Honda Aircraft has formed a support team to assist fractional owners of HondaJets previously managed by Jet It, which suspended operations on May 18. The assistance will be provided free of charge. Honda said the team will help owners with “seamless transitions to alternative aircraft management options.” As part of the available assistance, fractional owners will be provided with pilot services to move aircraft to Honda’s Greensboro, North Carolina headquarters with up to 90 days of free parking.
“We understand the challenges faced by fractional owners who have been impacted by the suspension of their aircraft management after being released from contract by Jet It, and are now seeking alternative arrangements,” said Amod Kelkar, Honda Aircraft CCO and v-p of customer service. “Consistent with our dedication to customer satisfaction, we have developed and established this assistance plan for those HondaJet owners in need of additional support during this transition period.”
Jet It cited safety concerns about the HondaJet in taking its decision to suspend operations; however, various industry sources told AIN that the company’s real issue was a cash flow problem that had stranded nearly half of its 21-strong HondaJet managed fleet in maintenance centers that were holding the aircraft for payments due. “The HondaJet remains a reliable and safe aircraft to operate, and we reaffirm our confidence in the aircraft’s safety through our engineering and analysis,” said Kelkar.
As we came out of 2022, many of us took a deep breath and said hopefully the preowned business aircraft frenzy will be over and a dose of normalcy and balance will return. As we wrapped up the first quarter and settled solidly into the second, most of us would admit a slower start to the year and our collective eyes are peering optimistically toward the rest of the year.
If you remember, 2020 for many was reported to be one of our best transactional years, albeit one that was accomplished in just six to nine months. That’s because the pandemic accounted for three to six months of recalibrating our sights to what this event was going to mean for us.
I just participated in the spring International Aircraft Dealer Association meeting and heard the same optimism from all attendees. This could be a 2020 kind of year—everyone expects a surge of good, balanced activity that will see us operating in an environment of higher supply for our clients to choose from.
Prices have tempered down a bit and transactional processes are back to a place where due diligence is the key word in transactions. All that sounds great, doesn’t it? As the title suggests, are we coming up on a bastion of hope?
Atlantic Aviation added a major destination to its FBO network as it assumed operations at Washington Dulles International Airport (KIAD), which serves the nation’s capital. In the conclusion of a rigorous RFP process first issued by the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority in January 2022, Atlantic was selected in February as the winner for the facility formerly operated by Jet Aviation and was awarded a 20-year lease on the property.
One of two FBOs on the field, the location includes a 14,200-sq-ft terminal featuring a spacious lobby, passenger and pilot lounges, conference room, and 150,000 sq ft of heated hangar space capable of accommodating the latest ultra-long-range business jets. The leasehold also includes nearly 60,000 sq ft of office and shop space. Atlantic plans to improve the facility through expansion and upgrades.
“The addition of KIAD adds to our growing number of locations at the nation’s top-20 general aviation airports and allows us to now seamlessly serve more customers on the Eastern Seaboard with the same high quality of safety and care our team provides at every Atlantic Aviation location,” said Tim Bannon, the Texas-based company’s COO.
The directors of private flight membership company Wheels Up have authorized a 1-for-10 reverse stock split to stave off a possible delisting on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). Wheels Up stock has traded for less than $1 for most of the year and the company had a limited amount of time to increase its valuation prior to delisting. The split will take effect after the close of trading on June 7.
Wheels Up stock closed Thursday at 26 cents, down 8 percent on the day, 75 percent year-to-date, and 97 percent lower since its 2021 initial public listing. The company reported a net loss of $555 million on $1.58 billion in revenues last year. In 2022, Wheels Up replaced its CFO and COO, and eliminated the position of president. Last month, company founder and CEO Kenny Dichter resigned.
In the first quarter, Wheels Up burned through $222 million of its cash reserves, leaving $363 million on hand despite being engaged in a $30 million cost-cutting campaign. If its cash position falls below $125 million, it will be in violation of financing covenants in place on a substantial part of its owned aircraft fleet that were mortgaged last year at an interest rate of 12 percent.
Boeing has assumed full ownership of eVTOL aircraft developer Wisk Aero, which had been run as a joint venture with Kitty Hawk, an advanced mobility startup formed by Google co-founder Larry Page and Google executive Sebastian Thrun. Speaking at a media briefing in South Carolina on May 31, Wisk CEO Brian Yutko announced the change of ownership while not providing any details about financial terms for the transaction between Boeing and its former partners.
