Following its June 28 inaugural flight, Gulfstream Aerospace’s G800 completed its first international trip as it arrived in Farnborough on Friday to participate in the airshow this week. The aircraft flew from Gulfstream’s headquarters in Savannah, Georgia, to its customer support facility at the UK airfield.
Gulfstream rolled out the first G800 as it formally unveiled the aircraft in October, setting a new range bar for purpose-built business jets at 8,000 nm. The aircraft is a derivative of the G650ER, sharing its fuselage, but incorporates elements found on the G700, including its Honeywell Epic-based Symmetry flight deck with dual head-up displays with combined vision system and active control sidesticks, as well as Rolls-Royce Pearl 700 engines.
Since its first flight last month, the aircraft has checked off additional initial tests, including a long-duration flight of more than eight hours and operations beyond its Mach 0.925 Mmo and 51,000-foot ceiling.
“To take the G800 on this transatlantic trip so close to first flight is extraordinary,” said Gulfstream president Mark Burns. “Thanks to our strategic planning and the investments Gulfstream has made in our aircraft, we are able to fly the G800 with remarkable efficiency and bring the aircraft directly to customers early in the flight-test program, as we have in Farnborough.”
Preowned business aircraft transactions increased 13 percent in the first half of this year, according to a new report from the International Aircraft Dealers Association (IADA). Its second-quarter market report noted 598 sales transactions in the first half of the year compared with 529 in the same period last year. However, IADA said other indicators suggest slowing activity moving forward.
The increase in transactions was largely fueled by activity in the first quarter, as data shows there were six fewer transactions in the second quarter versus a year ago. The report also shows that new acquisition agreements in the second quarter totaled 134, down from 177 in the three-month period last year. Also lower in the second quarter was business aircraft under contract, which was 231 versus 330 in the same period in 2021.
“While we expect to see a strong market for the balance of this year, our dealers and transaction specialists are experiencing a bit of softening in some of the leading indicators for our industry,” said IADA executive director Wayne Starling. “While closed deals in the second quarter remained healthy, a decrease in acquisition agreements and deals under contract indicate the market is returning to normal levels from the frenzied pace of 2021.”
Sweet Aviation has been selected to take over as the FBO operator at Indiana’s DeKalb County Airport (KGWB) effective November 1. The current service provider—Century Aviation, which has operated the sole FBO at the airport for more than a decade—decided not to pursue a lease renewal, leading the DeKalb Airport Authority to issue an RFP for the facility. Surack Enterprises subsidiary Sweet Aviation, which also provides aviation services at Indiana’s Fort Wayne International and Smith Field airports, was selected.
The FBO includes a 10,000-sq-ft terminal with passenger lobby, pilot lounge with shower facility and flight planning area, 16-seat conference room, kitchen, dishwashing and linen service, and crew car. It also offers nearly 33,000 sq ft of hangar space that can accommodate up to a Gulfstream G550-size airplane.
A company spokesman also noted KGWB’s current expansion project that will increase its runway from 5,000 feet to 7,100 feet by 2024.
“From a personal perspective, I am excited about the opportunity to continue to expand the aviation community in Northeast Indiana,” said Sweet owner and founder Chuck Surack, adding his father was a pilot and that he has always held a fascination for aviation. “In 2008, I obtained my certificate to fly a helicopter, and a few years later acquired Smith Field Air Service, which we renamed and grew into Sweet Aviation. We have seen incredible growth over the past 10-plus years and look forward to continuing to develop and grow.”
Surack’s portfolio of aviation companies includes rotorcraft operator Sweet Helicopters and Aviation Specialty Insurance; he also recently purchased bankrupt OEM Enstrom Helicopter.
Charter broker Air Charter Service (ACS) is expanding its California operations after logging a record year. The company appointed Maddison Gerhardt to director of private jets, leading the company’s Los Angeles and San Francisco offices, and is hiring additional staff.
“The private aviation market in California was always buoyant pre-pandemic,” Gerhardt said. “We’ve seen a real bounce-back in the past 12 months with the return of the entertainment industry and business travelers flying again. Sales grew considerably and last year we saw 9 percent growth on 2019’s pre-pandemic levels.”
In particular, Gerhardt noted sales have “skyrocketed” on its jet card product, up by 127 percent year-over-year. “We saw a lot of new customers turn to private aviation during the pandemic and we are now seeing many of them upgrade to a jet card as a way to secure aircraft availability.”
