Signature Aviation broke ground this week on an FBO terminal that will replace its 55-year-old facility at Alabama’s Huntsville International Airport (KHSV). The chain has had a presence at KHSV—where it is the sole aviation services provider—since 1992. The $11.3 million commitment, which will also include a ramp expansion, is part of the company's renewed 20-year lease agreement with the Port of Huntsville.
“The first and last impressions that visiting corporate leadership will have of our community will be the air terminal they taxi up to when visiting Huntsville,” said Trey Bentley, the Port’s board chair, who is also a private pilot and business owner. He added that the airport has a first-class corporate aviation operation. “This will be reflected in modern, attractive improvements to the Signature terminal.”
Expected to be completed by mid-2024, the 8,000-sq-ft terminal will replace the existing 5,000-sq-ft building and will feature lounges, private meeting rooms, and concierge services. As well, the facility offers 20,000 sq ft of hangar space.
“The groundbreaking ceremony for Signature’s new KHSV facility is helping highlight the importance of Huntsville as a destination for private aviation and as a key hub for aerospace, defense, and information technology,” explained Marty Kretchman, Signature’s senior v-p of operations. “We’re thrilled to be kickstarting the next step in our efforts to serve our customers and the Huntsville community.”
AINsight: Solving the Mx Tech Shortage without More Techs
Every 100 hours, it was the same-old, same-old. I could barely keep my eyes open while doing yet another 100-hour inspection on the same trainer I had just inspected a month ago and the month before that and on and on. Each time I did the inspection, I had to play a game where I figured that if I looked hard enough, I’d find something wrong. But in the dozens of times I inspected those airplanes, I never found a broken wing bolt or spar or other major structural damage.
What I did find was that I spent 90 percent of my time looking in inspection holes and checking those bolts and spars and by the time I was nearly done and ready to fix all the discrepancies (squawks) that were on my list, the front desk was desperate for the airplane to get back on the line so it could resume making money.
Despite brief rainstorms, attendance at NBAA’s Northeastern regional forum, held on Wednesday at New York’s Westchester County Airport (KHPN), exceeded last year’s total, attracting more than 3,000 people for networking and educational sessions. The event was hosted by the Million Air FBO, one of three service provider chains at KHPN. It provided a 50,000-sq-ft hangar for the more than 175 exhibitors on the show’s sold-out exhibit floor and the FBO cleared its ramp to accommodate the 26 aircraft in the static display.
In his keynote address, NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen reiterated to the audience that the business aviation industry is committed to reaching net-zero emissions by 2050. “Today, when a new aircraft model comes to market, it is 15 to 20 percent more efficient than the airplane it is replacing,” he explained. “We’re fostering an environment that enables business aviation to thrive.” Using the book-and-claim transaction process, aircraft operators at the event were able to purchase contract fuel at the FBO and convert their purchase to sustainable aviation fuel credits through World Fuel Services.
This was the final large event on NBAA’s schedule until its annual convention, which will be held October 17 to 19 in Las Vegas. Dates for next year’s regional forums will be announced later this year.
With the transportation sector accounting for one-third of U.S. carbon emissions, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), with the support of the Department of Agriculture, will release its latest study later this year on potential feedstocks for sustainable fuels. Conducted every five years, the study will focus on what biomass and waste feedstocks are actually available along with their sustainability criteria.
The “Billion Ton Study”—which will also determine where the feedstocks are concentrated—will be valuable to companies in the growing sustainable aviation fuel industry as they determine the locations of future renewable fuel refineries and the most effective conversion technologies needed to process those materials.
“This year’s version is going to include cover crops as well as CO2 waste gasses, both very important for the future of sustainable aviation fuel,” said Valerie Sarisky-Reed, director of the DOE’s Bioenergy Technologies Office in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy.
Speaking this week during the Commercial Aviation Alternative Fuels Initiative’s virtual two-day SAF event, she explained: “We know that energy crops are essential as part of that billion-ton sustainable biomass, so we need to begin to evaluate how energy crops will begin to play in this world when they don’t even exist yet.”
Tecnam has abandoned plans to develop the P-Volt all-electric commuter aircraft after concluding with project partner Rolls-Royce that battery technology is insufficient to support a commercially viable product. In a June 13 statement, the Italian airframer said it will continue to explore emerging technologies but will discontinue work on an electric-powered version of its nine-passenger P2012 Traveller twin-piston model.
