Gulfstream Aerospace marked the delivery of the 100th customer aircraft in the G500/G600 program. The delivery of the milestone business jet, a G500, was announced today by the Savannah, Georgia-based aircraft manufacturer. This news comes 3.5 years after the first of the family, the 5,300-nm G500, entered service in September 2018. Service entry of Gulfstream’s 6,600-nm G600 followed in August 2019.
Collectively, the fleet has flown more than 25,000 hours, made 13,600 landings, and achieved more than 60 speed records. Leading up to service entry, the G500 completed a world tour that spanned 130,000 nm and amassed 22 city-pair records.
“Gulfstream saw great demand for the all-new G500 and G600 right out of the gate,” said Gulfstream president Mark Burns. “Reaching 100 deliveries at this stage in the program is remarkable and a clear reflection of the advantages the G500 and G600 give our customers.”
The ultra-long-range, fly-by-wire business jet family, which features the Symmetry Flight Deck, has brought to market technologies such as active-control sidesticks, extensive use of touchscreen technology, and a data concentration network.
Data Breach Affects Solarius Aviation, Jet Aviation
Charter provider and aircraft management firm Solairus Aviation said this week that some employee and client information had been accessed in a security breach of the Microsoft Azure cloud hosting platform of flight management systems provider Avianas, certain assets of which were acquired in 2019 by Wheels Up. Solarius is the second business aviation company to report a breach of its data through Avianas, with Jet Aviation experiencing a similar compromise of employee and customer information during the same period as Solairus.
Both companies reported they were notified by Avianis of the breach in December. Avianis hosted Solairus’s flight scheduling and tracking system. "This incident impacted a subset of customers that use this storage system connected with the Avianis platform, but all other Wheels Up and Avianis systems and databases were not affected," Wheels Up said in a statement.
Information potentially accessed in the Solairus breach included employee and client names, Social Security numbers (SSN), passport numbers, driver’s license numbers, dates of birth, and/or financial account numbers. Solairus said it is offering a complimentary membership to Equifax ID Patrol credit monitoring for individuals whose SSN and driver’s license numbers were involved in the breach. However, the company said it doesn’t have current addresses for all of those individuals and is encouraging them to call (855) 515-1652.
Based in Petaluma, California, Solairus employs 1,500 flight crew and support staff operating from more than 65 bases. Aircraft under management totals 220, including light, midsize, and large-cabin jets, and turboprops.
EBAA: EU Must Prepare for Post-Covid Bizav Ops
EBAA is urging European Union (EU) institutions and member states, Switzerland, the UK, and other stakeholders to develop harmonized rules for the safe reopening of air travel post-Covid. To help the process, EBAA has also proposed guidelines that ensure business aviation’s safe and timely return to operations.
These guidelines include coordination of travel restrictions; rapid Covid-19 testing; vaccination as a facilitator rather than a condition to travel; elimination of restrictions for business aviation crews; and consideration of priority vaccinations for those operating medical and emergency flights.
“The business aviation sector has been operating emergency and medical flights, safely, throughout the crisis to help those where it was needed most,” said EBAA secretary-general Athar Husain Khan. “Together with our proposed guidelines and the sector’s ability to adapt and offer highly tailored operations, I see no reason for us not to operate.”
According to Khan, business aviation will be one of the “first movers” once it is safe to lift all travel restrictions. “When families want to reunite, when companies need to transport workers once again, business aviation operators will be able to help, quickly and safely,” he concluded.
Fueling Sustainable Aviation
Hundreds of thousands of flights have already taken off fueled by Sustainable Aviation Fuels, and we think they could cut carbon emissions by around 80%, compared to conventional fossil-based jet fuels. Alternative fuels will play an important role in ensuring we can keep enjoying the benefits of aviation, while achieving a net zero carbon future.
Fujino To Receive AIAA Award for HondaJet Innovations
The American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) will present its 2021 Reed Aeronautics Award to Honda Aircraft president and CEO Michimasa Fujino. He will be presented with the award—which is given “for the invention of advanced aerodynamic and structural techniques”—during AIAA’s Aerospace Spotlight Awards Gala on August 12.
According to AIAA, the Reed award is the highest honor an individual can receive for a notable achievement in aeronautics that represents a significant engineering advancement milestone. “Fujino's clean-sheet aircraft design [for the HondaJet] introduced innovations in aviation technology, including the over-the-wing engine mount and natural laminar flow wing and fuselage,” AIAA said.
“Dr. Fujino's dedication to using cutting-edge aeronautical technologies to create new value in business aviation with the HondaJet is an inspiration to the global aerospace industry,” said AIAA president Basil Hassan. “Dr. Fujino's passion for innovation makes him a deserving recipient of this year's Reed Aeronautics Award.”
The Reed Aeronautics Award is named after Dr. Sylvanus A. Reed, the aeronautical engineer, designer, and founding member of the Institute of Aeronautical Sciences in 1932. Past recipients of the award include Clarence Johnson for the SR-71, Ben Rich for the F-117, Preston Henne for the MD-80 and Gulfstream aircraft, and Burt Rutan for Voyager.
