Flight-booking platform Surf Air Mobility (SAM) intends to go public after combining its business with special purpose acquisition company Tuscan Holdings, the companies said today. SAM expects the deal to raise around $467 million to fund its effort to introduce electric aircraft to the fleets of its partner operators.
The transaction, expected to close in the second half of this year, was announced just a few weeks after confirmation that an earlier plan for Surf Air to acquire MagniX’s rival powertrain developer Ampaire had been abandoned.
SAM’s plans are now focused on converting Cessna Grand Caravan turboprop singles to a hybrid-electric propulsion system being developed by MagniX in partnership with airframe modifications specialist and systems integrator AeroTec. California-based SAM said it will now support efforts to bring this modification to market under a supplemental type certificate it will own.
In a related deal, SAM will acquire U.S. regional airline Southern Airways, which operates a fleet of Grand Caravans, to expand the Surf Air network. It also announced a partnership this week with Signature Aviation, with the FBO chain making its facilities and services available, including sustainable aviation fuel, for Surf Air flights. Signature also intends to develop infrastructure for recharging future electric aircraft under this collaboration.
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.
Gulfstream Aerospace is expanding completions operations at its St. Louis Downtown Airport facility to increase cabinetry and exterior paint production for its large-cabin twinjets. The expansion will include the hiring of 140 additional cabinetmakers and finishers, upholsterers, aircraft painters, manufacturing and operations engineers, and certification inspectors, as well as additional support positions.
“We are seeing an extraordinary amount of activity across our sites to support Gulfstream’s current and future fleet, including customers new to business aviation and long-time customers looking to redesign their existing aircraft,” said Gulfstream president Mark Burns. “As we strategically expand our service network, we are also increasing capacity for components of new aircraft at sites such as St. Louis that have already been producing interior furnishings for Gulfstream Customer Support.”
The Savannah, Georgia-based airframer opened the St. Louis Service Center in 2017, which currently spans 11 hangars with more than 637,457 sq ft (59,222 sq m) of shop and support space. It can service large-cabin and midsize aircraft with U.S. or European registration under its FAA and EASA Part 145 certificates.
A consortium of energy industry companies led by SGP BioEnergy has partnered with the Panamanian government to launch what will become the world’s largest biofuel production and distribution hub. Dubbed the Golden City Biorefinery, the facility is expected to begin production in 2024 at an output of 60,000 barrels per day initially, expanding to a full daily capacity of 180,000 barrels of sustainable fuels, including sustainable aviation fuel—derived from purpose-grown plant oils and waste fats—by the completion of the third phase in 2027.
Engineering is already underway on the $7 billion facility, which will use technology licensed from Danish company Topsoe. These proven technologies have already been deployed in more than a dozen renewable fuel production facilities and have a total global production capacity of more than 650,000 barrels a day. Construction is expected to begin by the end of the year and plans call for it to repurpose existing facilities that are currently processing and storing 70 percent of Panama’s bunker fuel oil.
“Our country welcomes this biofuels production and logistics facility that will help Latin America and the world in the energy transition and contribute to climate change innovation,” said Panama President Laurentino Cortizo. “We are very excited about the 1,000 jobs this investment will generate for the people of Colon and Panama. In addition, it has the potential to stimulate Panama’s agricultural sector by producing bioenergy feedstocks locally.”
Flexjet has signed on to GE Digital’s Maintenance Insight software, making it the first fractional aircraft operator to use the system across its fleet to predict and prevent disruptions and reduce maintenance costs.
The system provides analytics that helps monitor component health to optimize performance and decrease inefficiencies that lead to excess fuel burn and carbon emissions. Post-flight, Maintenance Insight extracts full-flight data from an aircraft’s sensors, enabling operators to pinpoint reliability challenges and stay ahead of potential maintenance issues that might not be found until a routine aircraft inspection.
“Because Flexjet maintains its own aircraft, Maintenance Insight gives them a powerful advantage of proactive insights allowing them to predict and prevent disruptions and reduce maintenance costs,” said GE Digital aviation software general manager Andrew Coleman. “Our software uses a wealth of data generated by each aircraft to build analytics that provide advance awareness of potential component failure and unplanned maintenance, helping to prevent unnecessary time on the ground while also raising the efficiency of the maintenance efforts.”
