long flight and a relatively slow flight, but the trip in a modified King Air 350 from Orlando, Florida to Albuquerque, New Mexico likely broke a city-pair record (official acknowledgment is pending), thanks to the active winglets installed by Tamarack Aerospace.
On the way to the static display at Orlando Executive Airport for last October’s NBAA-BACE event, Tamarack made the trip nonstop, from Spokane International Airport in Washington to Orlando. Piloted by Jesse Nonnemacher, the Performance SmartWing-equipped King Air 350 flew 2,032.8 nm in 7 hours 46 minutes, averaging 240 ktas. Tailwinds averaging 20 knots helped propel the King Air and allowed for lower power settings to extend range. In addition to the Orlando-Albuquerque flight, Tamarack has also submitted the Spokane-Orlando city pair trip to the National Aeronautic Association and European Federation Aeronautique International for record recognition.
FutureFlight: ZeroAvia Hydrogen Fuel Cell Breaks Record
Hydrogen-electric aircraft propulsion system developer ZeroAvia said it has achieved record-breaking performance while testing the high-temperature proton exchange membrane (HTPEM) systems in its hydrogen fuel cells.
According to ZeroAvia, early testing of the pressurized, 20-kilowatt HTPEM fuel cell stack at the company’s research and development facility in the UK demonstrated a specific power level of 2.5 kW/kg at the cell level, and the company expects to achieve power densities exceeding 3 kW/kg in the next two years. This will make the hydrogen fuel cells powerful enough to enable electric propulsion systems viable for large aircraft that seat more than 100 passengers, such as the Boeing 737 and Airbus A320 families, according to ZeroAvia.
Federal regulators appear to have yielded to pressure from the National Transportation Safety Board to require 25-hour cockpit voice recorders in U.S. airliners following a spate of incidents that prompted the FAA to hold a Safety Summit on Wednesday.
“The FAA is committed to addressing the NTSB recommendations,” the agency said in a statement to AIN. “We are initiating rulemaking that will require cockpit voice recorders to capture 25 hours of information. We will also establish an Aviation Rulemaking Committee to explore how to make greater use of data gathered by the airplane and its systems, including expanded flight data monitoring. We welcome any tools or resources Congress wants to provide to help us do this expeditiously.”
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