T&I Okays Bills To Fix Notams, Expedite Projects
Bills to improve the Notam system and incentivize expedited airport projects cleared the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee yesterday.
Introduced by Reps. Mark DeSaulnier (D-California) and Pete Stauber (R-Minnesota), the Notice to Airmen Improvement Act of 2021 (H.R.1262) calls for a government/industry task force to review and make recommendations to improve the presentation, accuracy, and completeness of the Notam system. The bill would require the FAA-established task force to review the system and report its recommendations within a year. The bill has drawn strong backing from NBAA and AOPA.
Introduced by T&I ranking member Sam Graves (R-Missouri) and aviation subcommittee ranking member Garret Graves (R-Louisiana), the bill adopts an approach in use for road and bridge projects, providing incentives for projects that would increase capacity and efficiency and result in cost savings as a result of the shortened project. The bill would cap the incentives to 5 percent of the initial construction cost or $1 million, whichever is lower.
Nearly three weeks after announcing plans to open a Boston base, Part 135 operator GrandView Aviation said today it plans to open another at Van Nuys Airport (VNY) in Southern California in May. Like the Boston base, GrandView will place an Embraer Phenom 300 at VNY, which will be the third base the Baltimore, Maryland operator opens this year.
“We believe California will be well served by our fleet as there is a lack of new light jets [there] that can handle longer-range missions like the Phenom 300 can,” said GrandView COO Jessie Naor. “Our aircraft can fly nonstop from Los Angles to Chicago and, in very favorable wind conditions, to Miami. This kind of range is incredible in a light jet; most fliers would need to upgrade to a midsize jet for these destinations.”
GrandView owns a fleet of 10 Phenom 300s—three of which were acquired late last year—as well as Sikorsky S-76D and Bell 407GXi helicopters. Its other bases are in Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Baltimore; Chicago; and Phoenix.
GAMA, IAOPA Open Third European GA Survey
The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) and the International Council of Aircraft Owner and Pilot Associations (IAOPA) have kicked off their 2021 European General Aviation Survey. Conducted with the support of EASA and open through April 30, the annual survey is designed to gain a better understanding of the scope of general aviation flight activity in Europe, as well as aircraft equipment and fleet composition trends.
This information is important in helping assess regulatory impacts, calculating accident rates for non-commercial airplanes, and promoting the benefits of general aviation, the organizations said. The 2020 survey drew more than 1,200 responses, accounting for 2,500 general aviation aircraft from 40 European counties.
“Now in its third edition, our aim for the 2021 European General Aviation Survey is to further increase participation across the general aviation community and better understand the impacts that the pandemic has had on GA operations across different countries,” said v-p of European Affairs for GAMA Kyle Martin.
According to Dominique Roland, head of the EASA Policy, Innovation, and Knowledge Department, “The buy-in of the GA community is essential, and I hope the repetition of the survey will convince more and more GA actors to contribute.” He added that survey results will provide data to help build upcoming strategies.
Bell Finds Additional Opportunities with Wichita Office
Eight months into Bell establishing a Wichita office on the west campus of sister company Textron Aviation, Bell Wichita general manager David Smith told AIN the site is growing both in terms of people and the types of work performed there. Established in part to support Bell’s efforts as a finalist on the Army’s future long-range assault aircraft (FLRAA) and future attack and reconnaissance aircraft (FARA) programs, Smith said other areas have been identified in which the office can support the Fort Worth, Texas-based OEM.
“We have all these needs on military programs but there’s also staffing going on in other disciplines and the office is finding a home for all sorts of functions that we hadn’t really anticipated,” he explained.
Those employees are filling positions in areas such as cybersecurity, tooling design and improvement, engineering, and supplier support and management for not only the Army programs but also commercial. The relationship with Textron Aviation has benefitted Bell as well in terms of sharing employees through collaborative projects between the two companies and recruiting employees.
“The future of our business in terms of production of aircraft is substantial, and whether that’s supply base or internal capabilities, we need to be right now pursuing talent that can help us build dozens of future Army aircraft in a given year,” he added.
According to a recent RTCA report, terrestrial 5G telecom systems could cause interference issues with certain existing avionics. This can cause serious safety concerns for aircraft equipped with legacy radar altimeters and other vulnerable products. Solutions to this problem exist, and we will be highlighting these during an educational webinar on 5G interference concerns in the NextGen airspace presented by subject matter experts in avionics manufacturing, installation, and regulatory perspectives.
Please join us on April 28 as AIN editor-in-chief Matt Thurber moderates this webinar with Nathan Hernandez, business development sales manager at Southeast Aerospace; Dr. David Redman, director of Aerospace Vehicles Systems Institute and an RTCA committee member; and Ashley Ring, v-p of sales and marketing at FreeFlight Systems. Sponsored by Freeflight Systems.
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