Persistent inflation and rising interest rates have raised concerns but strong industry backlogs, new and returning business aviation users, and healthy business jet trends are steering the industry through the economic uncertainties, according to the latest Global Jet Capital (GJC) report.
Released today, GJC’s Business Aviation Market Update covering the second quarter noted that new users have entered the business aviation market while established users are returning. The culmination of these movements is a 20 percent year-over-year jump in flight operations in the second quarter.
At the same time, orders continue to surge, leading to book-to-bill ratios of 1.8:1 in the second quarter, the business aviation financing specialist added in the report. “With backlogs of $46 billion, OEMs have substantial cushion against any potential downturn.”
Also, business jet transactions are up by 14 percent in dollar volume in the first half, compared with the same period in 2021.
Inventory levels inched up in the second quarter but remain well below historic values, GJC further noted, adding used aircraft values tracked by sales data companies are increasing.
Connectivity provider SmartSky Networks has received a supplemental type certificate (STC) for its airborne hardware on the Cessna Citation X-series business jet. There are more than 300 Citation X-series aircraft in operation, according to SmartSky.
The installation was performed by charter operator flyExclusive on a Citation X at its Kinston, North Carolina facilities. The first test flight with the air-to-ground (ATG) connectivity system was completed in June, and the FAA awarded the STC on August 12.
“We aim to make high-performance, reliable inflight connectivity available for everyone in business aviation, and this successful certification with a key customer is an important step towards achieving that goal,” said SmartSky CEO Dave Helfgott.
The Citation X STC follows the launch of SmartSky’s nationwide ATG network using nearly 300 towers. Work is underway to bring that total to 330. STCs are available on a variety of business aircraft from Bombardier, Embraer, Gulfstream, and Textron Aviation, and SmartSky said additional STCs for other business aircraft are in progress, including the Falcon 900.
Famed stock car race driver and business jet accident survivor Dale Earnhardt Jr. will share his leadership lessons on and off the track as the scheduled keynote speaker on the opening day of the 2022 NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE) in Orlando, Florida, October 18 to 20.
With back-to-back Nascar Infinity Series titles in 1998 and 1999, Earnhardt became the only third-generation Nascar champion, following his legendary father Dale Earnhardt Sr. and his grandfather Ralph Earnhardt. In total, Dale Earnhardt has 26 career victories.
Earnhardt, his wife, and daughter were passengers in a Cessna Citation Latitude that was destroyed when it crashed while landing at Elizabethton, Tennessee, on Aug. 15, 2015. The NTSB concluded that the accident was caused by the crew's continuing an unstabilized approach despite recognizing associated cues and not initiating a go-around before touchdown, which resulted in a bounced landing, gear collapse, and loss of control. Earnhardt, who was injured, will speak about what he learned from his experience of the accident.
“We are pleased to welcome Dale Earnhardt to be with us at this year’s convention,” said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen. “He is a well-known advocate for business aviation and a leader and role model outside the raceway. His keynote presentation will be a unique and special moment at NBAA-BACE.”
Digitized business aircraft records provider Bluetail has launched a crowdsourcing platform through its website to recruit airframe and powerplant and other technicians as contractors for on-site record scanning at customer locations.
Since March, the company has scanned nearly 100 jobs at customer locations instead of sending the records off to a Bluetail scanning site. And demand for its services is coming in part from operators who prefer onsite scanning. “Simply put, some operators just don’t want to take the risk of their highly valuable documents leaving their hangar,” explained Bluetail v-p Roy Gioconda. “The only way to solve the issue is to have more trained people available to go to them. That’s exactly what our crowdsourcing effort accomplishes. Customers have been extremely receptive to this new approach.”
So far, the company has had “numerous participants” in its crowdsourcing effort but wants to expand the reach of those services. “By crowdsourcing a team of experienced aircraft maintenance professionals, we can scale to all major aviation hubs, unlike others, which can only do one job at a time,” said Gioconda. “We have always offered the on-site scanning option, but with our expanding customer base driving increasing demand, we want to ensure we provide rapid nationwide response times.”
Interested technicians can sign up through a portal on Bluetail’s website.
The final prosecution witness in the Hansen Helicopters trial in Guam testified Wednesday about the airworthiness of the company's four dozen helicopters and the many accidents it had experienced.
Under questioning, retired NTSB investigator Jeff Guzzetti, appearing as a paid prosecution witness, said, “Most, if not all of the helicopters in the Hansen fleet, are not airworthy.” He went on to point out that of the 29 Hansen accidents he examined that date back to the 1990s, 18 were not reported to the NTSB, 22 involved substantial damage, and seven helicopters were destroyed. Guzzetti said Hansen had a “high rate” of tail rotor pitch-change link failures.
Hansen and its CEO John Walker stand accused of more than 100 counts of fraud, money laundering, and FAA violations including parts fraud. Previous trial testimony covered Hansen’s purchase and use of unapproved pitch-change links, a practice that saved the company tens of thousands of dollars. Defense counsel countered that practice was legal as Hansen was manufacturing parts for its own helicopters.
Hansen provided fish-spotting helicopters, pilots, and mechanics to tuna boat companies throughout the Western Pacific for individual leases that ran up to $40,000 per month. The case is expected to go to the jury by next week.
