Textron Aviation marked the delivery of its 400th Citation CJ4 series aircraft today, a milestone reached 13 years after the aircraft entered the market in 2010. The 400th copy, a CJ4 Gen2, went to Koch Holdings of Easton, Pennsylvania, with representatives from both companies attending a special delivery ceremony at Textron Aviation headquarters in Wichita.
“Our customers appreciate the quality and reliability, as well as the comfort and flexibility provided by the Cessna Citation CJ4 Gen2,” said Lannie O’Bannion, senior v-p of global sales and flight operations for Textron Aviation. “This aircraft is a direct response to continued conversations with our customers. Their input, combined with the excellent work by our employees, helped create an incredible aircraft.”
The CJ4 Gen2, the largest of Cessna’s light aircraft line, can seat 10 passengers and has a 1,040-pound baggage capacity. Certified for single-pilot operations, the aircraft has a 2,165-nm range, can fly at speeds of 451 ktas and takeoff from 3,410-foot runways, and is used for a range of missions from business and air ambulance operations to maritime patrol, search and rescue, and aerial survey.
CenTex Aerospace has received FAA approval for its Halo 350 increased gross weight modification for Beechcraft King Air 350s and 360s. The upgrade ups mtow from 15,000 to 15,950 pounds and raises payload by 946 pounds. To accommodate these higher weights, high-strength bolts replace the original main landing gear hinge bolts.
Two additional safety systems are installed under the upgrade: a takeoff warning system and stall warning “ice mode.” The former alerts the pilot when the pitch trim is not properly set and a takeoff is initiated. Meanwhile, ice mode improves the accuracy of a stall warning when ice is present on the wings.
The Halo 350 kit, which is available immediately, comes with all necessary parts, an airplane flight manual supplement containing performance data, instructions for continued airworthiness, installation instructions, and drawings. According to Waco, Texas-based CenTex, the Halo 350 upgrade requires about 20 hours of installation time and increases empty weight by four pounds.
“The conversion represents a tremendous value for operators who find they are restricted by the 15,000-pound [mtow] limit and wish to carry additional payload or fuel,” said CenTex Aerospace president Gregory Barnes. “On top of that, the airplane will be safer to operate thanks to the new safety systems.”
CAE is expanding its business aviation training activities in Central Europe with plans to open a new center in the second half of 2024. The center would become CAE’s first business aviation facility in the region and have a capacity for up to six full-flight simulators for training on the latest light and large-cabin business jets, the company said.
The aviation training provider is finalizing details on where the center would be located and which simulators it would house initially, a spokesman told AIN, adding that the company hopes to have those details ready in time for EBACE next month.
“CAE’s new training center in Central Europe will add much-needed training capacity in the region and bring us closer to where our customers operate their aircraft,” said CAE Civil Aviation group president Nick Leontidis. “CAE is expanding its business aviation training network in strategic locations to help the industry meet the global requirement for an additional 45,000 business aviation pilots over the next 10 years.”
The announcement of plans for Central Europe comes on the heels of the inauguration of its first business aviation training facility in the western U.S. this month in Las Vegas. CAE is also set to open a facility in Savannah, Georgia, later this year.
The U.S. House is set to take up debate on the massive Limit, Save, Grow Act of 2023 debt ceiling bill that has marked some $4.5 trillion in cuts and savings, including limits on discretionary funding and repeals of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and other green-energy tax credits.
Consideration of the bill, which was unveiled last week by House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-California), is on the House calendar today and on pace for a vote this week. The bill is likely to die in the Democrat-controlled Senate—at least in its current form.
Even so, the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) expressed concern in a letter to members of Congress that the bill would keep fiscal 2024 spending at the 2022 level and cap growth at 1 percent each year for the next decade.
“It remains highly likely that the FAA would be subject to an immediate reduction and funding and any future funding would be severely constrained for the next decade,” NATCA wrote, worrying that such cuts would hobble the FAA similar to the way sequestration did a decade ago.
The bill also would repeal a slate of green energy tax credits, including most of those passed last year in the Inflation Reduction Act. These included incentives for the production of SAF, measures that had wide aviation industry support.
Highly Skilled Maintenance Technicians Are Vital To Aviation
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Students at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) in Prescott, Arizona, recently had the opportunity to test out Reliable Robotics’ voice communication system for remotely piloted, autonomous aircraft. Researchers with Reliable Robotics visited ERAU’s ATC laboratory earlier this month to demonstrate the company’s remote piloting capabilities using the university’s virtual simulators. During the demonstration, students took on roles of remote pilots and air traffic controllers to simulate communications in busy airspace.
