Dassault Sees Slide in Shipments but Spike in Sales
Dassault Aviation has reported a steep decline in business jet deliveries in the first half of this year but a significant jump in orders, including the first for its newly unveiled flagship Falcon 10X. At the same time, the French airframer is laying the groundwork for the Mach 0.925, 7,500-nm model, making plans to add or upgrade facilities in multiple locations in France. This includes a new 10X wing factory to be completed in Martignas next year.
Dassault delivered six Falcons from January through June—a significant drop from the same period in 2020 when 16 were handed over. However, the company booked orders in the first half for 25 aircraft valued at €1.413 billion ($1.66 billion), compared with five valued at €669 million ($787 million) during the first half of last year, when the Covid pandemic took root, the company reported yesterday.
With the jump in orders, Dassault’s Falcon backlog grew to €2.86 billion, up from €2.15 billion at the end of 2020. The backlog encompasses 53 Falcons, including nine special-mission aircraft. At the end of 2020, the backlog stood at 34 Falcons.
Dassault expects deliveries to ramp up through the remainder of the year, which is in keeping with its earlier guidance of 25 deliveries this year and an anticipated increase in net sales. However, with the decline in first-half deliveries, net business jet revenues dropped to €702 million, versus €1.060 billion a year earlier.
It is summer and I am going sailing. Each summer, I set a goal to spend more time in the cockpit of a sailboat and less time on the flight deck of an airplane. There is as much to learn at eight knots as there is at Mach 0.80. Many of these lessons are applicable whether you are on the water or in the air.
Seamanship and airmanship are similar—both involve the art or mastery of operating a vessel and a highly specialized skillset. Each requires not only good handling skills, but a thorough understanding of weather, navigation, communication, mechanics, rules, and regulations. Without this foundational knowledge, the captain of a yacht or aircraft can find themselves in peril.
For mariners, the classic go-to book to safely operate a sailboat is John Rousmaniere’s The Annapolis Book of Seamanship. In it, Rousmaniere outlines the “Formula for Disaster,” the eight contributing factors found in most marine accidents. A single factor, on its own, may be chalked up to an opportunity to learn, but the accumulation of several factors may ultimately lead to a disaster.
For the aviator, the concept of a chain of errors leading up to an accident is commonplace. Many of Rousmaniere’s eight factors can be related directly to aviation crashes. Lessons from the "Formula for Disaster" fall into four basic rules of preparation: prepare the boat, prepare the crew, choose a safe route, and prepare for emergencies.
Richmond Executive Aviation (REA), a new aviation service provider at Virginia’s Richmond Executive-Chesterfield County Airport, debuted its facility last week with an open house event.
With a price tag of $2.3 million, the FBO’s 800-sq-ft terminal features a passenger lounge with complimentary refreshments and floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the ramp, a 15-seat conference room, pilot lounge with snooze room, flight-planning area, flight-training classrooms, crew car, and concierge service. Also included in the construction was a pair of 10,000-sq-ft hangars that can accommodate aircraft up to a Gulfstream G450.
Located northwest of the airport’s main terminal, the full-service FBO provides aircraft charter, management, maintenance, and sales, along with flight instruction. Aircraft and auto detailing are also available and, as an Avfuel-branded location, the FBO participates in the Avtrip customer loyalty program and offers contract fueling.
“Our company is professional, modern, and comfortable,” said Richmond Executive Aviation CEO Mark Hackett, who added that he strives for “attention to detail, an emphasis on customer appreciation, and service beyond excellence.”
Avidyne Unveils Touchscreen Vantage Displays
Avidyne has developed a series of new 12-inch touchscreen displays and will certify the first installation in Cirrus SR piston singles in 2022 as an upgrade to their original Avidyne Entegra avionics. About 4,000 Cirrus SR models built from 2002 through 2008 qualify for the upgrade, according to John Talmadge, Avidyne's v-p of worldwide sales. Introductory price is $12,500 per display, which include core trade-in of an Entegra display.
The upgrade replaces the 10-inch Entegra displays with the 12-inch touchscreens, which also feature Avidyne’s hybrid-touch interface, allowing pilots to activate functions using either touch or knobs and buttons. These new displays also feature higher resolution and “tight integration” with Avidyne IFD-series navigators and its DFC autopilot.
Vantage displays come with synthetic vision as standard, built-in attitude and heading reference systems in each display, with multifunction display reversion, and split-screen capability. “You gain the redundancy of having dual sensors as well as dual displays for your primary flight instrumentation,” said Avidyne president Dan Schwinn.
Avidyne will support a variety of existing equipment, including engine instruments, with the Vantage displays. No separate engine interface hardware will be required, he said.
“The whole system is designed to be a very easy transition from the first-generation [Entegra] system,” Schwinn added. “While it's much more colorful and higher resolution and it runs faster, the controls are very similar.”
Lawmakers Step Into Warbird Training Dispute
U.S. Congress is jumping into the growing controversy surrounding the treatment of flight training in experimental/limited-category aircraft with two lawmakers—Sen. James Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) and Rep. Sam Graves (R-Missouri)—introducing companion bills to clarify that such activity does not constitute commercial operation.