Kitty Hawk, which had been working on the Heaviside autonomous eVTOL vehicle, closed down in September 2022. At the time, Wisk said that the move did not impact its ownership and that Kitty Hawk’s backers would remain investors in its plans to bring a four-seat, passenger-carrying autonomous eVTOL vehicle to market later in this decade.
As a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Boeing group, Wisk will continue to operate as an independent company with oversight by the Boeing board. A spokesman told AIN that Boeing will continue to provide additional support through access to talent and expertise.
Boeing is now focusing most of its efforts to break into the advanced air mobility sector on Wisk, having made a $450 million investment in the company in early 2022. Its rival, Airbus, is developing the CityAirbus NextGen four-passenger eVTOL.
For more on this story go to FutureFlight.aero, a news and information resource developed by AIN to provide objective, independent coverage and analysis of cutting-edge aviation technology, including electric aircraft developments and advanced air mobility.
Hermeus took delivery of its first F100 engine from Pratt & Whitney for the development of its Darkhorse scaled hypersonic unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Darkhorse is following Hermeus’s initial remotely piloted small demonstrator, Quarterhorse, which is powered by a General Electric J85 engine modified for hypersonic flight. The F100 will be integrated into Hermeus’s Chimera II turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) propulsion system, which will enable hypersonic flight.
Quarterhorse, which is set to fly in 2024, and the larger Darkhorse UAV, which is to roll out later this decade, are the precursors of what eventually is to be the Halcyon civil hypersonic transport. In addition to being a stepping-stone to refine Hermeus’s 20-passenger Halcyon, Darkhorse has potential Department of Defense applications.
With Hermeus's TBCC, the F100 will enable Darkhorse to reach speeds of up to Mach 2.8 and then the Chimera ramjet will take over, transitioning the aircraft to speeds of up to Mach 5. While Pratt & Whitney supplied the F100, Hermeus has developed other engine components, including the inlet, precooler, ram burner, and bypass system.
With the availability of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) in Europe a chokepoint in its widespread adoption, World Fuel Services (WFS) and Neste have signed an agreement that will increase the former’s supply of SAF available to distribute. “We are excited to expand our collaboration with World Fuel as we increase our annual [SAF] production capacity to 1.5 million tons per annum by the end of 2023,” said Alexander Kuiper, Neste’s v-p for the EMEA region in the company’s renewable aviation business unit.
Under the agreement, WFS predicts a 20-fold increase in the volume of SAF it will deliver this year versus 2022 as it expands the number of European airports where it can now supply SAF from 13 to more than 40. Further leveraging of WFS’s distribution network could pave the way to providing accessibility of SAF at the more than 100 locations in its European network, it added.
“We...have created a framework that enables us to more reliably provide our customers across Europe with SAF in a timely and expedient manner,” explained Duncan Storey, WFS’s v-p of European aviation supply. “We are confident this agreement and deeper collaboration with Neste will serve to accelerate our ability to support customers in their decarbonization ambitions across the globe.”
The California man who intentionally crashed his airplane to garner internet attention has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of obstructing a federal investigation. Trevor Daniel Jacob is scheduled to make his first appearance in U.S. District Court on June 13 in Los Angeles.
On Nov. 24, 2021, Jacob—an experienced pilot and skydiver—took off from Lompoc City Airport (KLPC) in his 1940s-vintage Taylorcraft BL-65 on a solo flight purportedly to Mammoth Lakes, California. Instead, according to federal investigators, he deliberately ejected from the aircraft en route to film himself and its crash as he descended by parachute. Before taking off, Jacob mounted several cameras on various parts of the aircraft. After he touched down, Jacob hiked to the wreckage and retrieved his video data, which he would later use to make an advertiser-sponsored video posted on YouTube.
Two days later, Jacob informed the NTSB of the crash and then delayed the investigation for weeks by falsely claiming he did not know the location of the wreckage. In the meantime, he had a helicopter company retrieve the airplane, which he then transported to his hangar at KLPC, dismantled it, and disposed of its parts.
Jacob’s pilot license was revoked by the FAA last year and he faces a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.
Just gliding along. A replica of the Santa Clara glider was recently installed in the 35-foot-high lobby of Avfuel-supplied Crownair Aviation at San Diego Montgomery-Gibbs Executive Airport (KMYF). The original glider was designed by John J. Montgomery and had two wings that each spanned more than 25 feet; the replica now hanging in the lobby is on loan from the San Diego Air & Space Museum. KMYF is also partly named after Montgomery, whose first glider flight took place in the Otay Mesa area of San Diego in 1883. Thanks to Crownair president and general manager Ray Richmond for sharing this photo!
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