More than 120 Textron Aviation turbine aircraft departed from 28 states on Saturday to transport athletes and their coaches to the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games in Orlando, Florida. Beechcraft, Cessna Citation, and Hawker aircraft participating in the Special Olympics Airlift landed and took off every three minutes for about eight hours that day at Orlando Executive Airport.
This marked the eighth time Textron Aviation has organized the airlift, which since 1987 has flown more than 10,000 athletes and coaches to and from the games. Under the program, Textron Aviation owners and operators donate the use of their aircraft, as well as pilots and fuel, to transport athletes and their coaches. More than 800 passengers were flown to this year’s games, which conclude on June 12.
“This is an extraordinary experience for everyone involved and provides an impressive visual of the power of general aviation as well as the philanthropic side of the aviation industry,” said Textron Aviation president and CEO Ron Draper. “The ultimate mission of the Special Olympics Airlift is to make sure all the athletes who are invited to participate at the national level are able to get to the Games. Travel is the biggest expense for Special Olympics programs, and for many athletes this is their first time leaving their home state.”
Global flight activity in May ticked up month-over-month by 2 percent and was 17.8 percent more than a year ago as European activity continues to strengthen, according to the latest Argus Global Business Aircraft Activity report.
European activity last month soared 46 percent year-over-year. More than 84,000 business aviation flights were recorded last month in Europe, and large-cabin jet operations led the surge, up 82.8 percent. Small-cabin jets followed in improving year-over-year operation, increasing by 37.2 percent, followed by midsize cabins at 36.6 percent, and then turboprops at 31.8 percent.
In North America, May business aviation flight activity was up 11 percent year-over-year. Part 91 operations saw a 14.8 percent jump from May 2021, while fractional activity was up 11.5 percent and charter by 6.7 percent. As in Europe, large-cabin aircraft marked the biggest increase in operations, up 20.3 percent from a year earlier. Midsize cabins saw a 13.8 percent increase, small cabins 8.7 percent, and turboprops 5.9 percent.
In the rest of the world, Argus recorded nearly 50,000 business aviation flights, up 20.1 percent from May 2021.
Argus forecasts activity in June will come in at 5.3 percent above that of a year ago in North America and up 27.4 percent in Europe.
Honeywell has been testing alternative navigation technologies that could enable accurate navigation in GPS-denied environments, all without relying on a ground-based backup system such as eLoran. The three technologies are vision-, celestial-, and magnetic anomaly-aided navigation.
Vision-aided navigation uses cameras to gather live visual feeds and compare the position of the aircraft to mapping information. This technology has also been tested for drone navigation, as well as an autoland system tested by Germany’s Technical University of Munich in a Diamond DA42. In Honeywell testing in a Leonardo AW139 helicopter and Embraer E170 airliner, engineers were able to create GPS-like performance, including a 67 percent performance improvement over earlier tests.
Celestial-aided navigation has a long history and, in modern times, star tracking is a principal navigation method for spacecraft. Honeywell tested the celestial-nav system in the E170, reaching accuracy of 25 meters circular error probability of 50 percent, a 38 percent improvement over earlier testing.
Finally, Honeywell said it “conducted the world’s first real-time magnetic anomaly-aided navigation on an airborne platform—the Embraer E170.” This method “measures earth’s magnetic strength and compares it with magnetic maps to accurately identify the position of the vehicle.”
The International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) awarded an International Standard for Business Aircraft Operators (IS-BAO) workshop scholarship to Alison Couch and an International Standard for Business Aircraft Handling (IS-BAH) workshop scholarship to Ameer Mustafa. The awards were presented during a virtual ceremony hosted by Women in Corporate Aviation.
Couch’s aviation career began as a flight attendant, which enabled her to save money for flight school. She later became a part-time corporate pilot flying a Pilatus PC-12 and also served as a safety manager. Later, she became a first officer for a medevac operator. “Her passion for safety fuels her aspiration for a leadership role in aircraft safety management,” IBAC said.
Mustafa, a Pakistani native, earned a master's of business administration in aviation management and is hoping to expand his knowledge of IS-BAH safety best practices, IBAC said. He has an interest in aircraft dispatch on an international level, as well as enhancing aviation practices in Pakistan, the organization added.
“We congratulate these two workshop scholarship recipients and wish them all the best in their career advancement,” said IS-BAO program director Andrew Karas. “We also want to encourage other aspiring corporate aviation professionals to join WCA and apply for the expanding range of international scholarships available in the future.”
Satellite network operator Inmarsat is upgrading its network to increase broadband satcom speed for JetConneX business jet customers. The new JX Evolution Ka-band service will offer higher speeds, expected to be more than the 130 Mbps that has been tested using Inmarsat's existing satellite network.
Inmarsat’s technology roadmap includes seven additional satellite payloads that will be added to its Ka-band constellation, which will make for a total of 12. Next year, two Inmarsat-6 satellites will be launched. These will be followed by two more that will be launched in elliptical orbits to serve customers flying in higher latitudes and across the Arctic. The final three satellites will be launched in geostationary orbit, which will add more speed, capacity, and resilience, according to Inmarsat.
