Textron Aviation has opened a new Career & Learning Center at its East Wichita campus at Beech Factory Airport. While the company has long had such a training facility there, the new center has been expanded to 75,000 sq ft and serves as an application, hiring, onboarding, and training facility. The state of Kansas awarded Textron Aviation $3.325 million to help build the $40 million facility.

Prospective employees start at the Career Zone, where applicants get help from recruiters with resume creation, role matching, and job applications. At the Pre-Employment Zone, candidates are onboarded and undergo WorkKeys skills testing and new-hire training.

The Learning Zone is where professional and technical training takes place and features a simulated manufacturing floor. New-hire mechanics spend eight weeks in training in preparation for a seamless move to the manufacturing floor. “Design. Build. Fly.”—the fourth zone—introduces K-12 students to aviation careers with hands-on activities. A Cessna 172 flight simulator helps the students “explore the joy of flying,” according to the company.

“We are passionate about creating environments where future and current employees can be inspired and thrive,” said Maggie Topping, senior v-p of human resources and communications. “The Career & Learning Center is equipped with the latest technology to provide realistic environments for training scenarios that mimic the reality of our manufacturing operations, setting our employees up for success from day one.”

The International Aircraft Dealers Association (IADA) reported a robust start to 2025, showing 316 completed aircraft sales transactions in the first quarter, a 24% increase from the same period last year. Despite this solid performance, IADA members expressed a cautious outlook for the next six months amid growing economic uncertainties.

According to the IADA Q1 2025 Market Report released yesterday, aircraft pricing remained stable in the first quarter. However, dealers noted that light, midsize, and large jets are facing slight downward pricing pressures, while turboprops continue to demonstrate pricing resilience.

“Although aircraft pricing has held steady, our members are voicing a more reserved outlook compared to the high confidence levels we saw at the end of 2024,” said IADA executive director Lou Seno. He added that the six-month forecast “reflects a tempered approach as dealers navigate broader economic uncertainties.”

Dealers signed 250 aircraft under contract during the first quarter, nearly matching the 251 recorded a year earlier. However, exclusive contracts to sell dropped sharply from 304 in first-quarter 2024 to 203 in first-quarter 2025, reflecting a market increasingly favoring buyers.

According to the survey results, approximately 90% of respondents expect aircraft pricing to remain stable or decrease slightly over the next six months. Demand is anticipated to stay relatively steady for turboprops and light and midsize jets, while it is more mixed for large-cabin jets.

The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee is set to consider its piece of a larger budget reconciliation bill tomorrow, including measures to add $15 billion in air traffic control modernization and runway safety funding. It also includes cutting unobligated grant money for alternative fuels and low-emission technology projects.

There has been strong support for the ATC funding proposal throughout the industry. More than 50 stakeholders collectively sent a letter, and many of them separately, to Capitol Hill endorsing the funding proposal. The letter calls the funding a “much-needed downpayment” on addressing chronic problems.

This funding proposal comes as the administration has signaled a significant push for expediency on ATC modernization. Acting FAA Administrator Chris Rocheleau told AIN that regular outages have underscored the importance of modernizing the system. “The system is safe, but it is showing signs of decay. It is time that we really call people’s attention to this problem,” he said, noting that only 8% of the agency’s $2.9 billion facilities and equipment account goes to new functionality.

Alongside the ATC funding, the bill would rescind unobligated grant funding for alternative fuel and low-emission aviation technology projects that was allocated under the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

NBAA’s annual Maintenance Conference opened this morning in Columbus, Ohio, with the theme “Built on History, Driven by Innovation.” In his opening comments, NBAA head Ed Bolen addressed the recent spate of aviation accidents across the entire industry and its impact on public perception. “They are asking me and everyone in aviation, ‘Is it safe to fly?’” he told the audience. “Now the empirical data suggests yes; the emotional data, maybe not as much.”

As a result, the entire aviation community, including the airlines and general aviation, has come together to back a proposed $15 billion allocation to the FAA to be put forward under budget reconciliation, to cover the hiring of more controllers and upgrade air traffic control facilities and equipment. “We’re no longer going to have people asking if it’s safe to fly because they will know we have enough well-trained people, using the best equipment and keeping the United States what it’s always been: the largest, safest, the most efficient, and the most diverse mix of aircraft anywhere in the world.”

The industry is also monitoring the current tariff situation. Since 1980, the international aviation community has worked under a trade agreement on civil aircraft, which largely makes aerospace parts and equipment duty-free. “Under that trade agreement, what we have seen is the U.S. is a dominant aerospace country,” explained Bolen.

