The certification testing program for Gulfstream’s ultra-long-range G700 continues to progress with approval anticipated in the third quarter, according to parent company General Dynamics chair and CEO Phebe Novakovic, who gave an update on the large-cabin jet this morning during the company’s first-quarter earnings call.
“We continue to target certification of the G700 for late summer this year,” she said, describing the new company flagship as a mature, high-quality aircraft. “Production is well underway and we are preparing for entry into service.”
Between test aircraft and production versions, the Savannah, Georgia-based airframer has produced 30 G700s thus far, according to the FAA registry. As it continues to stockpile completed aircraft ahead of the start of deliveries, Gulfstream has seen a temporary dip in its profits.
“Frankly, these first two quarters are aberrational in terms of Gulfstream margins,” said Novakovic. “We plan to deliver a considerable number of G700s in the third and fourth quarters. To do that, we must build them now and incur some period costs without the related revenue. This has impacted the first quarter and will impact the second quarter, but relief is in sight as deliveries commence.”
The original certification plan for the G700 would have seen the aircraft potentially receiving FAA approval as early as the end of 2022.
Leonardo continues to evolve its Agusta luxury brand with plans to roll out dedicated helicopter service centers in the coming years. According to Manuela Barbarossa, Leonardo’s head of the VIP/corporate segment, the first location likely will be in Europe with additional locations added across the globe.
Leonardo launched the Agusta brand in 2021 following a similar move by Airbus in 2017 when that company announced Airbus Corporate Helicopters. Formed in Italy in 1923 by Giovanni Agusta, Agusta began manufacturing helicopters under license from other OEMs—most notably Bell in 1952—and began developing its own indigenous helicopter, the Agusta A109 light twin, in the late 1960s. It then merged with Britain’s Westland Helicopters in 2000 to form AgustaWestland and later rebranded Leonardo Helicopters in 2017, a nod to Italian inventor and artist Leonardo da Vinci.
Eighteen months after Leonardo announced its VIP brand, the company is adding features and benefits including the “Agusta for You” menu of custom-tailored completions, maintenance, and operational solutions. Maintenance plans under the program cover scheduled and unscheduled events nose-to-tail for both airframe and avionics. “Effectively, it provides customers with a turnkey solution in terms of coverage,” Barbarossa said. Plans are available for the company’s complete line of helicopters, typically billed on a per-flight-hour basis, and can include perks such as substitute aircraft.
Gulfstream delivered 21 business jets in the first quarter, three shy of its projections and four fewer than in the same period a year ago, according to parent company General Dynamics in its first-quarter earnings call this morning.
Through the first three months of 2023, the Savannah, Georgia-based OEM handed over four super-midsize G280s and 17 large-cabin aircraft. While an international delivery of one large-cabin twinjet was impacted by bureaucratic registration delays in the customer’s home country, General Dynamics chair and CEO Phebe Novakovic noted that this past quarter was the first in which the company missed an airplane delivery due to supply-chain issues when a pair of G280s was delayed due to late engine arrivals.
“The shortage of parts-to-schedule from the supply chain, especially from Honeywell, has created significant out-of-station work, which is inherently less efficient,” she said during the conference call. “The other impact of late-to-schedule parts deliveries—apart from cost growth—is that we cannot increase our build rate until the supply of parts is more predictable.” She stated that most Gulfstream suppliers expect that situation to improve by the third quarter.
In dollar terms, the airframer ended the first quarter with a book-to-bill of just below 1:1. “The quarter was looking quite good until the two regional bank failures in early March,” explained Novakovic. “This created a pause in the market for about three weeks.”
Business aircraft MRO provider West Star Aviation has joined the Aviation Technical Education Council (ATEC) and is now supporting the mission of its sister organization, Choose Aerospace.
ATEC and Choose Aerospace are developing ways to address the aviation maintenance technician (AMT) shortage, including working with local communities to incorporate aviation maintenance into high school curriculums, West Star said.
“The mission of both organizations strengthens West Star Aviation’s longstanding focus on connecting with our local communities, K-12 educational institutions, and Part 147 maintenance schools to promote career opportunities, apprenticeships, internships, and mentoring while improving future access to licensed aircraft maintenance technicians,” the MRO provider added.
The program is designed to increase interest in AMT careers at a younger age by providing tools and “ready-to-go” resources developed by Part 147 schools using the latest technology, West Star added. “When more pathways exist to go from high school to college or high school to work, the prospective employees and companies waiting to hire them both win.”
Gogo 5G and Global Broadband Progressing
Gogo Business Aviation is the world's largest provider of broadband connectivity services and solutions for the business aviation market. We’re connecting you to the sky’s most incredible inflight connectivity and entertainment experiences now, but also revolutionizing the breakthrough innovations coming next.
In the midst of midterm contract negotiations with NetJets, the NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP) has filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio alleging the fractional ownership provider violated federal law by attempting to suppress union-related speech.
According to the NJASAP, which represents more than 3,000 pilots, NetJets “threatened to discipline pilots for referring customers to the union’s website.” The website provides information from NJASAP on how NetJets is losing its “competitive edge” with salaries that fall below those of commercial and regional airlines. The website also details pilot shortage information.
The lawsuit comes as NJASAP has been pushing NetJets to up its compensation as major carriers push through significant rate hikes for their own pilots. NJASAP has staged picketing campaigns at select locations where owners may frequent and on April 19 held such an event across from the company’s headquarters in Columbus, Ohio.
