AIN today announced the winners of the inaugural 2020 Top Flight Awards, which recognize the best and the brightest in business aviation and honor creativity and innovation in design and technology, as well as quality and passion in business aviation services and people.
The 2020 categories and winners are New Jet: Bombardier Global 5500/6500; New Turboprop: Pilatus PC-12 NGX; New Helicopter: Airbus H160; Technology: Industry bands together to meet the ADS-B deadline; New FBO Facility: Sheltair Rocky Mountain Regional Airport; Training: Rolls-Royce virtual reality; Charter/Fractional/Jet Card Innovation: Wheels Up; Hero of the Year: Business aviation’s response to Covid-19; Sustainability: The Business Aviation Coalition for Sustainable Aviation Fuel; and Contribution to Safety: Garmin Autoland.
Each year, AIN editors will conduct the Top Flight Awards, with the nominees announced online on December 1 and in AIN’s December print issue and the winners revealed online on or about January 1 and in the January issue. AIN is also highlighting the winners via a series of videos.
The main criteria for qualifying as nominees for Top Flight Awards include service entry, in the case of new aircraft, or availability, for products and services, during the applicable time period, from October 1 through September 30. The nominees also must illustrate something new and unique such as improved safety and performance, contributions to aviation or public benefit, and more.
F/List To Develop Cabin Features for Aerion’s AS2
Aerion has selected high-end interiors manufacturer F/List to supply interior components for the AS2 supersonic business jet. The agreement builds on a relationship that has been ongoing between F/List and Aerion since 2014. F/List already has provided Aerion with expertise in interior engineering, certification support, materials and process, and finishes.
Under the expanded agreement, F/List will work with Aerion to develop an “innovative, ultra-luxury cabin experience” to include cabinets, liners, hard floorings, and baggage liners.
“The AS2 will be a step into the future for passenger experience and the cabin will link emerging technologies, new materials, visionary style, and traditional craftsmanship to create the future of luxury,” said Tim Fagan, the director of industrial design for Aerion. “F/List brings vast experience in creating products of the highest quality in business aircraft and other luxury segments, as well as a spirit of invention to bring new products to reality.”
F/List has developed an in-house interiors “future lab” incubator to test its emerging technologies and concepts and said the AS2 is an ideal platform for some of these innovations.
Bombardier Completes Acquisition of Berlin MRO Facility
Bombardier has completed the acquisition of issued and outstanding shares it didn’t own of Lufthansa Bombardier Aviation Services from Lufthansa Technik and ExecuJet Aviation Group, the Canadian airframer announced today. The deal, first announced in September, clears the way for Bombardier to operate a wholly-owned service center in Berlin and further expand its global MRO reach to nine company-owned service centers.
“We welcome the highly talented employees of the Berlin Service Centre to the Bombardier service network,” said Bombardier v-p of OEM parts and services Chris Debergh. “We value their expertise and customer focus—as part of the Bombardier team, they will continue to provide best-in-class aircraft maintenance services to our valued operators of Bombardier business aircraft.”
Located at Berlin Brandenburg Airport, the service center has been offering MRO services to Bombardier aircraft operators for 24 years. It has more than 160,000 sq ft of service capacity, employs 240 people, and supports Bombardier’s Learjet, Challenger, and Global lines. The facility also holds the distinction as the first service center in Europe to perform maintenance on Bombardier’s flagship Global 7500.
NetJets Pilots Sign New Pay and Scheduling Deal
NetJets pilots last week voted to ratify changes to their collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the fractional ownership group. Following talks between NetJets management and both the U.S.-based NetJets Association of Shared Aircraft Pilots (NJASAP) and pilot union representatives in Europe, new agreements have now been reached with flight crew for the company’s U.S. and European fleets.
The agreement with NJASAP extends the CBA until the end of 2026, with an option for the company to lengthen this until the end of 2029. The NetJets U.S. pilots are getting annual pay increases that COO Alan Bobo said “will help ensure our pilots remain at the top of our market with respect to compensation.”
For European pilots, the revised CBA introduces a new variable compensation and scheduling program covering Europe’s peak summer season. According to NetJets Europe COO Thomas Born, this gives pilots opportunities to boost their pay while also enabling the company “to meet the service and coverage demands of the peak season.”
In the U.S., the new CBA expands on the existing variable compensation program the company introduced in 2018. It also includes additional compensation and scheduling features, providing opportunities to increase pay for each flight hour beyond a certain threshold for each tour.
According to NetJets, the new CBA will help the company contain costs and avoid increases in aircraft shareowner costs.
