Piper Aircraft will begin deliveries of the M700 Fury later this month, following the FAA’s issuance of the airplane’s type certificate on Thursday. The M700, which Piper announced on February 6, replaces the M600SLS.

“The Fury is just the first step in a new generation of our M-Class product line, so watch this space, as Piper’s M-Class will be expanding both above and below what we currently offer,” said Piper president and CEO John Calcagno.

The M700 is powered by a 700-shp Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-52, a 100-shp increase from the engine on the M600. At maximum takeoff weight, the M700 can climb at 2,048 fpm, a 32 percent improvement over the M600, and climb to FL250 takes 13.9 minutes, a 34 percent improvement. Takeoff distance is 1,994 feet and landing distance is 1,968 feet—each about 700 feet shorter than that of the M600.

Its Garmin G3000 suite with Autoland is the same as on the M600, but the Fury adds Garmin’s PlaneSync 4G LTE cellular datalink technology, which allows M700 owners to remotely check fuel quantity, oil temperature, battery voltage, and metar weather report at the M700’s location. It also allows for downloading of databases wirelessly and remotely.

The range of the M700 is 1,852 nm, up from the M600’s 1,658 nm, and the maximum cruise speed jumps from the M600’s 274 ktas to 301 ktas.

Preowned business jet inventory soared by 32 percent year-over-year in February, while prices softened by 5 percent, according to financial analyst Jefferies. Citing data from Amstat along with its own estimates, Jefferies said the increased inventory crossed all segments with available heavy jets up by 37 percent, medium jets up by 32 percent, and light jets up by 28 percent.

Inventories of jets less than seven years out of production have increased by 35 percent year-over-year. However, the available inventory, at 4.3 percent of the business jet fleet, is still below the five-year average of 5.1 percent, Jefferies reported.

Overall, 1,094 business jets were available for sale in February, compared with 1,078 units a month prior and 831 in February 2023. The 2023 figures were near lows.

Inventory of in-production Dassault Falcons saw the biggest jump last month, up 80 percent from a year ago, Jefferies reported. However, this is from a small base with a total of 18 aircraft for sale. Meanwhile, Cessna Citation inventory climbed 49 percent year-over-year, with 104 units for sale. Jefferies said the Citation Mustang drove the increase.

Bombardier inventories were up 45 percent, to 58 aircraft, as Challengers up for sale climbed by 86 percent from a year ago. Gulfstream inventories increased 33 percent, to 69 jets, including 13 G650s. Conversely, Embraer Executive Jets inventory shrunk by 16 percent, to 26 aircraft.

Bell secured its first purchase agreement for its 525 super-medium twin helicopter from Norwegian petroleum refiner Equinor for use in North Sea offshore operations. Equinor placed a firm order for 10 of the fly-by-wire helicopters, with deliveries anticipated to begin in 2026.

This sale marks a significant milestone for Bell, which is hoping the 525 will carve a niche in the super-medium class that could compete against large helicopters in the oil and gas and other sectors such as corporate, search and rescue, troop transport, and public safety. The 525—Bell's largest civil helicopter to date—can fly up to 580 nm, reach a speed of 160 knots, and carry 16 passengers with two crew.

Bell has long eyed the North Sea market for the aircraft, opening an “experience center” for the model at Stavanger Airport in 2021. “Our relationship with Equinor will enhance the standard of innovation for oil and gas missions and North Sea operations,” said Danny Maldonado, chief commercial officer for Bell. “The Bell 525 technology provides a generational leap forward and will revolutionize offshore oil and gas operations by providing enhanced safety capabilities, reliability, and optimized operations.”

While it awaits certification, Bell is continuing production on the model at its assembly center in Amarillo, Texas. The company expects offshore-configured 525s to come off the line this year.

The FAA has updated and increased the availability of Arrival Alert Notices (AAN) at specific U.S. airports as a preflight tool to help pilots avoid lining up to land on the wrong runway, taxiway, or incorrect airport. According to the agency, general aviation pilots (including those crewing business aircraft) account for 83 percent of wrong-surface landings.

In testing, the agency said AANs have been “found to be effective in mitigating risks associated with wrong-surface landings.” Data shows that certain airports—especially those with close offset parallel runways and close proximity of thresholds of intersecting runways—have experienced an increase in the number of alignment issues resulting in a potential or actual landing on an incorrect surface. The data also shows that these errors typically occur during daytime VMC.

If an airport has an AAN, it will be flagged in the special notices section found on the back of the airport’s approach charts. Aerial views of all airports that have AANs are available on the AAN website. Each view is accompanied by a brief description of the reason that might cause landing surface confusion.