The business aviation market is growing, and Thornton Aviation is growing, too, providing much needed capacity and expertise. 

Increased demand for private aviation in India’s burgeoning economy has made the case for reforming the sector’s regulatory structure even more urgent, according to industry leaders who recently gathered for the annual conference of the country’s Business Aviation Operators Association (BAOA) in Delhi. Speakers highlighted key challenges as including unhelpful tax rules that impede progress, a lack of regulation for services such as fractional ownership, and inadequate provisions for training, pilot recruitment, and maintenance.

At face value, India’s business aviation market should be booming, based on an impressive economic growth trajectory that the International Monetary Fund expects to see GDP exceeding Japan’s $4.4 trillion by year-end. On that basis, it is set to overtake Germany in 2027 to become the world’s third-largest economy.

As of 2024, there were already 13,600 ultra-high-net-worth individuals in India last year when that total grew by 6%, and with that rate expected to reach 50% growth by 2028. According to the Knight Frank Wealth Report, the current number of high-net-worth individuals globally will double from around 850,000 to 1.65 million by 2027. Many of these individuals would be likely customers for air charter flights, according to BAOA.

Gogo Business Aviation has validated the performance capabilities of its Plane Simple electronically steered antenna (ESA) during a series of flight tests conducted in collaboration with defense technology company MAG Aerospace. The tests confirmed the ESA’s ability to maintain consistent connectivity through a range of flight maneuvers and operational scenarios.

Developed in partnership with satellite networking specialist Gilat Satellite Networks, the full-duplex antenna underwent rigorous evaluation that included standard taxi, takeoff, and landing procedures, as well as more demanding flight patterns such as racetracks, figure-eights, and steep banking maneuvers of up to 30 degrees. System resilience was further tested through simulated power loss scenarios, with the ESA demonstrating immediate automatic reconnection without engineer intervention.

“The system performed flawlessly throughout the test program and did not require remedial intervention at any point, highlighting the capability of this multipurpose antenna,” said Gogo CEO Chris Moore.

The flight trials, conducted from Titusville, Florida, used MAG Aerospace’s universal adapter plate. This FAA-certified turnkey radome system allowed the ESA to be mounted on a Cessna Caravan test aircraft.

During testing, the ESA maintained stable network connections capable of supporting multiple simultaneous high-bandwidth applications across several devices. These applications included streaming services at 8K resolution, videoconferencing, messaging platforms, corporate VPN access, and cloud storage utilization.

Air charter broker Sentient Signature has formed a sustainability partnership with Azzera, a provider of environmental solutions for aviation. The agreement will support Sentient Signature’s goal of achieving carbon neutrality across all flights sold.

“Sustainability is no longer a nice-to-have—it’s a necessity. Our clients trust us to deliver not only exceptional experiences but responsible ones. Partnering with Azzera ensures we can do both without compromise,” said Sentient Signature operations director Josh Risker.

Under the partnership, Azzera will manage emissions mitigation on Sentient Signature’s behalf using a combination of verified carbon credits and sustainable aviation fuel certificates (SAFc). The approach applies to all flight types regardless of aircraft, routing, or distance and requires no additional action or cost from clients.

Sentient Signature’s initiative aligns with broader aviation goals to achieve net zero by 2050. The company states that the program reflects its commitment to both client service and environmental responsibility. “Azzera is proud to support Sentient Signature in its plan to make every flight carbon-neutral,” said Azzera founder and CEO Puja Mahajan. “Through science-based assessments, passengers can feel confident their journeys contribute to a cleaner future.”

The FAA is updating its Airport Improvement Program (AIP) grant assurances to incorporate mandates included in the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024, including a requirement surrounding the availability of 100LL aviation gasoline through Dec. 31, 2030.

Additionally, the updates eliminate several stipulations surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion and sustainability efforts, and instead reflect a series of new executive orders on those issues. Modifications to the program took effect with a notice published in the April 25 Federal Register to expedite processing of fiscal year 2025 grants, the agency said. However, the FAA will still accept comments on the updates through May 9.

The changes included the addition of a Grant Assurance 40 requiring airport owners or operators that had made any 100LL avgas available during calendar year 2022 to “not restrict or prohibit the sale of or self-fueling” of the fuel. The requirement remains in effect until the earlier of Dec. 31, 2030, “or the date on which the airport or any retail fuel seller at the airport makes available an unleaded aviation gasoline that has been authorized for use by the administrator of the [FAA] as a replacement for 100-octane low lead aviation gasoline for use in nearly all piston-engine aircraft and engine models; and meets an industry consensus standard.”