This year will see the opening of a Gulfstream Customer Support service center in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, and a service center will debut in Mesa, Arizona in 2023, the Savannah, Georgia-based airframer announced last week as part of an update on its customer-service activities.
Gulfstream expects to open the nearly 160,000-sq-ft Texas service center this year at Fort Worth Alliance Airport. The company plans to transfer customer-support employees from its Dallas Love Field facility to Fort Worth in addition to creating 50 new jobs. That opening will be followed in 2023 with the debut of the service center in Mesa, where Gulfstream is building a 225,000-sq-ft facility that is expected to employ more than 200 people and gain LEED Silver certification as part of the company’s sustainability push.
The addition of service centers in Fort Worth and Mesa follows the first-year anniversaries in 2021 of service centers in Farnborough, England, and Palm Beach, Florida. Its Farnborough facility has grown to employ more than 230 staff and has earned 30 foreign regulatory approvals. At Palm Beach, Gulfstream shares a 125,000-sq-ft facility with sister company Jet Aviation, including a 75,000-sq-ft hangar. That site employs more than 120 people and has earned 16 foreign regulatory approvals.
Business aircraft brokerage and consultancy Altea expects the preowned market to continue to tilt in the seller’s favor until at least the second half of this year. “The numbers speak for themselves,” said Altea co-founder and partner Jean Sémiramoth. “In January 2021, there were approximately 1,700 preowned business jets and 960 preowned turboprop aircraft for sale on the open market. Twelve months later, these have shrunk to less than 920 and 640, respectively—hitting new historical low levels.”
Turning to new business aircraft, Sémiramoth pointed to a vibrant market with OEMs revealing new long-range models and greater comfort last year. That includes the Gulfstream G800 and G400, as well as the Dassault Falcon 10X. Meanwhile, the Beechcraft Denali, Falcon 6X, and Airbus ACJ TwoTwenty all made their first flights in 2021, “paving the way for their entry into service between 2022 and 2023,” Sémiramoth said.
He also noted several model upgrades revealed last year, including the Challenger 3500 and the Gen2 Cessna Citation M2, XLS+, and CJ4. “But who will trigger first with the launch of an original design in either of these categories? Surprisingly, the first move may come from Honda,” which unveiled the transcontinental HondaJet 2600 concept jet in October, Sémiramoth said. “Textron may also surprise the industry with something entirely new in the near future.”
The business and general aviation community is collectively mourning the passing yesterday of legendary Tuskegee Airman Brigadier General Charles E. McGee. He was 102.
McGee, who remained active in the aviation community throughout his life, was a U.S. Army Air Force and U.S. Air Force pilot who served in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. He flew a record 409 combat missions and achieved multiple honors, such as the Oak Leaf Cluster, Distinguished Flying Cross with two clusters, and two Presidential Unit Citations. He was known as a trailblazer who strived to pave a path for all aviators.
“General McGee’s accomplishments are so extraordinary as to be almost beyond belief,” said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen. “But even more impressive than all he did was the way in which he did it. He was the very personification of excellence, service, grace, humility, and dignity.”
GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce called McGee “a true American hero and the kindest and most humble patriot I have ever known...Even into his centenarian years, he tirelessly promoted education and careers in aerospace to future generations.”
Born Dec. 7, 1919, in Cleveland, McGee established his mark as a leader with the Tuskegee Airmen, the Army Air Corps' first African-American fighter squadron—the 99th Flying Squadron named for the initial training the airmen received in Tuskegee, Alabama.
In its first year of operation, private aviation sustainability specialist 4Air has enabled private jet owners, operators, and passengers to voluntarily offset or reduce more than one million tonnes of CO2. The company, which Directional Aviation launched last year, said these offsets and reductions have been accomplished through the use of verified carbon offsets and sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).
This has involved the facilitation of more than 250,000 carbon-neutral flights and offsets of more than 80,000 emission-neutral flight hours, 4Air reported, adding that this not only accounted for CO2 but also other emissions such as soot, water vapor, and contrails. And alongside all of this are more than 125 million carbon-neutral flight miles, the equivalent of 262 round trips to the moon, 4Air said.
“Climate change is the greatest sustainability challenge we face, and it is critical that we do everything we can to offset or reduce emissions of CO2 and other pollutants that affect the climate,” said 4Air president Kennedy Ricci. “Our goal is to help aviation stakeholders become part of the solution to climate change.”
