Signature Flight Support Pumps 1M Gallons of SAF at SFO

Signature Flight Support has pumped more than one million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) through its Signature Renew program at San Francisco International Airport (SFO), resulting in a more than 10,000-tonne reduction in aircraft CO2 emissions. “This marks the first time a single FBO location globally has delivered such a substantial and consistent supply of SAF to business aircraft operators,” said Signature Flight Support COO Tony Lefebvre.

“The one million gallon milestone is a significant achievement that, together with our ongoing expansion of SAF, continues to propel the business aviation industry towards adopting sustainable fuels on a consistent basis,” he added. “Last September, we promised a permanent supply of sustainable jet fuel at SFO, and we delivered on that promise in December. Now in April, we’ve demonstrated that critical mass with SAF is possible.”

Signature has also expanded availability of Signature Renew SAF at the nearby Oakland International Airport (OAK), as well as at Seattle Boeing Field/King County International Airport (BFI). With these additions, Signature is now providing a consistent source of SAF at six locations globally.

Signature Renew SAF uses a 30/70 blend of renewable feedstock and conventional jet-A that yields a 25 percent reduction in direct carbon output from aircraft versus traditional jet fuel. Last year, Signature facilitated the uplift of 90 percent of publicly announced SAF gallons.

Gulfstream Enhances Capabilities at Farnborough Center

Gulfstream Aerospace has made further improvements to its Farnborough service center following its opening at the UK’s preeminent business aviation airport last summer, the Savannah, Georgia-based business jet manufacturer announced this week. The enhancements, a Gulfstream spokeswoman told AIN, are aimed at reducing downtime of customer aircraft.

Among the enhancements at the Farnborough location is a paint facility that allows the company to perform touchups and rework on relatively small areas of an aircraft up to the size of a G650 flap. It also has added fuel storage capability for defueling and refueling of customers' aircraft, which eliminates the possibility of wasting excess fuel while also providing safe storage during maintenance.

Additional work areas and back shops will offer wheel, brake, and battery service. An avionics room will facilitate faster testing and fault diagnosis. And a non-destructive testing area will provide a dedicated space for the equipment necessary to complete critical inspections, the company said.

With the exception of the fuel storage facility, these improvements were made within the service center facility’s existing 225,000-sq-ft footprint.

WingX: U.S. Driving Global Rebound of Bizav Flights

Global business aviation activity in early April began at levels more than double from those a year ago, WingX reported today. While not a surprise given the phases of the pandemic now and a year ago, as well as the fact that Easter was earlier this year, the results from the seven-day rolling trend at the beginning of the month confirmed “a big improvement,” it said. Easter Day marked 11,992 business aviation flights this year, just 6 percent shy of the 12,700 flown on the holiday in April 2019 and significantly greater than the 4,000 flown a year ago, WingX said.

Business aviation activity continues to remain at healthier levels than the scheduled airlines, which saw flights at levels 40 percent below those of Easter 2019 even as they were 140 percent above last year’s holiday. Since the beginning of 2021, business aviation traffic is up 5 percent versus the same period in 2020, while airline activity is down 39 percent. Business jet movements reached their highest level since the onset of the pandemic on March 27, marking 8,571 flights that day—approaching the 2020 peak day of 8,699.

WingX called the U.S. recovery the “most impressive” and said it is driving the global rebound with daily activity trending above 6,100 flights in the past week, while Europe lagged at 1,000 daily flights.

JSfirm Survey Sees Optimism for Growth, Hiring Plans

JSfirm’s Aviation Hiring Trends Survey for 2021 found that half of the respondents are projecting growth this year and two-thirds did not cut jobs despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The survey was distributed to hiring professionals, executives, and business owners at 200 aviation companies across various industry sectors.

Of those responding, 50.84 percent said they anticipated moderate growth in 2021 and 32.93 percent said they expect to hire in the second quarter. Demand was greatest for pilots and maintenance and avionics technicians, JSfirm said.

Looking at 2020, 34.95 percent of the respondents said they hired between one and five individuals, while another 17.74 percent hired between six and 10 people. Meanwhile, 38.04 percent said the government assistance helped keep their company in business and 46.99 percent said their business is now at pre-Covid levels.

“The results of our recent survey are encouraging for the industry,” said JSfirm managing partner Sam Scanlon. “It’s interesting to see how many companies were not affected too much by the pandemic. Airlines make the headlines, but the fact is the small to medium-size companies that make up the majority of our infrastructure made it through the past year and are now gearing up for growth.”

Scanlon added that traffic on JSfirm's job board website continues to increase from both job seekers and hiring companies.

