GE Continues To Progress on Catalyst Engine for Denali
GE Aviation is progressing toward installation of its new Catalyst turboprop engine on the new Cessna Denali following the completion of ice testing of the powerplant, the engine maker said this week. In the past two winters, the company has been running the engine in below-zero temperatures in what it calls “icing critical point analysis” at the National Research Council in Ottawa, Canada.
Using a 10-meter-long wind tunnel connected to the outside, engineers draw in outside air and mix it with super-cooled liquid droplets sprayed inside the tunnel. This generates atmospheric conditions and in-flight temperatures that are channeled to the engine as clouds comprising small drops at sub-zero temperatures and simulates the variability of altitude up to 30,000 feet.
GE Aviation senior engineer for inclement weather Paolo Vanacore explained when temperatures fall below -20 degrees C, ice crystals that form in the clouds and at higher altitudes and certain speeds are like stones. “We conducted tests that led these clouds to flow against the engine at extended vertical or horizontal trajectories,” he added.
Engineers used eight non-intrusive micro-cameras to verify that the accretion or shedding of ice didn’t affect the engine’s mechanics or operation and performance. “The results were excellent,” said Vanacore.
Textron Aviation expects first flight of the Denali turboprop single to occur later this year.
Bombardier has opened a business jet line maintenance station in Geneva, Switzerland. It's the company's 10th such location worldwide and will provide enhanced service in Europe, the Canadian airframer announced today. The facility is the seventh line maintenance station in Europe for Bombardier, which also has a fleet of 30 customer response team mobile units in the region.
The 10,000-sq-m (107,000-sq-ft) station is at Geneva Airpark and is staffed by technicians certified to maintain Challenger 300, 350, 604, 605, 650, and 850 aircraft, as well as all Global series business jets, including the flagship Global 7500.
“This addition is an integral part of our overall mission to enhance OEM support for our operators in Europe, and we are pleased to offer our customers turn-key service solutions for aircraft and crewmembers,” said Bombardier executive v-p of services and support and corporate strategy Jean-Christophe Gallagher.
Leonardo Helicopters Rebrands Kopter SH09 as the AW09
Leonardo Helicopters and its Swiss subsidiary, Kopter, today rebranded the single-engine SH09 as the Leonardo AW09. As it prepares to fly the latest P4 prototype between September and November of this year, the company now expects to complete type certification for the light helicopter in late 2023 or early 2024.
The rebranding was unveiled almost exactly a year after Italy’s Leonardo completed its acquisition of Switzerland-based Kopter. Instead of featuring the standard three digits for Leonardo’s AW aircraft, the new product name has just two digits, with the third replaced by the rotor blade symbol used by Kopter as a bow to the cross in the Swiss flag.
According to Michele Riccobono, Kopter’s chief technology officer, the P4 prototype now being built will incorporate some undisclosed design changes from the existing P3 aircraft, which this year will complete its contribution to flight testing. P3 has already logged more than 40 flight hours since it underwent some configuration changes in January.
Leonardo’s intention is that the Kopter business will now become the group’s center of excellence for light helicopters and new rotorcraft technologies. Elaborating on the latter role, Leonardo Helicopters chief technology officer Matteo Ragazzi indicated that once the AW09 is in production, the company will step up efforts to develop a hybrid-electric helicopter during the latter half of this decade.
NATA Sees Safety Concerns with Lee Flight-sharing Bill
Sen. Mike Lee’s (R-Utah) push to remove barriers to flight sharing and create a new “personal operator” category that does not need to meet air carrier requirements is continuing to draw fire from NATA, which has been concerned about the safety implications.
Lee has introduced two bills that would facilitate Internet-based flight-sharing programs and would create a personal operator category enabling a pilot to transport up to eight passengers for compensation without meeting air carrier requirements. Long-term prospects of the bill look doubtful but the fact that Lee reintroduced the measures and called for a personal operator signals that he plans to continue to pursue this issue.
Such a concept, said NATA v-p of government and public affairs Jonathon Freye, “is strange and out of line with the FAA’s regulatory structure,” particularly the use of the term “operator” for a person or entity that would not have an operating certificate.