The Certainty for General Aviation Pilots Act of 2021 Act, introduced yesterday in both the House and Senate, clarifies that “individuals engaged in aircraft flight instruction or testing, including phased testing of experimental aircraft, are not operating an aircraft carrying persons or property for compensation or hire.”
These bills are intended to “reverse the damaging impact of an FAA directive” calling on pilots who receive training in experimental aircraft and instructors who are paid to provide that training to first obtain letters of deviation authority from the FAA, AOPA said. The association further noted that under the directive, pilots and instructors involved in paid flight training in limited or primary category aircraft must first obtain a regulatory exemption.
“The bureaucratic response from the FAA’s legal office actually impedes safety, which is unacceptable,” said Mark Baker, president of AOPA, which has been fighting the FAA determination. Eleven aviation organizations have offered support for the bill.
Cape Air Preps To Operate All-electric Eviation Alice
Cape Air's proposed fleet of Eviation Alice electric aircraft could enter service in 2023 on scheduled routes connecting Boston and the Massachusetts communities of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket as well as linking Nantucket with Hyannis, the operator’s CEO, Dan Wolf, said on Wednesday during the Electric Aircraft Symposium.
While the New England-based regional airline placed an order in 2019 for the nine-seat Alice, terms remain undisclosed and Wolf expressed some ambivalence about the economic case. “The first thing that Cape Air wants to do is introduce a new technology into a commercial environment that we know is successful,” he stressed. “If the economics of this are what people think they are going to be, and I’m not convinced yet…there’s an entire panoply of communities [that could benefit].”
Now the largest FAA Part 135 commuter carrier in the U.S. with 103 aircraft, the airline points to its experience with introducing new aircraft types to scheduled service as one reason it stands to make the economics work and the operational challenges surmountable. Cape Air 18 months ago introduced the Tecnam P2012 Traveller.
After recently unveiling a revised design for the fixed-wing Alice aircraft, Eviation now projects the completion of FAA certification by 2024. Eviation expects Alice to achieve first flight from the company’s new headquarters in Washington state by year-end.
Russian Helicopters opened the MAKS-2021 show in Moscow this week with an order for 50 of its new Mi-8AMT helicopters from Russia’s UTair and the unveiling of more variants of its legacy Mi-171A, Ka-32A, and Ansat helicopters.
Deliveries of the Mi-8AMTs to UTair will begin in 2022. The company plans to use the helicopters to renew its current fleet, which is largely employed in support of Russia’s oil and gas sectors. Unlike previous Mi-8 variants, the AMT can be operated with a two-person crew. It can seat up to 27 passengers and can haul four tons of cargo either inside the cabin or externally sling-loaded.
Russian Helicopters is displaying upgraded models of other helicopters at the show. The 24-passenger Mi-171A3, which will make its first flight next year, is the first Russian Helicopters aircraft designed for offshore energy operations. Its Ka-32A11M features new higher-output VK-2500PS-02 turbine engines with digital electronic controls and the new KBO-32 digital avionics that give the helicopter night and IFR capability. It can be fitted with the new SP-32 fire-suppression system, which delivers up to 1,056 gallons per application. And the Ansat-M is an upgraded version of the light twin that incorporates improvements including larger standard and auxiliary fuel tanks, an IFR cockpit, air conditioning, and new main and tail rotor blades that increase mtow to 8,378 pounds.
The FAA has issued basic aviation training device (BATD) approval for RealSimGear’s flight simulator with aircraft models developed by TorqueSim. The RealSimGear BATD features realistic displays and controls that mirror modern airplanes with Garmin avionics such as the Cessna 172/182 and Piper Archer TX with G1000 avionics and Cirrus SR20, SR22, and SR22T with Perspective avionics.
Running on the X-Plane 11 platform, the RealSimGear BATD includes real switches, knobs, and buttons, allowing pilots to practice flying without distracting workarounds found on traditional desktop simulators. The BATDs give pilots a more realistic experience and reinforce proper equipment usage while practicing flight maneuvers and instrument procedures.
Because the RealSimGear device is a BATD, it can be used for logging IFR currency. When it's operated with a flight instructor, some simulated flight time can be logged toward a private pilot license or instrument rating.
BATD packages include the RealSimGear hardware, a PC optimized for flight simulation, a 49-inch curved monitor, X-Plane 11 Professional, and other hardware. The 172/182 BATD retails for $12,999 and comes with a Honeycomb Alpha yoke and Logitech throttle and rudder pedals. The Cirrus BATD starts at $14,999 and includes a GCU PFD controller. A more expensive version at $17,999 is under development and will have a Cirrus-style yoke control and throttle instead of a Thrustmaster sidestick and Logitech throttle.
Photo of the Week
Oshkosh-bound family heirloom. This 1929 TravelAir Model 10-D—owned by Inga Carus and her husband Peter Limberger, founders of CL Enterprises, the parent company of FBO chain Carver Aero—will be making an appearance next week at EAA Airventure in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. In 1930, Carus’s great uncle purchased the airplane—considered an executive transport in its day, and now the last of its kind—and based it in Peru, Illinois. He sold it in 1942, and the couple's research tracked it down to the Eagles Mere Air Museum collection in Pennsylvania. Carus and Limberger, both licensed pilots, bought it last year, brought it home to Peru, and fully restored it. Thanks for sharing your family heirloom with us, Inga and Peter!
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