After three years of research and development work, Tecnam said that currently available batteries would not be viable for operators due mainly to the need to frequently replace them. “The proliferation of aircraft with 'new' batteries would lead to unrealistic mission profiles that would quickly degrade after a few weeks of operation, making the all-electric passenger aircraft a mere 'green transition flagship’ rather than a real player in the decarbonization of aviation,” said Tecnam. “Taking into account the most optimistic projections of slow charge cycles and the possible limitation of the maximum charge level per cycle, the real storage capacity would fall below 170 Wh/kg and only a few hundred flights would drive operators to replace the entire storage unit, with a dramatic increase in direct operating costs due to the reserves for battery replacement prices.”
According to Rolls-Royce, it will now prioritize its work to advance hybrid-electric propulsion systems for airliners by developing a turbogenerator that can run on sustainable aviation fuel.
In its final report on the Aug. 16, 2021, upset accident of a Cessna 208 on a passenger-carrying air-taxi flight, the NTSB reiterated its previous recommendations that the FAA include single-engine aircraft in the load manifest requirements of FAR 135.63(c) that currently apply only to multiengine aircraft. None of the nine passengers or pilot were injured during the upset.
The NTSB addressed this exclusion with safety recommendations in 1990, 2014, and 2021, asking the FAA to add single-engine aircraft to the requirements. Because the FAA did not accept the recommendations, the NTSB has closed them out as “unacceptable action.”
According to the recently published accident report, while the aircraft was descending from 10,500 ft msl to 10,000 ft msl seeking to depart icing conditions, the autopilot disengaged without warning and the turboprop single entered an “abrupt right bank followed by a steep, nose-down, spiraling descent.” After regaining control, the pilot declared an emergency and landed at the departure airport.
At the time of the accident, the aircraft was nearly 300 pounds over its maximum approved gross weight for flight-in-known-icing conditions. The aircraft sustained substantial damage to the wings and the right aileron during the upset.
FAR 135.63(c) requires the preparation of a load manifest that includes the number of passengers, total weight of the loaded aircraft, mtow, and center-of-gravity location. But single-engine operations are excluded from this requirement.
CHC Ireland has filed a High Court challenge to Ireland’s recent designation of a Bristow Group subsidiary as the “preferred bidder” for a $715 million, 10-year search-and-rescue (SAR) contract for the Irish Coast Guard. The “preferred bidder” designation is typically the de facto designation of a contract award by the Irish government, with only the finer points of the agreement to be further negotiated. Those negotiations are ongoing and expected to be concluded later this summer. The Irish government announced the Bristow Ireland Limited designation on May 30.
The contract provides for the 24/7 operation of four helicopter bases in Sligo, Shannon, Waterford, and Dublin and also contains a fixed-wing aircraft element.
CHC holds the contract to conduct aviation SAR for the Irish Coast Guard that is due to conclude next year, but its performance came under public scrutiny following the 2017 fatal crash of one of its Sikorsky S-92A helicopters assigned to the mission.
In its challenge, CHC attacks “the validity of the tender process” for the contract and “flaws” in the conduct of the competition. In a related statement, the company said, “CHC Ireland has submitted a tender which it believes is innovative and represents the best value to the taxpayer and the best outcome for the Irish Coast Guard Helicopter Search and Rescue Service.”
Pipistrel is boosting its aircraft sales network in Africa with the appointment of Absolute Aviation as a distributor for its family of ultralight, light sport, and general aviation aircraft, including the Alpha Trainer, all-electric Velis Electro, Explorer, and Panthera. Absolute, which is based at Lanseria International Airport in South Africa, will represent the European manufacturer in that country, as well as in Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
The dealership builds on Pipistrel’s ongoing expansion of its sales network, for which it recently appointed Lincoln Park Aviation as its distributor in 15 U.S. states and Lanier Flight Center in five other states. In 2022, Pipistrel was acquired by Textron Aviation, for which Absolute Aviation is already an authorized sales, service, and parts representative for its Cessna and Beechcraft aircraft.
“We’re fully committed to building our network of distributors so that we can precisely meet the needs of our customers across Africa,” said Pipistrel sales and marketing director Steve Mckenna. “As an established Textron Aviation channel partner, Absolute Aviation’s customer-centric approach is well known to us and we’re looking forward to extending this collaboration to showcase Pipistrel.”
Photo of the Week
Back in business. Thousands of people are anticipated to gather next week at the Paris Airshow after a four-year, pandemic-related hiatus. More than 2,500 exhibitors have signed up for this year's event to showcase their wares with some 150 military, commercial, business, and other aircraft on site. AIN photographer David McIntosh will be on hand to capture the images of this year's show as he did in 2019 when he shot this photo of one of the busy trade halls. Thanks for sharing, David!
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