Winglet Technology is planning to amend its transitional winglets STC for the Citation Sovereign to include Textron Aviation’s newer Latitude midsize business jet, company president Bob Kiser told AIN this week. The Wichita-based winglet specialist chose the Latitude because the two Citation models share a similar wing and type certificate. What’s different in the Latitude is an OEM-installed horizontal span extension that makes its wingspan 72 feet compared with 63 feet on the out-of-production Sovereign.
According to Kiser, the winglet on the Latitude “offers significant performance at altitude,” enabling the jet to “climb an additional 2,000 feet higher at an equivalent weight and temperature.” He added that the aircraft’s empty weight will not increase with the winglet installation, nor will it affect takeoff performance. The composite winglets are interchangeable and don’t require drilling or fitting, he said.
The company is preparing to submit an amended STC to the FAA and is looking for a Latitude launch customer to begin flight testing. With nearly 300 Latitudes delivered so far, Kiser believes there’s an opportunity to double the market for his company’s Sovereign winglets, with 349 of that type having already been delivered. And he noted that the market will only grow since the Latitude remains in production.
General aviation leaders are appealing to U.S. lawmakers for a more permanent solution to the 5G spectrum issue and better federal interagency coordination when similar spectrum issues arise in the future. In June, key U.S. government, wireless, and aviation stakeholders agreed to a partial extension of the 5G C-band mitigation by cellular companies Verizon and AT&T in select markets.
Appearing Wednesday before a House aviation subcommittee hearing on general aviation issues, NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen noted, “We have a temporary situation, but we have permanent challenges.” Bolen said he was encouraged that the FAA and telecommunications industry are working together now and sharing data. The parties involved have learned a lot as they work together, Bolen maintained, “but we are in a situation that we’ve got to find ways to move forward on a permanent direction."
GAMA president and CEO Pete Bunce added that “this is just the tip of the iceberg.” He warned that the issue of potentially harmful spectrum interference is “going to happen again and very soon,” particularly as spectrum becomes "more precious."
In addition to advancing telecom technologies, Bolen urged the subcommittee to remain aware of other advancing technologies that could threaten the privacy of general aviation passengers and operators. He noted efforts to shield privacy but added that evolving technology places that at risk.
Trip support specialist Universal Aviation has established two new offices in the Dominican Republic as demand for the services of the ground support division of Universal Weather and Aviation grows. The new offices at Las Américas in Santo Domingo and Cibao International Airport in Santiago join five others in the Dominican Republic: Puerto Plata, Samaná, Santo Domingo-La Isabela, La Romana, and Punta Cana.
“The Dominican Republic continues to see record traffic and has become one of the most popular leisure destinations in the world for business aviation,” said Universal Aviation Dominican Republic director Danilo Rosario Jiménez. “Las Américas and Cibao are the country’s second and third-busiest airports respectively and traffic volumes are projected to continue to the upward trend that started before the pandemic.”
Universal Aviation now has 27 offices in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Gulfstream Aerospace added Oliver Bergsch as regional v-p of sales for Central and Eastern Europe and Jim Beckstein as regional v-p of sales for Southern California and Arizona.
Bergsch, who is based in Vienna, brings more than 25 years of aviation experience to Gulfstream, most recently spending the past 15 in senior sales management roles at its sister company, Jet Aviation. During that time, he oversaw maintenance, FBOs, and charter and management sales activities in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia-Pacific. He has also collaborated with Gulfstream’s Customer Support sales leadership team.
Beckstein, who is president of the Northern California Business Aviation Association, has nearly 40 years of aviation experience, including the last 25 involving business aviation and sales. He has experience in a range of areas including engineering, fractional aircraft ownership, new and pre-owned aircraft sales and marketing, and sales team leadership. Beckstein, who is based in Southern California, also serves as the president of the Northern California Business Aviation Association.
