50,000th Pratt PT6 Engine Rolls Off Production Line
The 50,000th PT6 turboprop engine has rolled off the production line, Pratt & Whitney announced yesterday. Announced in 1958, the first iteration of the PT6 began flight testing in May 1961 and entered service in 1964.
“From the first application more than 50 years ago, the now-iconic PT6 engine [has] more than 130 different applications today,” said Irene Makris, v-p of sales and marketing at Pratt & Whitney. “With each new model of engine developed and designed for a mission, platform, and customer in mind, our employees continue to build a more efficient, smarter engine with a shrinking environmental footprint.”
More than 25,000 PT6 engines are currently in service, and the total fleet has accumulated in excess of 410 million flight hours, according to Pratt & Whitney. The latest variant—the PT6 E-series—powers the Pilatus PC-12 NGX.
“This production milestone is unmatched in the industry. It offers us another opportunity to celebrate the engine’s ongoing success as we continue exploring new horizons for even more flying possibilities,” Makris said. “The achievement sits as the collective cornerstone of Pratt & Whitney in general aviation."
Airbus Corporate Jets Marks Strong Year
Airbus Corporate Jets is wrapping up a strong year, delivering four aircraft and bringing in orders and commitments for 13 aircraft year-to-date for its suite of VIP aircraft, including six for its newly introduced ACJ TwoTwenty.
Speaking at a virtual press conference on Wednesday at NBAA-VBACE, Airbus Corporate Jets president Benoit Defforge said the company has been able to confirm its order book and keep its deliveries on track despite the pandemic. This “made us confident to launch the ACJ TwoTwenty,” Defforge said.
Unveiled in October with completions partner/launch customer Comlux Group, the ACJ TwoTwenty is a VIP version of the A220-100 narrowbody airliner. It is intended to create a new “extra large” aircraft category in business aviation, providing size and range at a more affordable cost than what has been traditionally offered, said Airbus Corporate Jets commercial v-p Stan Shparberg.
As for results this year, Defforge said “13 is not nothing…It's consistent with the fact that corporate aviation is very important for Airbus.” Year-to-date deliveries include the first A350 to the German Air Force, with a second handover anticipated in the coming weeks, he said. In addition to the TwoTwenty, Airbus Corporate Jets has captured orders for three A330s and four ACJ320neos this year.
Collins Expands Reach into Emerging Supersonic Programs
As the pace of supersonic aircraft development has seemingly accelerated in the past couple of years, Collins Aerospace has expanded its roles in the various programs and anticipates that activity to continue to grow as the technology matures.
In a little more than a year, Collins has announced participation in the Lockheed Martin X-59, Aerion AS2, and Boom Overture supersonic programs. Colin Mahoney, who is the new president of customer and account management for Collins Aerospace, told AIN on the eve of NBAA-VBACE that those announcements do not cover the full scope of Collins’s activity, with further details anticipated over time.
Mahoney stressed, “There's no doubt in our mind that there will be a day of supersonic commercial travel,” and added that the demand is there. The question is, however, how long it will take “to become real,” he said. While the various industry players all have different timelines, “I think everybody’s investing in it.”
Like others, Collins has been investing in this area and believes it is important to get into the fray. As such it has become involved in a number of the emerging supersonic platforms, supplying its expertise in areas such as flight control surfaces and actuation, avionics, nacelle, and exhaust system technologies. These partnerships are “going very well,” Mahoney said, indicating there would be more to discuss in the future.
The International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) continues to build on its International Standard for Business Aircraft Operators (IS-BAO) suite of safety management programs with the rollout of a new Progressive Stage 3 (PS3) tier. In the works and beta tested over the past two years, IS-BAO PS3 enables operators to advance their Stage 3 safety system, share data, mentor, and share best practices with others, IBAC said in announcing the program during NBAA-VBACE.
“The PS3 initiative demonstrates that business aircraft operators can go beyond simply implementing SMS,” said IBAC director-general Kurt Edwards. “They can emphasize continuous improvement, develop mature safety cultures, and share safety knowledge and experience with peers and those earlier along the SMS path.”
A PS3 beta team encompassing both large and small IS-BAO Stage 3 operators helped refine the program working with the Progressive Auditor group. Designed to provide additional pathways for continuous improvement, PS3 includes a one-day progressive auditing process from a credentialed Progressive Auditor based in the operator’s region of the world. Participants have access to an exclusive IS-BAO safety database with PS3-shared de-identified data. Baldwin Safety & Compliance manages the database.
Separately, IBAC announced that the Irish Business and General Aviation Association (IBGAA) has joined the association as the 15th member.
