Explosion Rocks Building Where SkyCourier Is Fabricated

The building where Textron Aviation is fabricating its new SkyCourier twin-engine turboprop was rocked by a liquid nitrogen explosion around 8 a.m. this morning, sending 11 people to Wichita-area hospitals and leaving a massive hole and partial collapse to a side of the building designated as Plant III. Authorities told AIN that despite rumors of a fatality, there were none.  

Fire crews were dispatched to the Textron Aviation campus in east Wichita following the explosion, which could be heard and felt several miles away. Sedgwick County deputy fire chief Daniel Wegner told AIN that a cause of the explosion wasn’t immediately known but there was a three-inch line carrying liquid nitrogen to the building that ruptured and “caused a rupture” to another vessel “and that is the one that is currently venting now.” Crews were continuing to search the massive building for any additional workers as well as assessing the extent of the damage.

Wegner noted the plant was on holiday shutdown so a “skeleton crew” was working at the time of the explosion. 

Textron Aviation spokeswoman Stephanie Harder told AIN that Plant III houses the airframer’s composite manufacturing and experimental aircraft fabrication. She confirmed it is where the SkyCourier is located but wasn’t sure if any of the test articles or prototypes were affected.

AINsight: Max Fallout and Recovery

FAA Administrator Stephen Dickson recently delivered a fresh blow to Boeing by confirming that the 737 Max recertification plan and re-entry into service would slip into 2020. Fallout from two Max crashes that claimed 346 lives and its subsequent grounding has become the top aviation/aerospace story of 2019, but did it have to?

As the story unfolds, the duration of the Max groundings—the longest of any airliner—might be more related to a lack of leadership and politics than an engineering blunder related to an aircraft subsystem. The repercussions from the Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines Max crashes have rocked Boeing and stunned the FAA.

A vacuum in leadership at the top of each organization would escalate the crisis and fuel an epic kerfuffle that pitted Boeing against the FAA and the rest of the world’s regulators. Only now, with new leaders at the helm of Boeing and the FAA does a recovery appear plausible.

In each crash, the primary causal factor was directly related to the aircraft’s maneuvering characteristics augmentation system (MCAS). Boeing has since identified the MCAS fix by adding in the necessary redundancy of a secondary AoA sensor input and reprogrammed the software logic to limit systems authority.

Together, the FAA and Boeing can work together to get the Max flying again. Over time, trust and confidence will be rebuilt.

Leonardo Flies Fourth Flight-test AW609

Leonardo is confident that the first flight of the production representative fourth prototype AW609 (AC4) from Northeast Philadelphia Airport on December 23 represents the beginning of the home stretch for certification of the civilian tiltrotor. During that initial flight, some eight years after assuming full ownership of the AW609 program, AC4 performed a 20-foot hover to enable data collection and photos, said test pilot Dan Wells. “We moved the controls in each axis and the response [was all good]. Then we did a pedal turn to the left, a pedal turn to the right, and then landed. All went very well.”

Bill Sunick Jr, Leonardo’s senior manager for AW609 marketing, declined to commit to a specific timeline for certification, but said, “We are getting closer and are excited about introducing the world’s first commercial tiltrotor,” adding that EASA certification “will follow approximately one year after the FAA.” As of the end of September, aeroelastic survey testing—how the airframe responds to and damps out vibrations—was almost finished as were engine installation tests. 

AC5, the first production AW609, is in final assembly at Philadelphia with an expected first flight sometime during 2020. 

FAA To Publish Proposed UAS Remote Identification Rules

The FAA is set to publish its long-awaited notice of proposed rulemaking (NPRM) for remote identification of unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) on December 31. The resulting new rules, which are expected to be fully implemented by the end of 2024, will provide a key foundation for UAS to be integrated into the U.S. National Airspace System.

The NPRM (FAA-2019-100) will give the industry 60 days to provide comments. The final rule will require remote identification for the majority of UAS, with exceptions to be made for some amateur-built UAS, aircraft operated by the U.S. government, and UAS weighing less than 0.55 pounds.

The FAA is proposing three compliance methods: standard identification, limited identification, and operations without remote identification to be permitted within an “FAA-recognized identification zone.”

Significantly, the FAA will not permit either existing electronic surveillance technologies, including transponders and ADS-B, or radio communications with air traffic control services, to be used for UAS remote identification. The agency decided that these potential solutions were unsuitable, “due to the lack of infrastructure for these technologies at lower altitudes and the potential saturation of available radio frequency spectrum.”