DC Aviation will hold the grand opening of its new hangar at Germany’s Oberpfaffenhofen Airport next week. The facility offers 65,000 sq ft (6,000 sq m) of heated hangar space that can accommodate the latest ultra-long-range business jets, in addition to a 4,300-sq-ft terminal with a passenger lounge, conference room, and crew lounge.
According to the Stuttgart-based company, which also operates one of Europe’s largest charter fleets, the Oberpfaffenhofen facility will provide ground handling and line maintenance but will not operate like a conventional FBO servicing all ad hoc traffic. It will handle all DC Aviation-operated aircraft and those on ferry maintenance flights. Additionally, it will service aircraft from other operators that have booked parking spaces in the hangar.
“The opening of the new location at Oberpfaffenhofen Airport is another milestone in the strategic expansion of our presence,” said DC Aviation CEO Michael Kuhn. “In the future, our customers will benefit from the excellent connections to the Munich business location and the Five Lakes regions.”
DC also has a similar facility at Stuttgart Airport and a 135,000-sq-ft maintenance facility at Dubai Al Maktoum International Airport.
Offshore heavy and super-medium helicopter activity has bounced back to pre-Covid levels, making an overall 5 percent gain year-to-date, according to consultancy Air & Sea Analytics. “The uplift in active aircraft is not surprising given high oil prices and double-digit growth in upstream expenditure,” company director Steve Robertson said.
"Of particular interest is the underlying intensity of activity in returning aircraft to service,” he added. “Aircraft that a year ago no one would have expected to return to the active fleet are now flying again. It’s only a matter of time before scarcity of available aircraft and parts drives up pricing significantly.”
The firm reported there were still 41 inactive Sikorsky S-92s in the first quarter but noted the pool of “available” S-92s had since shrunk to less than two dozen. Meanwhile, the market for super-mediums such as the Leonardo AW189 and Airbus H175 is reported as “near full effective utilization,” with flight activity for those types up 50 percent.
Air & Sea concluded that the overhang and excess capacity triggered by the 2016 and 2019 bankruptcies of leading offshore operators is largely a thing of the past. “We no longer have a large number of inactive assets owned by banks; these have been moved on into the hands of operators and lessors that can put them to work,” the firm said.
With reports of U.S. companies returning to domestic business travel in the wake of the Covid pandemic, private aviation solutions provider Jet Linx has reinstated two more of its jet card membership plans.
The Omaha, Nebraska-based operator—which has achieved Argus Platinum Elite, IS-BAO Stage 3, and Wyvern Wingman safety designations—is reactivating its Enterprise Jet Card membership aimed at corporate clients and its Tier II Executive Jet Card membership, which allows leisure travelers who fly less frequently access to Jet Linx’s members-only fleet.
“We made the decision to temporarily pause these jet card membership programs in October to ensure we could properly serve our existing members as we experienced a surge in demand for our private jet services coming out of the pandemic,” said company president and CEO Jamie Walker. “Now as we have optimized the fleet to comfortably operate in this new marketplace, we are opening up sales again to serve these types of members.”
Anyone who wants to experience what it’s like to fly to Oshkosh, Wisconsin, during the annual EAA AirVenture show can do so with their desktop flight simulator today through July 17, thanks to PilotEdge, which is hosting SimVenture Oshkosh for the third year.
By logging in to PilotEdge’s real-time air traffic controller service through simulators such as X-Plane, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020, and Prepar3D, sim pilots can fly the actual flight path and procedures into Oshkosh and experience landing on the colored dots. Sim pilots will fly alongside other virtual airborne traffic being flown by other sim pilots. They will also listen in on radio calls with actual Oshkosh air traffic controllers who volunteered to work SimVenture through the National Air Traffic Controllers Association. Pilots will have to adhere to the Oshkosh procedures, outlined in a SimVenture Notice, and “rock your wings” when asked to do so by the controllers, just like the real flight to Oshkosh during AirVenture.
For this year’s SimVenture, organizers are giving away more than $2,500 worth of prizes.
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