Aerion Supersonic is moving its headquarters from Reno, Nevada, to a new $300 million campus at Florida’s Melbourne International Airport (MLB), bringing at least 675 jobs to the area, the company announced jointly with the state Friday evening. The supersonic business jet developer lands at the same airport chosen in 2008 by Embraer Executive Jets, which now has a service center, customer delivery facilities, paint bays, and Phenom light jet assembly line there.
Dubbed Aerion Park, the more than 60-acre site at the northwest corner of MLB will house Aerion’s global headquarters and integrated campus for research, design, build, and maintenance of its AS2 SSBJ. Aerion plans to break ground on the campus later this year, with the manufacturing of the AS2 anticipated to start in 2023. The company also expects Aerion Park to attract “key aerospace suppliers within the supersonic technology ecosystem.”
In 2015, Aerion told AIN that its U.S. manufacturing location for its Mach 1.4 AS2 would eventually be on the East or West Coast, within 200 nm of an offshore supersonic flight-test area. At the time, it said it was seeking 100 acres on a major airport with a minimum 9,000-foot runway and “other special geophysical requirements.” MLB’s Runway 9L/27R is 10,181 feet long by 150 feet wide.
Embraer on Saturday issued a firm rebuttal of Boeing’s assertion that it exited its deal to take 80 percent of the Brazilian company’s commercial aircraft business due to “unsatisfied” conditions of the master transaction agreement (MTA). In a statement issued just hours after Boeing announced it had “terminated” the MTA, Embraer said it “believes strongly” that Boeing wrongfully impeded the fulfillment of the contract and manufactured false claims as a pretext to avoid closing the transaction and pay the Brazilian manufacturer the $4.2 billion purchase price.
“We believe Boeing has engaged in a systematic pattern of delay and repeated violations of the MTA, because of its unwillingness to complete the transaction in light of its own financial condition and 737 Max and other business and reputational problems,” Embraer said in a statement. “Embraer believes it is in full compliance with its obligations under the MTA and that it has satisfied all conditions required to be accomplished by April 24, 2020.”
Embraer added it would pursue “all remedies” against Boeing for damages it claims to have incurred as a result of Boeing’s actions. Today, Embraer filed for arbitration against Boeing over the soured deal.
The International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) appealed to the International Civil Aviation Organization to use 2019 only as the baseline for its Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (Corsia) program, saying the original plans to use an average based on last year and this year would skew the threshold.
Corsia was to establish a baseline based on the average emissions between 2019 and 2020 that would serve as a basis for carbon-neutral targets and overall cost to operators. Business aircraft operators emitting more than 10,000 tonnes of CO2 annually in international flying are included in Corsia.
IBAC fears that the use of 2020 emissions would drastically lower the baseline at a much greater cost to operators. Increased costs of Corsia would only compound a challenging recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and result in an undeserved penalty on the sector, IBAC said.
“IBAC is concerned that a baseline average taken from 2019 and 2020 will reflect a highly anomalous circumstance inflicted on international aviation,” said IBAC director general Kurt Edwards. “Including exceptionally low 2020 emissions levels in the baseline will only divert critical resources from operators’ ability to take climate action and to contribute to the economic and sustainable development of regional and national economies around the world.”
Use of just 2019 emissions levels as the baseline is a simple solution, he said.
Sikorsky Signs Cougar For S-92A+ Helicopter Upgrades
Sikorsky announced today that Cougar Helicopters is the launch customer for its S-92A+ upgrade kit with an order for four. The kit features the new Phase IV main gearbox that uses a supplemental fuel pump and additional oil lines to reuse main gearbox oil that is accumulated in a lower sump in the event of primary lubrication failure on the helicopter twin.
It fits into the existing space for the legacy gearbox and provides for increased time between overhaul interval of up to 25 percent. The extra weight of the new gearbox is offset with weight savings elsewhere on the aircraft.
According to Sikorsky, the upgrade can be fitted to existing helicopters as part of the current 1,500-hour inspection and is one of several menu items that can be selected for the A+. Other options include an increased gross weight kit to 27,700 pounds and uprated engines, GE Aviation CT7-8A6s, that offer better payload capability and hot-and-high performance.
Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sikorsky anticipates the S-92A+ kit will be delivered by 2023 and the S-92B helicopter in 2025. All of the features on the A+ kit will be incorporated into the B model, along with several other improvements such as 20 percent larger cabin windows, titanium sideframes that increase fuselage service life, and a common cabin door for offshore and SAR missions.
Agreement Could Help Diamond Aircraft’s Worker Pipeline
Centennial College in Ontario, Canada, has agreed to collaborate with general aviation airframer Diamond Aircraft Industries on program development, student work placements, and research and innovation projects. The public college has a history of training aircraft and avionics technicians accredited by Transport Canada.