Pilot John International (PJI), formerly Carolina GSE, has completed an expansion of its aircraft equipment distribution and service center in New Bern, North Carolina. The expansion doubles its space from 20,000 to 40,000 sq ft.
The larger space will enable PJI to meet the rising demand for its ground support equipment by increasing inventory and storage capacity. A building reuse grant was awarded to PJI by the North Carolina Department of Commerce for the expansion.
“I would like to thank the North Carolina Department of Commerce Building Reuse Program, Craven County, Craven 100 Alliance, the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina, Tarheel Building Systems, and our awesome PJI team for helping make this expansion project a success,” said PJI president and CEO John Werner. “With our expansion complete, we look forward to adding new team members in New Bern.”
For a limited time, the Australian government is offering a subsidy of up to AUS$5,000 for ADS-B equipment on crewed VFR aircraft. The government's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) is hoping the grant program will encourage more VFR aircraft owners to use ADS-B. Currently, ADS-B in Australia is mandatory only for IFR operations.
These rebates can cover as much as 50 percent of the cost of purchasing and installing eligible ADS-B transceivers, said CASA. To apply for the subsidy, the aircraft must be in either the CASA Australian aircraft register or a register of an approved Australian sport aviation organization. Applications will be accepted until May 31, 2023, or until funding is exhausted, whichever occurs first.
CASA said that for VFR pilots, ADS-B will provide: better situational awareness through improved electronic visibility of nearby airborne VFR aircraft; enhanced search and rescue capabilities through improved air traffic information; and ATC with additional and accurate automated aircraft position information.
Operators should note that the selection process is competitive. “Make sure you include enough detail and supporting evidence in your application to help us decide whether to award you the grant,” said CASA. “Understanding the entire process will help you be grant-ready and may improve your chances of getting funding."
Wichita State University’s National Institute for Aviation Research (NIAR) Werx and Erickson Precision Ventures announced a collaborative passenger-to-freighter (P2F) conversion of an Airbus A321 commercial jet.
This is an extension of an agreement announced in May between the two organizations to collaborate on the P2F conversion of Boeing 777-300ERCF widebody jets.
“The NIAR team, resources, and facilities offer 321 Precision Conversions a unique opportunity to add an expansive mod center to our portfolio of installation facilities,” said Erickson Precision Ventures president Gary Warner. “The scale of the operations here in Wichita are truly impressive, and seeing the level of support from Wichita State University gives us all the confidence in the future of the program.”
Beaverton, Oregon-based Erickson Precision Ventures is a subsidiary of The Erickson Group, which was founded in the 1970s to convert surplus military Sikorsky S-64 heavy-lift helicopters for commercial use.
“We’re thrilled to add another aircraft to the NIAR conversion portfolio,” said NIAR Werx executive director David Jones. “The agreement with Erickson Precision Ventures allows us to continue to train and prepare Wichita State [University] and WSU Tech students for careers in aviation maintenance and engineering while expanding the expertise and capability of the Wichita and Kansas workforce.”
It’s Not Easy Being Green, but AIN Can Help
Join AIN in Chicago on August 30 for a free, in-person Sustainability Forum to learn about how to develop a sustainability plan for your corporate flight department. Topics to be discussed by industry experts will include sustainability legislation and industry goals, benchmarking current sustainability efforts, sustainable aviation fuel, and offset programs such as carbon credits and book-and-claim. A wrap-up will feature an OEM’s initiatives that enable corporate aviation to achieve the carbon-neutrality goals set for the next decade. Register today—lunch will be served and seating is limited.
Wisk Prepares To Unveil Full-scale Autonomous eVTOL
After more than a decade of development work, Boeing-backed Wisk Aero is close to unveiling its four-passenger eVTOL aircraft. What will certainly set the all-electric aircraft apart is its ability to operate without a pilot on board. CEO Gary Gysin updated AIN affiliate FutureFlight on why this work matters and the work that’s been done with its Cora technology demonstrator.
Mandates an inspection of the passenger door and re-rigging if required, to avoid premature crack initiation.Non-conformities have been reported involving the passenger door functional test engineering requirements (FTER). It has been found that several aircraft did not accomplish all the FTER with the fully assembled aircraft in the weight on wheel condition, which could affect rigging of the door. Door misrigging could lead to higher loads on the door stops, initiating cracks before the intended design service goal and an inflight opening of the passenger door. This AD mandates an inspection of the passenger door and re-rigging if required, to avoid premature crack initiation.
This AD revises an earlier action to incorporate updates and corrections to the performance charts in the airplane flight manual (AFM). The ADs stem from the discovery that the thrust reverser correction factors presented in certain AFM performance charts for landing on contaminated runways do not provide sufficient margin for stopping distances in certain conditions. If not corrected, use of the affected performance charts could lead to longitudinal runway excursions.
Model(s): EC135P1, EC135P2, EC135P2+, EC135P3, EC135T1, EC135T2, EC135T2+, and EC135T3
Published: August 23, 2022
Effective: September 27, 2022
Requires deactivating the air conditioning system (ACS) and prohibits installing the affected parts, as specified in a European Union Aviation Safety Agency AD. This AD was prompted by reports of the ACS malfunctioning.
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