Freye questioned how, without an operating certificate, the traveling public would have the ability to objectively evaluate the person’s fitness to perform the duties proposed. In addition, he said, “It would be nearly impossible for the FAA from a resources standpoint to conduct oversight on the new class of pilots.” He stressed that NATA supports innovation, but said there must be a level of safety built in at the same time.
Dassault’s Florida Satellite Makes 1st Jetwave Install
Dassault Aircraft Services’ (DAS) satellite service station in Stuart, Florida, recently completed its first installation of Honeywell’s Jetwave Ka-band connectivity system. The upgrade was made on a Falcon 7X.
“Our main focus is to anticipate and provide the services and options that our customers need, including aftermarket upgrades that keep the Falcon fleet modernized,” said DAS senior v-p and chief operating officer Remy St-Martin. “Our service centers have performed many of these upgrades for customers and we are happy to add the Stuart facility to the mix of locations offering this sought-after upgrade.”
DAS has retrofitted a number of Falcons with the Jetwave satcom system, which comes installed on new Falcons and offers a “significant improvement” in data transmission speeds compared with older technology systems such as SwiftBroadband, according to Dassault Aviation's maintenance arm.
Stuart is one of four DAS satellite centers in the U.S., with the others located in St. Louis; Teterboro, New Jersey; and Van Nuys, California. DAS also operates U.S. service centers in Little Rock, Arkansas; Reno, Nevada; and Wilmington, Delaware.
2021 Aero Friedrichshafen Show Now Canceled
The Aero 2021 show in Friedrichshafen, Germany, that was rescheduled from this month to July—in the hopes that large-scale, in-person events could once again be feasible by then—has now been canceled. Messe Friedrichshafen, the organizer of the general aviation show, today said the decision to cancel related to Covid-19 pandemic travel restrictions in Europe.
“In view of the travel and event restrictions due to the pandemic, we had already moved the originally envisioned Aero date from April to summer at the beginning of this year,” Messe Friedrichshafen said. “But at present, despite rising vaccination numbers in Europe, it is foreseeable that Aero 2021 will not be allowed to take place in July either.”
The organizer still intends to hold the European Rotors helicopter show in Cologne from November 16 to 18 and has also set Aero 2022 for April 27 to 30 next year. “Aero 2022 will be all about the industry's restart after the pandemic and will offer a complete range of products for all sectors of general aviation…ranging from civil drones to gliders, microlights and gyrocopters, helicopters, touring and training aircraft, and business jets,” it said.
In the coming months, Aero Friedrichshafen also plans to release digital content on a regular basis outside of the trade show period.
JetSupport Amsterdam Adds Bombardier Global Mx Approval
JetSupport has received Part 145 maintenance organization approval to add line and base maintenance of Bombardier Global 5000, 6000, and XRS business jets. The approval extends to around-the-clock AOG support of Bombardier’s large-cabin, long-range twinjet series.
A 19-year-old company, Jet Support is an independent provider of MRO services and support for business and special-mission aircraft based in 14,500 sq m (156,000 sq ft) of facilities at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol. Earlier this year, it announced the opening of a second location—a line maintenance station in a 2,250-sq-m (24,218-sq-ft) hangar at Oberpfaffenhofen Airport in southern Germany.
In addition to maintenance support for Bombardier Globals, JetSupport provides line and base maintenance for Cessna Citation and Dassault Falcon jets, as well as Beechcraft King Air and Dornier twin turboprops.
Renewable Aviation Fuel Hub Expands in California
In a step toward improving infrastructure for the distribution of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), renewable fuels producer Neste and NuStar Energy, which operates the Selby fuel distribution terminal near San Francisco, announced that tanker trucks can now directly load Neste MY SAF there. Due to the Selby terminal’s strategic location, Neste, along with its business aviation partners Avfuel and Signature Flight Support, will be able to supply SAF to a growing number of airports across the western U.S.