The company last year recorded revenues of $1.8 billion. It operates from seven other offices in North America and 28 globally.
“We are looking to recruit talented aviation professionals to grow the team and drive forward from our record year and a strong first quarter to this one,” said Thomas Howe, CEO of ACS California. “With scheduled services not expected to fully return to pre-pandemic levels for several years, private aviation is going to continue to be in high demand for the foreseeable future.”
Aerospace Turbine Rotables (ATR) has enhanced the overhaul process for the hydraulic Prestolite Power Pack that it manufactures and which is used on a variety of general aviation aircraft. The Wichita-based subsidiary of First Aviation Services said the new process increases the reliability of the power pack.
Specifically, the overhaul includes replacing the motor’s armature and field coils, as well as valves, springs, gaskets, O-rings, pressure adjusting screws, and eyelets. In addition, each motor goes through a qualification analysis, and other components are inspected for wear or damage and replaced if needed.
All the replacement components are manufactured to original engineering specifications. That excludes the valve body, new castings for which ATR has developed to updated standards, and engineering with stricter tolerances.
“The testing that we’re subjecting the Prestolite Power Packs to is well beyond anything we should see in operation, ensuring reliable service for many years,” said ATR assistant shop manager Jeff Horner. “The feedback we’re receiving from operators is that these extensive enhancements have had a major positive impact on reliability.”
Aviation Safety Question of the Week
Provided by
Which of the following statements regarding wake turbulence is correct?
A. The strength of the vortex is governed by the prevailing wind only.
B. The extension of flaps or other wing configuring devices does not change the vortex characteristics of an aircraft.
C. In the terminal area, the vortex strength increases proportionately with an increase in aircraft operating weight or with a decrease in aircraft speed.
D. The greatest vortex strength occurs when the generating aircraft is light and flies fast.
Schweizer is continuing deliveries of its 300C piston engine training helicopters to foreign militaries in Senegal and El Salvador. The Senegalese Air Force took delivery of the first production 300C in July 2021, and in March it signed a follow-on contract with Schweizer for five more of the helicopters. The first aircraft from the follow-on contract was delivered in May, with the remaining deliveries scheduled before October.
The additional 300C helicopters will support the Senegalese Air Force’s flight training academy and will be used for ab initio, instrument, and vertical reference training. Each is equipped for IFR flight training with Garmin GPS and ADS-B transponders, Bendix-King navcoms, and RC Allen digital artificial horizon and directional gyros. The helicopters also have auxiliary fuel tanks to extend flight time to 6.4 hours, while two of them are equipped with cargo hooks for vertical reference and long-line training.
In April, Schweizer delivered a new baseline VFR Schweizer 300C to the Salvadoran Air Force, the first new Schweizer helicopter delivered to the country of El Salvador since 1984. Ordered through local Schweizer dealer CZA, the aircraft will be used to provide ab initio flight training to air force pilots. The Salvadoran Air Force plans to purchase a new IFR-equipped Schweizer 300C by year-end, pending budget approval.
Air Charter Service (ACS) has added a new office in the UK as part of its long-term planning. The office, located in Gatwick, is partly the result of workforce planning for the 32-year-old charter broker based in the borough of Kingston, southwest of London.
“When planning for our next five years of growth, we have realized that we would be making life more difficult for ourselves if we were to limit ourselves to the pool of aviation talent to the west of London and simply recruiting and training new brokers,” said ACS CEO Justin Bowman. “Along with many clients, and our airline suppliers, there is a huge number of aviation professionals around the Gatwick area, so we have decided rather than them coming to us, we will go to them.”
Leading the new Gatwick office is Alex Sadler, a 10-year veteran of the firm. “I will miss being based at the ACS headquarters with our fantastic team there, but we will still be part of the ACS family and this office opens up a new world of possibilities to expand it even further,” Sadler said.
AIN editors and contributors took top honors in several categories in the 2022 Aerospace Media Awards, which were presented last night at the Royal Aeronautical Society headquarters in London on the eve of the Farnborough Airshow.
Eve has given a glimpse of what it will be like to travel in its four-passenger eVTOL aircraft by unveiling a full-scale cabin and flight deck mockup this week at the Farnborough Airshow. The company has also made changes to the electric vehicle’s configuration, with the eight rotors fitted on a wing and empennage instead of the previous wing and canard arrangement.
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