Gogo Business Aviation is migrating its Gogo Biz air-to-ground (ATG) network to LTE technology. Anyone operating an aircraft that currently has a “legacy” Gogo system (ATG 5000, 4000, 2000 or 1000) installed will be impacted and needs to act quickly by upgrading to AVANCE by Dec. 31, 2025.

Embraer-X has launched a partnership with the Sustainable Aero Lab in Hamburg, Germany, to advance its initiatives around the decarbonization of aviation. The Brazilian aircraft manufacturer’s technology incubator unit announced the joint initiative on Wednesday, indicating that it could result in new investments in startups “focused on energy transition for the air transport industry.”

The Sustainable Aero Lab’s mission is to connect technology startups with mentors and investors, as well as identify prospective new customers and partners for their projects. In addition to Embraer-X, its sponsors include the Hamburg Investment and Development Bank and the Breakthrough Energy consortium. The organization was founded with backing from the Hamburg Aviation aerospace cluster, Germany’s ZAL Center for Applied Aeronautical Research, and Density Ventures.

Embraer is looking to make further progress with its Energia future aircraft program. This is focused on using hybrid-electric and hydrogen fuel-cell propulsion technology for new 19- and 30-seat aircraft. Its Eve Air Mobility spinoff is working on a four-passenger eVTOL aircraft.

“With the backing of Embraer-X, we will elevate our mentorship program for aviation startups and projects around the world to deliver a tangible reduction of the climate footprint of aviation,” said Sustainable Aero Lab founder and CEO Stephan Uhrenbacher. “We are excited to work together on building a sustainable future of aviation, coordinating our support initiatives, and streamlining access to each other’s resources.”

As attention has sharpened on aviation safety in the wake of widely reported close calls last year, AviationManuals is seeing a jump in business for its safety management systems (SMS) programs. The safety and documents specialist has witnessed a 26 percent increase in participation in its ARC Safety Management System programs over the past six months. This increase also comes as the FAA’s SMS rulemaking is looming for Part 135, air tours, and manufacturers.

Operators are increasingly prioritizing a proactive approach to safety through SMS software to stay ahead of risks, AviationManals maintained. The industry remains safe but is always striving to improve, the organization added.

ARC provides a full SMS platform that can be tailored to the operator while automating processes and providing real-time insight into performance. Designed through collaboration with its clients, the program helps to reduce workload, the company said. “Increase in usage of SMS is a testament to our subscribers’ safety initiatives and how AviationManuals' Risk Assessment Tool conveniently provides what is appropriate for their operations,” said Charles Tresky, AviationManuals’ senior customer service success manager.

Satellite network operator Iridium Communications will pay about $115 million to acquire the remaining 80 percent of Satelles, a provider of “secure satellite-based time and location services that complement and protect GPS and other GNSS-reliant systems.” Iridium had previously invested in Satelles and owned about 20 percent of it.

While Satelles focuses primarily on providing its satellite time and location (STL) services for digital infrastructure companies, there are potential applications for aviation. Satelles offers smaller form factor devices that can be integrated with data processing and storage servers to provide critical positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) data.

According to Iridium, “The STL service utilizes the stronger broadcast paging channels of the Iridium satellite constellation to deliver precise timing information, which provides truly global, secure time and location signals that are one thousand times more powerful than GNSS constellations.”

STL could help mitigate GNSS jamming and spoofing, with dedicated STL receivers incorporated into aircraft avionics. “The most immediate application would be in aviation/FAA ground infrastructure to support PNT resilience in their networks,” Iridium CEO Matt Desch told AIN. “[In the] longer term, there would be an opportunity for avionics providers to build STL into their avionics to protect the integrity of the GPS signals their boxes use and provide a way to tell if GPS signals were compromised or spoofed.”

General Electric’s scheduled spinoff of its GE Vernova power generation business on April 2 also paves the way for GE Aerospace to become a fully independent company, completing the industrial giant's transformation into three standalone and investment-grade organizations.

To effect the separation, GE’s board of directors approved a distribution to GE shareholders of all shares of GE Vernova’s common stock. Holders of GE common stock will receive one share of GE Vernova common stock for every four shares of GE common stock held on March 19, the record date for the distribution.

GE filed a Form 10 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission on February 15 detailing the spinoff plan.

“Today’s filing underscores GE Vernova’s important progress toward its spinoff as an independent, global leader driving electrification and decarbonization,” said GE chief executive Larry Culp. “Our financial position is strong to support forming GE Vernova and GE Aerospace as well-capitalized, investment-grade companies, and we’re excited to launch them to the world in early April."

The AIN Media Group team will be at Booth 1706 at the Schedulers & Dispatchers conference on March 12 to 14, 2024. Stop by and say hello to our team, grab a copy of our publications, and enter to win a bottle of Air Vodka, courtesy of Air Company. News for NBAA S&D 2024 can be sent to Curt Epstein.