Mountain View, California company Reliable Robotics is working to certify an autonomous flight control system that can be installed on existing aircraft to give them remote-piloting capabilities. Aircraft equipped with Reliable Robotics’ autopilot can taxi, take off, and land without any pilot intervention, and have high-precision navigation capabilities. The tech startup said it is on track to obtain its first supplemental type certificate, covering the conversion of Cessna Grand Caravan utility aircraft, in the second half of this year.
Reliable Robotics chose to test its voice communication system at the university’s lab because it’s “one of the few facilities in the nation that have such a robust ATC simulation environment,” said Chad Healy, senior human factors engineer at Reliable Robotics. “Students could see the end-to-end operations from the air traffic side as well as the pilot side. They provided great feedback throughout the test campaign, and we collected valuable data that will help us refine our system.”
Airbus Helicopters has delivered the first two of eight five-bladed H145s to the Bavarian Police. The helicopters will be used for pilot and crew transition training from the force’s current H135 fleet, which has been in service for more than 12 years.
Delivery of fully kitted police H145s will begin in mid-2024 and will feature a computer system with tactical police mission software, easily operated from a dedicated mission command station in the cabin or by the co-pilot/technical flight officer via a stowable monitor. Other features will include onboard cameras, searchlights, a hoist, customer-specified tactical radios and data link, and illuminated blade tips to improve the safety of night operations.
“Our police forces have to deal with a wide range of scenarios: searching for missing persons, transporting special units, fighting forest fires, or dealing with natural disasters. The H145, with its outstanding performance and mission capabilities, will provide our police forces with an essential tool to fulfill these diverse missions,” said Franz Muschick, head of the Bavarian Police helicopter squadron.
Worldwide, more than 200 H145 helicopters fly public service and law enforcement missions as part of a fleet of 1,600 H145 family helicopters that have logged in excess of seven million flight hours.
Due to increasing spacecraft activity and a growing number of launch sites in the U.S., the FAA is taking additional steps to “optimize and equitably manage” the airspace in the vicinity of launch sites. To minimize disruptions, the agency has developed a set of objective factors to better balance the needs of commercial launch licensees, airlines, general aviation, and the military.
This work is in addition to the use of current tools and procedures that the agency claims have cut “airspace closures to an average of two hours instead of four hours per launch.”
The FAA will consider the following factors in determining whether a space operation may proceed as requested or whether an alternative time is necessary: location and timing of the proposed launch; the number of flights and/or passengers that will be affected by the operation; holidays or events that result in more than usual airspace congestion; launch window duration; and nighttime versus daytime launches (the FAA prefers space operations at night).
In addition, the agency will prioritize commercial space operations that have a national security purpose, are in the national interest, and/or carry payloads. The agency plans to meet with aviation and space industries’ representatives at the end of June to continue collaborating and then later establish an airspace access priorities aviation rulemaking committee.
Santa Ana, California-based aerospace supplier Ducommun International has completed its acquisition of BLR Aerospace, which specializes in aerodynamic systems on rotary and fixed-wing aircraft.
Completion of the deal comes just a month after the companies announced an agreement on March 21. Terms of the acquisition, which was made through Ducommun’s LeBarge Technologies subsidiary, were not disclosed.
Ducommun president and CEO Stephen Oswald said the acquisition “strengthens our engineered products portfolio at the company and adds as well very important aftermarket business.”
Everett, Washington-headquartered BLR, which was founded in 1992, develops systems to improve aircraft productivity, performance, and safety that include the FastFin tail rotor enhancement and stability system, as well as winglet systems, propellers, and flow modifiers.
BLR president Mike Carpenter called his company’s portfolio complementary to Ducommun’s line of engineered products for the commercial aerospace and defense industries. “With Ducommun, BLR expects to accelerate its growth and expand its focus on innovative offerings to meet the needs of an evolving customer base,” Carpenter said when the deal was announced.
People in Aviation
Roger Humiston, Learjet aficionado and founder of Best AeroNet, Best Jets, and JetMakers, passed away unexpectedly on April 20. Humiston, whose career spanned more than 45 years, was actively involved in aircraft maintenance and flight operations before opening a consulting business, Artist-Aire. He had recently published a book documenting his knowledge of 20-series Learjets. He leaves behind a wife, Kate Woolstenhulme. A memorial gathering will take place on May 20 at Addison Airport in Texas.
Mobility investment firm UP.Partners appointed Luciano Froes as partner and chief marketing officer. Froes has more than 20 years of experience across the aerospace and financial sectors having held senior roles at Embraer including as chief marketing officer for the company’s Executive Jets division and as head of investor relations.
Aerocor has hired Dennis Pearson as a flight training instructor. Pearson has prior experience as a military flight instructor, professor of aviation at William Jessup University, FAA safety inspector, aerobatics instructor, and the founder of Mach 5 Aviation flight school.
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