Creating work co-op and placement activities with Diamond will mark the beginning of the agreement. Additionally, Centennial will review its programming and the needs of its graduates to assist Diamond with building a workforce pipeline. Research and innovation opportunities, donations of equipment or services in kind, and technical training and curriculum development will be explored under the collaboration agreement.
“Diamond Aircraft is excited about our collaboration with Centennial College,” said Diamond Aircraft CEO Scott McFadzean. “We look forward to working with Centennial on several initiatives and offering co-op and employment opportunities to Centennial students and graduates.”
Austria-based Diamond—which manufactures a line of single- and multi-piston engine airplanes and related flight simulators and proprietary engines—has operations in Ontario, as well as in China.
UV-C Light System Eliminates Covid-19 from Aircraft Cabins
A UV-C light system will soon be available for disinfecting aircraft interiors, according to Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), which has been fast-tracking deployment of the technology to combat Covid-19 infection in hospitals. According to the company, the robot-based system is suitable for use in any size aircraft, having already been tested in a widebody cargo airliner and a helicopter.
The equipment uses a 254-nanometer electromagnetic wave that is shorter than a visual wavelength and longer than an x-ray wavelength. Research has proven its ability to kill any germ or virus, IAI said.
In an aircraft, the robot can move between seats in straight lines, and lights on electronically-controlled arms move across all exposed surfaces, such as seats and other cabin fittings. Unexposed surfaces beneath these items would still have to be manually cleaned with chemicals.
For an airliner, the 12-inch-wide robot can move up and down standard aisles between seats. In a more compact aircraft, such as a business jet, one or more stationary units, which were originally developed for hospital rooms, would be deployed.
According to an IAI spokesman, it would take between 30 and 40 minutes to disinfect a widebody aircraft. The company expects to market the system to both aircraft operators and FBO/MRO providers. It has yet to announce pricing for the equipment.
The plunge in oil and gas prices combined with restrictions and other Coronavirus pandemic ramifications have taken a sharp toll on rotorcraft employment, but industry officials say some companies are still hiring and job seekers should still reach out to potential employees. HAI officials and executives from job advertising-based website JSFirm delved into rotorcraft job market uncertainties during a webinar, “Employment During the Covid-19 Pandemic,” on Thursday.
HAI president and CEO James Viola noted the number of attendees of the webinar outstripped the previous two HAI webinars combined, underscoring the uncertainties in the market. The majority of attendees were currently unemployed. “Regrettably, it’s because most rotorcraft businesses are experiencing considerable economic and operational disruptions,” Viola said.
Across all industries, U.S. unemployment has surged from 3 percent to 22 percent. An unprecedented 6.6 million came off the payrolls in one week alone, JSFirm managing director Sam Scanlon noted. In the helicopter market, he added, “oil and gas pricing has had a massive impact in just short order,” he said.
JSFirm has seen 47 percent of its companies pull back their job advertisements, said executive director Abbey Hutter. At the same time, the number of helicopter job seekers on the website has increased 11 percent and overall website traffic has jumped 32 percent. However, some companies are still looking for workers, she said.
C. ACAS is the standard and TCAS is its implementation.
D. None of the above.
Tighter Requirements Put Pressure on Bizav in Russia
Business aircraft operators are likely to face serious difficulties in conducting their flights to and from Russia this year due to a significant tightening of requirements implemented in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Sources at Russia’s Federal Air Transport Agency have told AIN that each business aviation flight performed in Russia now needs to be coordinated with domestic aviation authorities and they are, in essence, now being equated with scheduled airline flights.
The use of such an approach has already resulted in serious difficulties for business operators in Russia during their planning of flights into and out of the country in recent days. Some operators reportedly had to cancel planned flights, which puts additional pressure on an industry already reeling from the Covid-19 crisis. So far, the number of domestic business aviation flights in Russia has already declined by about 25 percent year-over-year, while international flights have plummeted by 70 percent.
On the positive side, some Russian charter operators said they have seen some influx of new customers due to fear of possible infection and schedule cuts at the airlines.
AIN Webinar: How Aviation Training Is Weathering Covid-19
Join us tomorrow (April 28) at 12:00 p.m. EDT as AIN editor-in-chief Matt Thurber moderates a discussion on the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the aviation training industry. He will talk to three senior leaders from this sector: Dr. Kenneth Bynes, associate dean of the college of aviation and flight department chair at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach Campus; Chris Ranganathan, CAE’s chief learning officer; and Craig Joiner, senior v-p of brand experience at Fulcrum Labs. Register for this FREE one-hour webinar.
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