FlightAware has developed a means to provide accurately predicted taxi times that account for real-time variables such as stand/gate position, schedules, and anticipated arrival and departure rates. Folded into FlightAware Foresight, the Taxi-Out Duration feature addresses the issue of inaccurately predicted taxi times by using real-time factors through machine learning models, the flight-tracking specialist said.
Traditionally, aircraft taxi times have not been well modeled because they rely on historical data and generic estimates. But using more accurate taxi time predictions can improve operational efficiency and increase sustainability, according to FlightAware.
Taxi-Out Duration can provide information at most airports, calculating the latest airline-reported gates and off-block estimates, aircraft type, time of day, transponder codes, airport position, schedules, and recent traffic rates.
Predictions begin hours before aircraft departures, helping crews better meet takeoff time commitments, as well as air traffic control slot times, FlightAware said. In addition, it helps crews identify when single-engine taxi procedures would be optimal for more sustainable operations.
“Taxi-Out Duration predictions are continually updated and provide significantly more accuracy in challenging dynamic conditions than anything else currently available, allowing operators to make smarter taxi decisions and reduce cost,” explained FlightAware president James Sulak.
StandardAero has signed an agreement to acquire EB Airfoils, a Palm City, Florida-based aircraft engine fan blade, compressor blade, and vane MRO provider. Operating from two facilities encompassing nearly 20,000 sq ft and with 50 employees, EB Airfoils is one of a few companies in the world that has been granted OEM source approval or source demonstration for the repair and overhaul of those turbine engine components.
The privately held company’s portfolio of source approvals spans Pratt & Whitney, GE Aviation, CFM International, and International Aero Engines platforms. EB Airfoils is in the process of receiving additional approvals through source demonstrations.
“EB Airfoils expands StandardAero’s existing airfoil capabilities at our Cork [Ireland], Kansas City [Missouri], and Singapore facilities to provide a more comprehensive offering of hot and cold section airfoils with immediate growth for our component repair capabilities for blades, vanes, and other cold section component services to our portfolio,” said StandardAero chairman and CEO Russell Ford. “This acquisition marks another strategic initiative to continue to expand our worldwide portfolio of MRO and component repair services.”
Azzera, a new provider of carbon offsetting and compliance solutions, has introduced services tailored for the business aviation market. Founded by business aviation veterans Puja Mahajan and Nick Houseman, Azzera is launching online services to calculate carbon footprints and roll out a transparent blockchain-based marketplace for trading carbon credits.
The company, which has secured a technology investor/partner and more than $1 million in funding, aims to become a centralized spot-trading carbon market exchange. Azzera said it will work with business aircraft owners and operators to manage their participation in compliance programs, including EU Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS), Swiss ETS, and UK ETS.
“We launched Azzera because purchasing carbon offsets is complicated but investing in protecting our environment should be easy,” said Mahajan, the company’s CEO and co-founder. “Today, there are more than 22,000 business jets operating worldwide and the carbon emissions per passenger are significant. Some larger business aircraft operators have integrated carbon offsetting into their business models. But for small to midsize operators selecting and implementing top-quality offset solutions can be very complicated. This is where we come in, by selecting and facilitating access to high-quality carbon offset initiatives.”
Houseman added business aviation is just the start for the company, noting, “In the mid-term, we will apply ourselves to a growing number of sectors. Any industry that generates greenhouse gases is a potential client.”
German navigation and sensor systems developer Northrop Grumman Litef has appointed Texas Aerospace Technologies as a distributor of its attitude heading reference systems (AHRS) and inertial reference systems (IRS) products. In addition to being responsible for aftermarket sales and marketing of Litef’s products, the Abilene-based subsidiary of Texas Aerospace Services also will develop supplemental type certificate (STC) programs to expand Litef's market share and enable more operators access to a lighter AHRS/IRS system in their aircraft.
“We see a tremendous opportunity to capture additional market share and fill the need of quick fulfillment by stocking these products for our customers,” said Texas Aerospace Technologies v-p Brad Sutphin.
Besides product distribution and STC development and certification, Texas Aerospace Technologies offers engineering and parts manufacturer approval manufacturing and kitting services for business, commercial, and military aircraft.
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Supersedes but retains the requirements of AD 2021-0156, which mandated a one-time inspection of the left-hand-side engine fuel supply hoses and any necessary corrective action(s), as well as eventual replacement of the hoses with improved-design parts. Updated AD requires additional re-tightening of the junction nuts of the improved part already installed.
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