NJASAP said it had received an email in early March from NetJets warning pilots that they are violating work rules. The union added that it asked NetJets how pilots should respond to questions about the contract negotiations but the company had not addressed the question.
Duncan Aviation, in partnership with Gogo Business Aviation, is developing several additional 5G supplemental type certificates for the installation of Gogo 5G equipment on multiple models of business aircraft.
Duncan has Gogo 5G STC development programs for a variety of business jets, including the Bombardier Global Express and Challenger series, mid-cabin Gulfstreams, and Citation 560/XLS models. According to the company, it is already provisioning current Gogo Avance L5 installations in preparation for the 5G network availability.
“The Duncan Aviation partnership on the active development of a comprehensive 5G STC portfolio is leading the industry as we prepare to launch 5G service later this year,” said Dave Salvador, vice president of the aftermarket channel for Gogo. “There is great anticipation in the market for 5G, and the enhanced inflight connectivity experience it will deliver, and these STCs are a critical component.”
An EASA notice of proposed rulemaking (NPA) establishes minimum requirements, responsibilities, and qualifications for serving as a flight dispatcher, a position mandated for European-registered commercial aircraft operations, including most business jet charter companies. But because current requirements are vague and confusing, the proposed amendments are designed to standardize flight dispatcher training across EASA member states and to ensure a level playing field.
EASA says that although both industry and member states acknowledge that operational control personnel are safety-critical, regulations do not include requirements to identify the tasks, responsibilities, and training of operational control personnel and their instructors.
“This lack of requirements has resulted in several issues,” said EASA. For example, “only a few member states have national requirements for training of operational control personnel, but the degree to which they are compliant with ICAO recommended standards varies.”
The specific objectives of this proposal are to: ensure that tasks and responsibilities of operational control personnel are clearly identified; address the need for EU training requirements for operational control personnel and their instructors; clarify the confusion created by the term “flight dispatcher" used with a different meaning in flight operations and ground handling operations; and improve the clarity of some of the provisions on fuel planning and management.
Comments on the NPA are due July 24. EASA is expected to allow affected stakeholders “sufficient time” to implement the proposed amendments.
Avionics services provider Peregrine, in collaboration with Curtiss-Wright and SoCal Jets, has received validation from the civil aviation authority of Mexico (AFAC) to expand its approved model list (AML) for its supplemental type certificate covering cockpit voice recorders and flight data recorders.
The expanded STC covers additional legacy models including the Learjet 60, Hawker 400, and Cessna Citation 560, and is available now for installation. All equipment is ED-112A certified and includes an EASA (E)TSO-approved 25-hour CVR and (E)TSO-176a two-hour airborne image recorder.
The STCs are in response to the AFAC mandate requiring any U.S.- or Mexico-registered Part 25 charter aircraft weighing more than 12,000 pounds operating and in Mexican airspace to have approved voice and data recorders.
“Under certain regulatory bodies, Class C recorders are allowed as a means for recording flight data where it is not practical or prohibitively expensive to record on an FDR, or where an FDR is not required,” said Peregrine president David Rankin. “This expanded AML STC offers an economical means, measured in cost and aircraft downtime, of complying with the new AFAC and [International Civil Aviation Organization] requirements for additional aircraft.”
Requires revising the existing airplane flight manual (AFM) to add new limitations and procedures. This AD was prompted by a determination that during certain modes, the flight guidance/autopilot does not account for engine failure while capturing an altitude.
Requires replacing all combustion chamber outer case (CCOC) flange bolts and modifying the CCOC and inner bypass ducts. This AD also prohibits the installation of certain flange bolts on any affected engine, as specified in a Transport Canada AD. This AD is prompted by a manufacturer's design review, which identified that the CCOC to rear compressor case flange bolt low cycle fatigue life was inadequate and that those flange bolts may develop cracks resulting in flange bolt fracture.
Revises an earlier AD that called for the installation of a placard with a weight limit of 61 kg for the primary stretcher unit STC'd by Aerolite. The AD stemmed from the discovery of a design deficiency that could lead, in case of an emergency landing, to failure of the primary stretcher, possibly resulting in injury to helicopter occupants. Since that AD was issued, Aerolite developed a modification to improve the structural strength of the stretcher unit. Consequently, EASA revised the AD and removed the requirements for helicopters that have incorporated the modification.
Requires cleaning and repetitively inspecting certain part-numbered left-hand fin spar caps, and repetitively inspecting the exterior of the fin skin and, depending on the results, accomplishing corrective action. This AD also prohibits certain corrective actions as a terminating action for the repetitive inspections unless the corrective actions have been approved as a terminating action, as specified in an EASA AD. This AD was prompted by a report of a fatigue crack in a left-hand fin spar cap.
Revises an earlier AD that called for the installation of a placard with a weight limit of 61 kg for the primary stretcher unit STC'd by Aerolite. The AD stemmed from the discovery of a design deficiency that could lead, in case of an emergency landing, to failure of the primary stretcher, possibly resulting in injury to helicopter occupants. Since that AD was issued, Aerolite developed a modification to improve the structural strength of the stretcher unit. Consequently, EASA revised the AD and removed the requirements for helicopters that have incorporated the modification.
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