John Calcagno Takes Reins at Piper Aircraft

Long-time Piper CFO John Calcagno has stepped in as acting president and CEO of the Vero Beach, Florida-based general aviation aircraft manufacturer, succeeding Simon Caldecott, Piper announced this week. Caldecott retired on April 2 after leading Piper for more than 10 years and spending 47 years in the aviation industry.

Calcagno brings a background in finance, operations, distribution, and sales to his new role at the helm of Piper. He served with Piper for 11 years, steering all financial reporting, treasury, and company cash management functions, as well as information technology and enterprise resource planning.

He also has held roles with The Acerra Consortium, Alltel (Supply) Communications Products, Coca-Cola, and C.R. Bard. Calcagno began his career with PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

“I know that I speak for everyone at Piper Aircraft in thanking Simon for his leadership and tireless dedication to the company,” said Calcagno, adding he was “incredibly excited” about the future of the company.

“We have an exceptionally talented team at Piper Aircraft that is focused on taking decisive actions to transform the business, continuing to innovate our products in new and diverse ways, and unlocking future growth opportunities,” he said.

Embraer Offers Tips on Covid Vaccine Transport by Bizjet

Embraer has released technical information to help operators of its Phenom, Legacy, Praetor, and Lineage business jets safely transport Covid-19 vaccines. In developing this technical guidance, the Brazil-based aircraft manufacturer conducted tests to define characteristics and payload requirements in relation to the technical specifications of vaccine transportation, considering the differences among each aircraft. The transport of many of these vaccines also requires low temperatures, which are achieved using dry ice.

“Embraer is deeply engaged in the fight against Covid-19, providing technical information to customers in many segments, always with the main goal of supporting and enhancing our customers’ operations,” said Embraer v-p of technical services and product support Sérgio Cunha. “This technical information will help customers to develop their procedures to carry a large amount of Covid-19 vaccines.”

In December, Embraer disseminated technical guidance to assist commercial aircraft customers to properly define the transportation characteristics and payload requirements for the Covid-19 vaccines. More recently, Embraer also released guidance to apply UV-C lights for cockpit sanitization, as well as disinfectants and coatings—including MicroShield360 and Bacoban—for aircraft interiors.

Bell Continues Cautious Swim into AAM Pool

Textron's Bell subsidiary continues to move cautiously on its two marquis electric demonstration aircraft—the Nexus passenger eVTOL and the Autonomous Pod Transport (APT) UAS cargo vehicle. 

The design of the ducted fan tiltrotor Nexus continues to evolve, according to Bell v-p of innovation Jason Hurst. “The focus is to come up with something that is safe for public usage, is affordable, quiet, and meets public acceptance in the regulatory environment,” he said. He noted that Bell has also been focused on helping to shape the “regulatory infrastructure” for advanced air mobility (AAM) and “maturing autonomy and electrification.”

While an all-electric vehicle makes sense for inter-urban travel, a hybrid propulsion system would still be required for greater distances. Thus, Bell is focused on a “modular solution that operates in multiple segments” for Nexus, Hurst said.

Though Bell’s passenger eVTOL has yet to fly, the company’s APT has flown several times over increased distances with progressively growing payloads and range, now up to 110 pounds and 10 miles. The quadrotor—which takes off vertically and then noses over to horizontal flight, using its fixed wings—can be scaled to carry up to 500 pounds. In late January, the APT flew a civil mission outside Dallas that demonstrated the vehicle’s ability to integrate into the National Airspace System, simulating package delivery within the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone.

Aviation Tech Firms BoldIQ, Stellar Plan Collaboration

Aviation technology providers BoldIQ and Stellar Labs are partnering to enable charter operators to expand and optimize their business by leveraging each other’s software. Through the partnership, BoldIQ will combine its Solver advanced planning and scheduling platform with Stellar’s advanced pricing engine, Stellar Data Studio business intelligence platform, and charter exchange in combination with the FL3XX aviation management platform. Initially, the two companies will collaborate on sales with additional plans to integrate Stellar, BoldIQ, and FL3XX products.

Stellar CEO Vicki Nakata noted that as an operator’s fleet size increases, so does the challenge of creating optimal flight schedules. “This partnership will allow us to continue providing our clients with the tools that put them on the best path forward to success through better flight scheduling optimization, a critical and challenging task for operations with large or growing fleets,” Nakata added.

According to BoldIQ, its optimized scheduling allows operators to free up 30 percent of their resources and reduce operating costs by up to 25 percent, thereby increasing profitability by up to 20 percent. “Our team looks forward to supporting and collaborating with the Stellar organization to provide leading-edge operations and optimization solutions,” BoldIQ COO Shelly Freeman said.

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.