In July 2020, Neste established a continuous supply of SAF from the Selby terminal to San Francisco International Airport via the existing multi-product pipeline, marking the first use of such a conveyance for the renewable fuel. NuStar has handled conventional jet-A at the terminal for decades, and the two companies are now working to remake it into a hub for low-carbon renewable fuels and make it easier for their customers to access them.
“We are excited about this project as it fits into our strategy for growth by continuing to improve utilization of existing assets while executing NuStar’s renewable fuels strategy on the West Coast,” said NuStar president and CEO Brad Barron.
AIN Webinar: Mitigating 5G Avionics Interference
According to a recent RTCA report, terrestrial 5G telecom systems could cause interference issues with certain existing avionics. This can cause serious safety concerns for aircraft equipped with legacy radar altimeters and other vulnerable products. Solutions to this problem exist, and we will be highlighting these during an educational webinar on 5G interference concerns in the NextGen airspace presented by subject matter experts in avionics manufacturing, installation, and regulatory perspectives.
Please join us on April 28 as AIN editor-in-chief Matt Thurber moderates this webinar with Nathan Hernandez, business development sales manager at Southeast Aerospace; Dr. David Redman, director of Aerospace Vehicles Systems Institute and an RTCA committee member; and Ashley Ring, v-p of sales and marketing at FreeFlight Systems. Sponsored by Freeflight Systems.
eVTOL Certification and Service Entry Hurdles
Many startup companies are developing new eVTOL aircraft and are quickly learning that they have to carefully complete a set of specific tasks to ensure that all key performance and safety requirements can be met. We spoke to Geoff Bower—chief engineer with Archer Aviation, which is developing a four-passenger model that will be operated by the company and customers such as United Airlines from 2024—about these issues.
Requires repetitive inspections of the rivets at the joint between the tail boom skin and the tail rotor gearbox support assembly and replacement of any discrepant rivets. It also requires repair if an excessive gap between the tail boom skin and the tail rotor gearbox support fitting is found during inspection. Prompted by in-service reports of failed rivets at the joint between the tail boom skin and the tail rotor gearbox support assembly. In-service reports also revealed that a quality escape resulted in a gapping condition between the tail boom skin and the tail rotor gearbox support fitting at some locations around the joint and that rivets of inadequate grip length have been installed at the affected joint.
Requires repetitive inspections of the fuselage inner side skin in the passenger cabin areaand, if necessary, an additional visual inspection of the entire fuselage inner side skin and any applicable repairs. AD also requires reporting the inspection results to Piaggio. Prompted by reports where, during routine inspections, diffused corrosion was detected on the fuselage inner side skin in the area of the passenger cabin. Evidence indicates that the presence of undetected (infiltrated or condensed) water, trapped in between the inner surface of fuselage skin panels and the thermo-acoustic insulation panels, could start a galvanic corrosion phenomenon, mainly in the bottom fuselage area of the cabin compartment. Fuselage skin panels of P.180 Avantis delivered from 2009 to 2013 were treated with a “chromate-free” primer, which is chemically not as effective against corrosion when compared to those containing chrome. The corrosion phenomenon has been observed on airplanes subjected to prolonged inactivity and not stored in a hangar or those operating in an environment with high humidity and/or frequent heavy precipitation combined with deterioration of window sealing due to normal aging or wear and tear.
Requires a one-time inspection of the nose landing gear (NLG) sliding tube at the NLG fork interfaceand, depending on findings, any necessary replacement. Prompted by reports where corrosion was found on NLG strut assemblies. It was identified that the corrosion was due to a manufacturing non-conformity of the affected parts, which exposed unprotected raw material at the NLG fork interface.
AINalerts News Tips/Feedback: News tips may be sent anonymously, but feedback must include name and contact info (we will withhold name on request). We reserve the right to edit correspondence for length, clarity and grammar. Send feedback or news tips to AINalerts editor Chad Trautvetter.
AIN Alerts is a publication of The Convention News Company, Inc., 214 Franklin Avenue, Midland Park, New Jersey. Copyright 2021. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission is strictly prohibited.