Sustainable fuel technology company LanzaJet has received a $50 milllion investment from the Microsoft Climate Innovation Fund, which according to LanzaJet will allow it to complete its Freedom Pines alcohol-to-jet production facility in Georgia. LanzaJet’s alcohol-to-jet technology has been in development for more than a decade through a partnership initially between LanzaTech and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Pacific Northwest National Lab. Microsoft made the investment as part of its dual aspirations of being carbon neutral by 2030 and advancing a net-zero economy.
Expected to be completed this year, the facility will have a capacity to produce 10 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and renewable diesel a year, starting in 2023.
In September, the Biden Administration unveiled an ambitious plan to increase U.S. production of SAF to at least three billion gallons a year by 2030, and LanzaJet expects to do its part to achieve that goal. “We set a bold ambition to support the White House with a goal of 1 billion gallons of sustainable fuels by 2030,” said CEO Jimmy Samartzis. “With Microsoft’s support, this first plant significantly expands the production of sustainable fuels in the U.S., establishes Georgia as a leader in cleantech, and is the foundation for us as the first alcohol-to-jet sustainable fuels producer.”
FAA employee Kevin Strong has pled guilty in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to participating in the riot at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, 2021, according to the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General (DOT-OIG).
An investigation between the DOT-OIG and the Federal Bureau of Investigation showed that Strong was present at the Capitol without authorization. Video surveillance footage from the Capitol Police showed Strong in the Capitol rotunda, in hallways near House of Representative offices, in the statuary hall connector, and exiting through the Senate wing doors.
According to the DOT-OIG, Strong “paraded, demonstrated, or picketed” inside the Capitol without permission or after passing through security checkpoints. Strong, who worked for the FAA in San Bernardino, California, was earlier charged and arrested on January 21 last year.
Strong's LinkedIn page still lists his current occupation as an FAA airway transportation system specialist (ATSS) in Los Angeles. According to the FAA, its team of 4,000 ATSS employees “installs, operates, maintains and repairs more than 74,000 pieces of radar, communications, navigational aids, airport lighting, backup power, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment.”
Aviation Safety Question of the Week
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If an aircraft needs to maximize climb performance for obstacle clearance purposes, it should fly at the airspeed that allows maximum excess of thrust. Is this statement correct or incorrect?
Leasing group Falko Regional Aircraft plans to add up to 200 four-passenger Embraer Eve eVTOLs to its portfolio. The LOI inked last week for the eVTOL “potential order” calls for service entry in 2026 and also launches a partnership to develop a network of commercial eVTOL operators.
UK-based Falko is one of several strategic backers supporting Embraer’s plans to float shares in Eve on the New York Stock Exchange after combining the subsidiary with special purpose acquisition company Zanite Acquisition. Under plans announced on December 21, Embraer is contributing $175 million to a $305 million public investment in private equity, with $25 million coming from Zanite (backed by business aviation entrepreneur Kenn Ricci) and $105 million split between Falko, Azorra Aviation, BAE Systems, Bradesco BBI, Republic Airways, SkyWest, and Rolls-Royce.
Falko, which is already a customer for Embraer’s regional jetliners, is to set up a working group with Eve to help some of its current airline leasing customers to develop route networks for the eVTOL, which will have a range of around 60 miles. Prospective eVTOL lessees will also have access to the air traffic management software Eve is developing, as well as Embraer’s global customer support network.
In March, Falko made an undisclosed investment in UK startup Electric Aviation Group, which is developing a 70-passenger, 1,380-nm hybrid-electric regional airliner ser to enter service in 2028.
Want more? You can find a longer version of this article at FutureFlight.aero, a news and information resource developed by AIN to provide objective coverage and analysis of cutting-edge aviation technology.
Avfuel’s in-house aviation insurance subsidiary, Avsurance, celebrated its 30th anniversary with its best year ever in terms of assets covered, surpassing more than $2 billion worth of aircraft insured. Among its insurance products, Avsurance said cyber protection, crime protection, employment practices liability insurance, directors and officers indemnity, and pollution-related coverage are of growing importance for its clientele.
“Avsurance has always been wholly dedicated to the aviation industry,” said company director Jim Coleman. “That dedication and focus has supported Avsurance’s evolution along with the needs of the industry across 30 years. Today, that means providing specialized policies, like pollution-related coverages, for a fully-developed risk management portfolio.”
Its niche products protect businesses from gaps in their coverages, ranging from malware and fraudulent threats to potential lawsuits and costly allegations. “We know insurance and we’re passionate about aviation,” Coleman concluded.
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