U.S. business aviation activity was down by 30.8 percent through the first six months, according to the statistics from Argus‘s just-released TraqPak 2020 Mid-Year Business Aviation Review, while overall flight hours declined by just under 30 percent. Due to disruptions from the global Covid pandemic, the industry has seen declines over 2019 numbers for each month, with a rapid downturn in mid-March, and the start of a recovery a month later.
Part 91 activity has shown the biggest drop, down 33.4 percent for the first half of 2020, while fractional activity, which had been riding a streak of 18 consecutive months of year-over-year increases coming into March, saw that streak snapped starting that month, with activity off by nearly 31 percent. The Part 135 segment fared slightly better, down only 27.1 percent for the first six months of the year, as compared to 2019.
Broken down by aircraft category, due to severe restrictions on international travel large-cabin jets suffered the worst atrophy with activity levels down by more than 36 percent in the first half. As the size of the jet decreased, those numbers improved, with small cabin jets down by 26.4 percent. Turboprop activity was diminished by nearly 30 percent versus the first half of 2019.
Looking ahead, Argus estimates that flight activity from July to September will decline 15.3 percent year-over-year.
AINsight: Best Five Options To Fly Privately
As commercial airlines attempt to fill seats amid the Covid-19 pandemic, some families, businesses, and individuals have made a flight to safety by traveling again or for the first time on private aircraft.
These travelers set their schedules and itineraries for on-demand business or personal flights. They can travel to about 5,300 public-use airports in the U.S., roughly 10 times the number of airports available to commercial aircraft. International airport access expands the flexibility to travel globally. Travelers greatly value saving travel time, the healthy and safe environment, productivity, and convenience of private aircraft while enjoying a comfortable, interconnected, and protected flight experience.
Although the reasons to fly privately may be obvious, especially in the age of Covid-19, deciding on the right providers and approaches to flying are more complex. Three modes of aircraft travel involve no capital investment: chartering, jet or fraction cards, and membership programs. Each of these options holds strong attributes for new and some repeat flyers. Two other options require capital outlays for frequent flyers: purchasing a whole aircraft or a fractional share of an aircraft.
EASA has granted certification approval for Honeywell’s Primus Epic Phase 8 software and EGPWS with offshore modes, and Leonardo will offer the new software in the AW139 intermediate twin. Phase 8 features an advanced synthetic vision system (SVS) tailored to helicopter operations and improved 2D maps and wireless data loading.
The advanced SVS assists with navigation and landing approaches to challenging terrain and oil rigs via 3D presentation of the external environment, including surrounding terrain, obstacles, runways, and helipads within the background of the primary flight display (PFD). A 2D interactive navigation (INAV) feature displays the helicopter’s position and flight plan on the multifunction display, enabling navigation system alignment with the actual flight path, adjusted for environmental factors.
The custom approach function offers the capability to design, set, and fly an automated approach to any user-defined location, including oil rig helidecks. Embedded wireless connectivity provides high-speed data access for flight plan transfer and maintenance data capture from the aircraft. The new EGPWS version -036, also available for Phase 7, is a more sophisticated helicopter TAWS optimized for use in offshore environments and designed to provide more warning lead time of potential collisions.
Honeywell Epic Phase 8 is one of more than 1,000 kits available for the AW139. Leonardo has received nearly 1,200 orders for the helicopter and more than 1,050 operate in some 70 countries.
Bombardier Offers Upgraded Cabin Features on CL350
Bombardier has announced a few optional and standard upgrades in the cabin of its super-midsize Challenger 350 that will be available later this year. Soon to be standard on new Challenger 350s is an upgraded Lufthansa Technik nice cabin management system (CMS) interface that Bombardier said takes its cues from the Global 7500.
The Challenger 350's redesigned side-ledge mounted CMS controllers include touchscreens and moving maps for passengers to stay informed of flight progress. A new platform-specific app will also be offered with the upgraded CMS.
Available for the first time on the super-midsize twin is Viasat Ka-band connectivity. The Viasat system joins other connectivity options, including Gogo Business Aviation 4G ATG, and will be available on new and in-service Challenger 350s as well as in-service Challenger 300s.
Also new and optional for the Challenger 350 are expanded cabin design options available through a collection of contemporary interior design schemes that Bombardier said strike a balance between aesthetics and ergonomics. The new standard and optional features will be available beginning later this year, according to Bombardier.
NTSB Cites First Officer Actions in Atlas Crash
The first officer at the controls of an Atlas Air Boeing 767 inadvertently engaged the autopilot’s go-around mode while preparing to arrive at Houston George Bush Intercontinental Airport on Feb. 23, 2019, and in the resulting confusion took actions that ended with the cargo-carrying 767 crashing into Trinity Bay, according to a draft report from the NTSB.