Aviation Publishing Stalwart Murray Smith Dies

Murray Q. Smith, who made his mark on aviation journalism steering his Professional Pilot magazine for more than five decades, died on December 25. He was 89. “As you may know, he had to step down from his captain position due to medical reasons, although he still visited the office regularly. He will be truly missed around here,” the magazine said in announcing Smith’s passing. “We want to reaffirm our full commitment to this industry and assure you that Pro Pilot will carry on with Murray’s mission.”

Smith was well known within aviation circles as he remained deeply involved in the magazine that he launched 53 years ago. “Murray was a giant in the world of aviation publishing and pioneered an entirely new way of communicating the benefits of corporate aviation,” said Jack Sykes, who was art director for Professional Pilot from 1996-2012.

"For decades, Murray Smith and his team have brought well-deserved attention to the people and companies that represent the best of our industry,” agreed NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen.

Born in Chicago, Smith joined the Leo Burnett Advertising Agency after obtaining a journalism degree from the University of Illinois, according to Airport Journals. He later joined the U.S. Navy. He is survived by his wife Marcia “Eleni,” who worked alongside him at the magazine, along with his two sons, David and Alexander.

AINsight: Bizav OEMs Jolly in 2019

2019 has been a very good year for most business aircraft manufacturers, with strong customer interest in offerings that have been recently certified and introduced into service. Many OEMs wisely decided to invest in all-new and substantially upgraded models over the past several years—ones that were marked with relatively flat demand over an extended period following the Great Recession.

Customer interest is reflecting in sales contracts for new aircraft that collectively drove up the industry’s firm order backlog for the first time in 10 years. Although year-end numbers are yet to be finalized and reported, it looks like total backlog value will finish 2019 up by as much as 10 percent year-over-year. Impressively, each of the major OEMs has been active in understanding their customer needs and requirements and, working with their supplier partners, translating these into hardware and related services.

Our industry continues to keep customers at the absolute center of what we do. On this journey, business aircraft manufacturers are uniquely positioned to lead us all forward, building on the successes of what has been for many a good year in 2019.

With January 1 looming, might you find renewed inspiration, energy, and enthusiasm for the work that you do, helping in your own way to bring people together with the finest air travel tools yet created for the most demanding customers.

Helo EMS Pilot Crash Lands After Apparent Heart Attack

The helicopter air ambulance pilot of a Survival Flight Bell 407 died shortly after apparently suffering a heart attack while attempting to land at a company base at Headland, Alabama, on Christmas Day. The EMS flight was returning to base with three crew aboard when 61-year-old pilot Doug Davis suffered the attack shortly before touchdown at 5 p.m. local time on Wednesday. The helicopter rolled onto its side just short of the helipad. The two other crewmembers were uninjured. There was no patient onboard.

The flight was returning from a call in the Florida Panhandle. In a statement released by Survival Flight, the company said Davis “heroically brought the helicopter completely back to base and nearly landed it normally, the helicopter rolling onto its side at the last second. Because of what he was able to do, our two other crewmembers on board the helicopter suffered no injuries and they began lifesaving efforts on the pilot almost immediately.”

Davis was later pronounced dead at a local hospital. An official cause of death is pending. The 2000 model year helicopter, N663SF, sustained substantial damage.

Survival Flight operates a mixed fleet of Bell, Sikorsky, and Pilatus aircraft from bases in Alabama, Arkansas, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, and Oklahoma. 

Argus Forecasts Flat Holiday Followed By First Quarter Jump

Business aircraft activity is expected to remain largely flat over the holidays but will see a bump in the first quarter of 2020, according to Argus’s Holiday & Q1 Business Aircraft Activity forecast. Activity is projected to increase just 0.1 percent over the period between December 21 and January 3, with 10 of the 14 days higher year-over-year.

Airports with the most business aircraft traffic over the holidays will be led by Teterboro (TEB) with 1,611 arrivals, followed by Palm Beach (PBI) at 1,301, and Van Nuys (VNY) at 1,154, according to the forecast. Argus said overall business aircraft activity in December 2019 should be up 1.4 percent from last year.  

In the first quarter, activity is anticipated to rise by 4.2 percent from last year, with February posting the biggest gain at 5.9 percent. Among segments, fractional activity is expected to jump 10.7 percent from 2019 while Part 135 and Part 91 flights will see gains of 3.3 percent and 3.1 percent, respectively.

Catch up on the 2019 podcasts you may have missed!

AIN’s Tales from the Flight Deck is a monthly podcast, 20-24 minutes long, featuring first-hand accounts of the most intriguing situations aviation professionals can encounter. Catch up on episodes you missed.