Universal Avionics is seeing growing interest in its InSight integrated flight deck, with new installations and certification programs underway. In addition to the first certification in the Cessna Citation VII, other aircraft with InSight developments include the Dassault Falcon 50 and 900B, Hawker 800XP, Gulfstream GIII, and MD Helicopters MD 902 Explorer.
The Citation VII InSight upgrade is now available for all models that were originally equipped with either Collins or Honeywell avionics. For the Falcon 900B, InSight can be installed with either Universal’s FMS or Dassault Falcon is offering a factory-supported option to retain the Honeywell NZ-2000 FMS (version 6.1 or later).
Universal Avionics has extensively modified its GIII and will use it as a flying demonstrator for all of its technologies, including the InSight flight deck, FMS, synthetic vision, and ClearVision enhanced flight vision system (EFVS) with EVS-5000 camera system and SkyLens head-wearable display. Plans call for certification of the InSight flight deck and ClearVision EFVS first in the GIII, with the entire package complete by the second quarter of 2021.
The InSight flight deck brings modern capabilities to legacy business jets, enabling seamless operation in today’s NextGen and Sesar operating environments. This includes ATN B1, ADS-B Out, CPDLC/CPDLC departure clearance, FAA Data Comm, FANS 1/A+, SBAS/LPV, and the capability to add ClearVision EFVS.
The International Aircraft Dealers Association (IADA) this morning announced the launch of IADA U, its new education program intended to keep its member brokers and transaction experts up to date with the latest market developments.
Describing the program during an NBAA-VBACE press conference, Joseph Carfagna Jr., IADA chairman and president of Leading Edge Aviation Solutions, said the program fulfills the continuing education currency requirement under the association’s broker certification standard. It is also applicable to those who are not yet certified, he added.
“Many of us who have been doing this for years would be foolish to say we know it all,” said Carfagna. “This is going to be a very valuable tool for people relatively new to the industry and for people who have been here for 20 or 30 years.”
The self-directed learning platform features videos, support material, quizzes and tests, and its content, presented by IADA members who are experts in their fields, covers a wide range of topics. These include regulatory standards, aircraft purchase agreements, business use of general aviation aircraft, sales and use tax, tax depreciation and expensing, import and export processes, and digital signing technologies, along with IADA policies and procedures. The system will chart course progress.
Association dealer members will each receive two training slots for IADA U annually.
StandardAero Marks Milestones, Sees Strong Activity
StandardAero has achieved a couple of engine overhaul milestones and continued to see stronger than expected activity despite the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the MRO provider announced at NBAA-VBACE. Among the company’s milestones are the recent completion of its 21,000th Honeywell TFE731 engine overhaul, as well as the completion of more than 650 HTF7000 overhauls since receiving Honeywell authorization for that engine repair and overhaul work in 2016.
Overall, the engine repair and overhaul business has been better than expected in 2020 at StandardAero, said business aviation division president Tony Brancato during a virtual news conference this morning.
“Our business aviation division has held up really well throughout the pandemic and we’re showing some strong results,” Brancato said. “We’re seeing a good pipeline of volume coming through. We’ve seen some unanticipated improvements quite frankly in scheduled bookings and shop visits.”
As the company enters a new year, it is seeing positive signs such as increased flight hours. “We’ve learned how to work with Covid and deliver for our customers and they’ve learned how to work to meet their business needs and their travel needs,” Brancato explained, adding if there is one concern, it’s the various global travel restrictions that remain in place. “We need to get those global travelers back in the air. We all need to be safe and tackle Covid together.”
Country Music Artist Bentley Reinforces Bizav Advocacy
In a wide-ranging discussion as the keynote speaker for the opening day of NBAA-VBACE, country singer, songwriter, and pilot Dierks Bentley told NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen why he continues to be an advocate for business aviation. Bentley has logged time in a Cessna Citation CJ4, as well as a Cirrus piston single that was destroyed in the March tornado that struck Nashville and John C. Tune Airport, where he kept the airplane.
“For the majority of people, whether they’re flying a jet or a prop plane or whatever, they’re going to work,” Bentley said. “For me personally, my business, and the people I employ, I wouldn’t be able to do it without aviation. I can’t afford to spend 24 hours riding a bus to get somewhere to play a show.”
Bentley explained that, with the pandemic, he hasn’t been touring so he hasn’t been flying, adding that he’s only current flying a remote-controlled airplane. He added, however, that he hopes to start touring—and getting current—again soon.
“As a pilot, you’re only as good as your last flight, [so] you’ve got to stay on top of it,” he told Bolen. “When I do get back at it for touring, the first thing I’m going to do is go to one of the TRU or FlightSafety [learning centers] and get fully back into it.”
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