During an online public meeting on Tuesday, the NTSB concluded that after pushing the go-around button at around 6,000 feet, the first officer felt the airplane seemingly pitching up into a stall. The 767 had received cleared to descend to 3,000 feet and there was no reason to engage the go-around mode, nor did anyone make a callout to let the other pilot know that go-around mode activated.
The feeling of pitching upwards was due to a “pitch-up somatogravic illusion,” the Board explained, “a specific kind of spatial disorientation in which forward acceleration is misinterpreted as the airplane pitching up,” a result of the acceleration that the go-around mode is programmed to accomplish.
Because he believed the airplane was stalling, the first officer pushed forward on the controls to lower the nose, which caused the 767 to accelerate. He took the action despite the lack of indications of a stall such as stick shaker activation, stall warnings, or nose-high pitch or low airspeed indications.
Electric Aircraft Maker Bye Raises $10M for eFlyers
Bye Aerospace this week raised a further $10 million to support the development of its all-electric eFlyer family of fixed-wing light aircraft. The U.S. company announced on July 13 that an undisclosed venture capital group has invested $5 million and that this was supplemented by an additional $5 million venture raise.
According to founder and CEO George Bye, the additional capital has allowed the Denver-based startup to start working on the first production-conforming prototype of its two-seat eFlyer 2 model. He reported that while the two new transactions had been closed during Covid-19 restrictions, the investors had conducted due diligence and planning before the pandemic escalated.
“Since raising the $10 million, we have completed critical design review in early June and are now underway with multiple test flights of the eFlyer 2 technology demonstrator,” Bye commented. “Next, we will be solidifying our supply chain relationships to begin assembly on Serial #001, which is the first production-conforming eFlyer 2 aircraft.”
In late 2018, Bye Aerospace completed an initial fund-raising round led by the Subaru-SBI Innovation Fund. The company aims to complete FAR Part 23 type certification of the eFlyer 2 in 2021. The larger four-seat eFlyer 4 model is due to make a first flight in early 2021 and enter service at least a year after the eFlyer 2.
Honeywell Aerospace has opened a T55 Repair and Overhaul Center of Excellence near its Phoenix headquarters to bring its MRO activities next to the engineering and production of the turboshaft engine.
“Our global Center of Excellence for the T55 engine allows us to grow our throughput to be two to three times our previous capacity to better support the U.S. Army and CH-47 Chinook helicopter fleets worldwide,” said Honeywell president of engines and power systems Dave Marinick. “Our organization is always focused on improving our support for today's warfighters, and we are proud to roll out this transition as part of that commitment to the U.S. Army.”
The move creates a larger pool of Honeywell technicians skilled in the T55 to improve repair and overhaul turn times, according to Honeywell. Also, having technicians on-site with engineers will enhance troubleshooting and provide better feedback for future upgrades, the company added.
Along with the new MRO center, Honeywell has launched a supplier improvement initiative for on-time delivery of T55 materials as well as to support the expanded capacity. Honeywell has produced more than 6,000 T55s that have logged about 12 million hours of operation over nearly 60 years.
FAA’s New Urban Air Mobility ConOps Raises Questions
In his cover letter accompanying the FAA’s first version of the concept of operations (ConOps) for Urban Air Mobility (UAM), Steve Bradford, the agency’s chief scientist for architecture and NextGen development, admits that the document is a “work in progress.” Given the content and the reaction to it, that perhaps is an understatement.
The ConOps 1.0 document was released this month and follows discussions with the industry in 2019. While industry observers and stakeholders are universally supportive that the initiative is at last in motion, not everyone is happy on its direction.
ConOps establishes the concept of morphing existing VFR helicopter corridors into dedicated air lanes for passenger and freight eVTOLs without ATC services, governed by “community business rules.” And with “demand capacity balancing” skewed to “performance-based” service providers (PSU—a provider of service for UAM), it has triggered a flurry of practical operational questions.
Chief among them is how all this gets integrated into the National Airspace System while maintaining current safety standards, how to ensure fair access to the dedicated airspace, and how not to alienate local governments and citizen groups while at the same time satisfying the FAA’s institutional need to enshrine preemption.
Some people were just born to ride. This photo from Dumont MRO materials manager Justin Bilek captures a charter customer boarding a Dumont Jets Gulfstream IV-SP at Wilmington (Delaware) New Castle County Airport (ILG) after arriving on a 2008 Triumph Bonneville T100. Thanks for sharing, Justin!
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