Oregon Board Affirms Plan for Aurora Runway Extension
Aurora State Airport’s plan to extend its 5,000-foot runway by 1,000 feet will go ahead, following a decision by the Oregon Land Use Board of Appeals (LUBA). The city of Aurora and nearby Wilsonville filed an appeal that raised questions about the “validity of the Aurora Airport Master Plan and its compliance with land-use laws,” according to Friends of Aurora Airport, a pro-airport group that supports the airport and its activities. On December 16, LUBA dismissed the appeal.
Essentially, the dismissal paves the way for adoption of the master plan, which would add a 1,000-foot extension to Aurora Airport’s runway and safety improvements such as runway protection zones. The runway extension would be inside the airport boundary, on the south side of Runway 17/35. According to Friends of Aurora Airport spokesman Dylan Frederick, “The timeline for the runway extension is three to four years out but this decision removes the primary obstacle from the process and allows us to march forward with an environmental impact assessment in 2021.”
“The LUBA decision enables our airport and our businesses to continue to serve local communities with the same mission-critical work we’ve always done,” added Bruce Bennett, president of FBO Aurora Aviation. “We can all celebrate one less distraction from conducting that work.”
Teledyne Technologies has reached a definitive agreement to acquire thermal imaging and night vision specialist FLIR Systems under a cash and stock transaction valued at $8 billion, the companies announced today. Approved by the boards of both companies, the transaction is anticipated to close by midyear once it has cleared all the necessary regulatory approvals and closing conditions.
Under the agreement, FLIR stockholders will receive $28 per share in cash and 0.0718 shares of Teledyne common stock for each FLIR share. Teledyne has arranged a $4.5 billion, 364-day credit commitment to help fund the transaction and refinance existing debt and said it expects to have permanent financing before closing.
While noting that proprietary sensor technologies remain at the core of both companies, Teledyne executive chairman Robert Mehrabian added, “Our technologies and products are uniquely complementary with minimal overlap, having imaging sensors based on different semiconductor technologies for different wavelengths."
FLIR chairman Earl Lewis added the complementary technologies will provide “our employees, customers, and stockholders even more exciting momentum for growth. Our board fully supports this transaction, which delivers immediate value and the opportunity to participate in the upside potential of the combined company.”
New Survitec Emergency Breathing System Offers More Air
Survitec is introducing a new compressed air (CA) emergency breathing system (EBS) for offshore helicopter passengers and crew. The EBS can be deployed in a single action, using one hand, and is already integrated into the company’s Halo lifejacket, introduced last year. It features a mouthpiece with an integrated nose clip, a braided low-pressure hose, larger reinforced carbon composite compressed air cylinder, and weight of just 2.09 pounds.
“The introduction of a 310 bar cylinder allows us to substantially increase the amount of breathable air available for use by the user in a water-impact scenario,” said Nigel Parkes, Survitec's head of lifejacket design. “By combining composite materials within a pocket shielded and reinforced for impact protection, our design teams have also delivered a much lighter, more resilient CA-EBS,”
Survitec noted that the primary reason for developing the new EBS was the additional air demand from someone panicking or is otherwise under extreme stress. Its new EBS delivers 80 percent more air than required by UK Civil Aviation Authority CAP 1034 guidelines. Developed in 2013, that standard requires an EBS to provide survival air for 60 seconds to a depth of two meters.
Aviation Safety Question of the Week
Provided by
How is a rapid change of conditions indicated in a Terminal Area Forecast (TAF)?
A. By using “FM” followed by a four-digit hour and minute figure (for example, FM1600).
B. By using “BECMG” followed by a four-digit time period group (for example, BECMG2224).
C. By using “TEMPO” followed by a four-digit time period group (for example, TEMPO1316).
D. Rapid changes of conditions are difficult to predict, so they are instead reported in the METAR.
EASA Merges General Aviation and VTOL Certification
EASA has reorganized its certification directorate, merging the departments handling general aviation fixed-wing and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) aircraft, including drones. The new department opened on January 1 and is being led by David Solar, who reports to EASA certification director Rachel Daeschler. Solar previously was in charge of the VTOL department, which includes helicopters.
“This will deal with all general aviation products [including business jets] and all VTOL, as well as the certification of eVTOL [aircraft] and of drones,” explained a spokesman. However, the directorate does not cover the regulation of operations and flight crew licensing for these categories of aircraft.
The European aviation safety agency said it now expects to publish the final version of its means of compliance for its new Special Condition VTOL type certification rules in early 2021. The spokesman confirmed to AIN that it deferred planned publication in December because it needed more time to take account of the large volume of industry comments it received to draft proposals published on May 25, 2020.
EASA also said that the final version of the means of compliance for a special condition for certifying hybrid and electric propulsion systems will be published in the early part of this year.
AINalerts News Tips/Feedback: News tips may be sent anonymously, but feedback must include name and contact info (we will withhold name on request). We reserve the right to edit correspondence for length, clarity and grammar. Send feedback or news tips to AINalerts editor Chad Trautvetter.
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