“Speeds in excess of 130 Mbps are exciting and customers can expect even higher numbers as we launch more advanced satellites in the coming years,” said Kai Tang, Inmarsat head of business aviation. “Our fully-funded technology roadmap will offer more than enough capacity to meet the needs of existing and future customers through to 2030 and beyond.”
Inmarsat will offer new service plans when JX Evolution services become available. So far JetConneX terminals have been installed on more than 1,150 aircraft.
Aviation Safety Question of the Week
Provided by
Given an aircraft in level flight with constant thrust or power setting and at a constant airspeed that is below the speed for minimum drag, which of the following statements is correct?
A. The aircraft’s induced drag goes up with speed increases in this area of the drag curve.
B. The aircraft may be at the speed for maximum range.
C. The aircraft is in the speed stable region of the drag curve.
D. The aircraft is in the speed unstable region of the drag curve.
Western Australia’s Emergency Rescue Helicopter Service (ERHS) will receive three new Leonardo AW139s via operator CHC Australia for delivery in early 2023 as part of an ongoing fleet modernization program. CHC will fly the helicopters for air ambulance, search and rescue, and inter-hospital patient transport from the Jandakot and Bunbury Airports on behalf of the ERHS.
The AW139s will be delivered from Leonardo’s Vergiate final assembly line in Italy. The new aircraft will feature a four-axis DAFCS (digital automatic flight control system) autopilot enhanced with hover mode, TCAS II (traffic collision avoidance system), searchlight, camera, wire cutter, and rescue hoist. A special air ambulance interior and the advanced mission console will be installed in Australia.
More than 130 civil, public utility, and military helicopters of various models have been sold by Leonardo in Australia to date with 60 of those being AW139s. Leonardo said this new order strengthens regional collaboration with CHC, which already operates 10 AW139s and two AW189s. The global fleet of AW139s used by CHC recently exceeded 250,000 flight hours. Since initial certification in 2004, the AW139 intermediate twin has logged orders for over 1250 units from more than 290 operators in over 80 countries.
The long-term viability of the eVTOL market will depend on the ability to adapt and certify the segment’s vehicles for autonomous flight, Embraer executives said last week during media briefings in Brazil. Discussing prospects for the eVTOL under development by Eve Urban Air Mobility, which is majority-owned by the aircraft manufacturer, Embraer engineering head Luis Carlos Affonso explained that a key benefit of advanced air mobility lies with the immunity from pilot shortages full flight autonomy would allow.
Eve aims to start deliveries of its four-passenger eVTOL in 2026, and already has collected more than 1,800 provisional commitments from operators. Initially, the planned air taxi services will operate with a pilot on board.
“This is something that could dramatically change the economics and allow the industry to grow because today there is a shortage of pilots,” he explained. “If you think of eVTOL today, it’s one pilot for four passengers…Eve will only fulfill the vision of scaling if it is autonomous.”
Eve co-CEO Andre Stein didn’t disagree that, in the long-term, large-scale adoption of eVTOL applications eventually will require flight autonomy. However, he also acknowledged it will take some time for regulators and the public to accept the concept.
“There is enough market to start,” said Stein. But to reach 50,000 aircraft by 2035, he noted, “You’re going to need [autonomous operation]. But to start you don’t.”
Want more? You can find a longer version of this article at FutureFlight.aero, a news and information resource developed by AIN to provide objective coverage and analysis of cutting-edge aviation technology.
Babcock recently took delivery of the first of six Airbus H160 intermediate twins it will lease to French Armament General Directorate (DGA) for the French Navy under a 10-year contract. The new helicopters are an interim fleet replacement solution until the fully militarized H160M model is available in 2027. The Navy currently operates an aging fleet of Alouette III helicopters. The new aircraft will be used for search-and-rescue missions from two locations in North and West France.
Babcock was named the launch customer for the H160 in 2018, then agreeing to take an unspecified number of the new helicopters for global operations over a five-year period. It provides mission-critical services in 14 countries, ranging from helicopter emergency medical services, aerial firefighting, search and rescue, surveillance operations, and oil and gas transportation.
The new aircraft will enter into service with the Navy in September and be equipped with EMS and rescue swimmer equipment, as well as Safran’s Euroflir 410S EO/IR system.
In December, the French ministry of defense announced orders for 169 H160Ms for all three service branches—navy, army, and air force. Operational data from the helicopters leased from Babcock will be used by the three services to ease integration of the H160M.
A Glimpse into Dassault's Falcon 6X Testing Process
Dassault chief test pilot Philippe Duchateau started flying in the French air force and now his job is to ensure that new Falcon business jets are safe and deliver the performance promised to customers. He told AIN about his current mission to complete flight testing needed to certify the new Falcon 6X twinjet and how this has involved flying through icing conditions over Norway and maneuvering the 6X into high-speed dives to test its limits.
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