The Eco Caravan made its first flight on Friday, marking a key waypoint in Ampaire’s efforts to bring the converted hybrid-electric aircraft to market. The 33-minute sortie from the Los Angeles-area Camarillo Airport marks the start of a flight-test program that the California-based startup aims to lead to an FAA supplemental type certificate for its modification kit in 2024.
With test pilot Elliot Seguin at the helm, the aircraft took off at 7:49 a.m. PST and climbed to an altitude of 3,500 feet at full power. The pilot then throttled the aircraft to a cruise setting, reducing the load on both the combustion engine and the electric engine, after which he spent about 20 minutes testing the aircraft’s various power settings and observing temperatures and other sensor readings before descending back toward the airport in a low-power setting, according to Ampaire.
Ampaire will help customers source Caravans for conversion and estimates that around 3,000 in-service airframes could be available for upgrade. According to company CEO and co-founder Kevin Noertker, airlines have expressed interest in operating 1,000 or more of the converted aircraft.
To install the modification kits, Ampaire will use its own facility at Hawthorne Airport near Los Angeles and also a network of independent service providers. That includes Air France Industries KLM Engineering & Maintenance, which recently signed a memorandum of understanding to partner with Ampaire.
Four crewmembers are dead after a Cessna Grand Caravan 208B EX leased to Raisbeck Engineering crashed during a test flight on November 18 in Snohomish County near Everett, Washington. Killed in the crash were two Raisbeck test pilots that each had logged more than 10,000 flight hours, a flight-test director, and an instrumentation engineer.
The test flight was collecting baseline aircraft performance data before the installation of a Raisbeck modification. According to FlightAware, the accident airplane departed from Renton Municipal Airport at 9:24 a.m. local time, and the last data recorded on its flight track was at 10:19 a.m. local at an altitude of 9,100 feet and speed of 79 knots.
“All the members of the Raisbeck family are devastated by this tragic accident,” Raisbeck president Hal Chrisman said in a statement. “And while Raisbeck feels this loss deeply, we cannot begin to imagine the loss and pain of the families and other loved ones of these crewmembers.”
The accident airplane, N2069B, is owned by Copper Mountain Aviation, according to FlightAware. The NTSB is investigating and Raisbeck is not identifying those killed in the crash “out of respect for the families,” Chrisman said. “Raisbeck prides itself on a legacy of safety and is committed to cooperating with authorities on the investigation.”
NBAA has announced the members of its inaugural class in its audit-based Sustainable Flight Department Accreditation program. According to NBAA, the program provides a standardized way for its members to demonstrate measures they are taking to reduce their environmental footprints.
Launched earlier this year, the program—which was designed to promote industry sustainability best practices—is not limited to flight departments. The standard provides education on and checklists of activities ranging from sustainable aviation fuel use to recycling to minimizing energy usage. It includes four areas of action: flight, ground support, operations, and infrastructure. Applicants can register for evaluations in one or more of the action areas.
The initial accreditees include Mente (flight), Monarch Air Group doing business as Mercury Jets (operations), Netflix (flight, operations, ground support, and infrastructure), Steelcase (flight), and Textron Aviation’s Wichita service center (ground support). Several entities that wished to remain anonymous were also accredited.
"This is a pivotal moment for our industry’s commitment to sustainability,” said NBAA president and CEO Ed Bolen. “We are taking bold strides to drastically reduce our impact on the climate and meet our goal of net-zero flight by 2050.”
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Winch Design of London handed over a unique cabin design on a Bombardier Global 5000 business jet that features an art wall on the aft bulkhead. The design was part of a larger refurbishment on the 10-year-old Global, the owner of which was looking to create a “bright and characterful space.”
The art wall served as the starting point for the interior design. It was commissioned as an original artwork and painted directly on the bulkhead using fully certified materials. The piece is inspired by Japanese artist Kazuo Shiraga.
The rest of the interior draws the colors from the art wall. The seating was completely restyled using light-colored leather. Other features include embossed, stitched leather bulkheads and custom tufted carpet in a geometric pattern.
Cabin refurbishment was done by AeroVisto in Switzerland. Bombardier UK completed the interior installation and maintenance of the aircraft.
A recent in-flight tail boom separation on a Bell 407 has prompted the FAA's FAASTeam to issue a special notice reminding all operators of the standing FAA Airworthiness Directive (AD) 2012-18-09 to torque-check the boom’s attachment hardware every 300 hours. The NTSB’s investigation into the Hawaii air tour accident that seriously injured three of the six aboard is ongoing.
On June 8, the helicopter—registration N402SH and operated by K&S Helicopters doing business as Paradise Helicopters—crashed into a lava rock field near Kalea. The tail boom was recovered about 762 feet to the northeast of the main wreckage site.
The 407’s tail boom is attached to the intermediate fuselage with bolts, washers, and nuts that connect the four aft fuselage longerons to four corresponding longerons located at the tail boom’s forward end. Post-accident the operator elected to replace the tail boom attachment hardware on its remaining five Bell 407s. Before hardware removal, the operator torque-checked the attachment hardware and found no evidence of loose hardware, but eddy-current nondestructive inspection on the aft fuselage longerons uncovered cracks on two of these five 407s.
Several bulletins and ADs have been issued since 2007 related to Bell 407 tail booms with regard to the aft fuselage top skin and bulkhead, replacement attachment hardware and torque checks, installation of external strap doublers on the upper-left longeron, and repair instructions for cracked longerons.
A year after unveiling its Aperture, Universal Avionics said the visual management system “is now available for installation.” Further, the avionics manufacturer said it has an agreement with a “large avionics OEM” for the installation of Aperture aboard a new aircraft that is under development.
At the 2021 BACE, Universal Avionics unveiled Aperture, which uses multiple video inputs to deliver improved imagery on flight deck displays. Aperture processes eight video streams and can output them to four independent users, according to Universal Avionics, “enhancing safety and improving decision-making for flight crews and mission specialists.”
With near-zero latency, Aperture meets design assurance level A, the highest level of integrity in commercial aviation, Universal said. Ongoing development will add “more video/sensor channels, low-latency video aggregation and manipulation, and generation of synthetic imagery.” Eventually, it plans to use these capabilities to provide augmented-reality solutions, which could include “visual positioning, obstacle detection, taxi guidance, and traffic awareness to dramatically improve their situational awareness in high-workload environments.”
Cabin audio specialist Alto Aviation recently introduced its Alto Soundstage 25th anniversary Special Edition, an enhanced version of the company’s seat-centric airborne 6.2 home theater experience. The Special Edition includes Alto’s proprietary advanced digital signal processing and 3D digital surround sound, Class-D digital simplifier outputs, and Sinewatch distortion, channeled through six precisely positioned, integrated mid-high loudspeakers and two 40Hz subwoofers.
Alto’s post-installation on-site tuning process ensures every Soundstage audio system is adjusted to the acoustic characteristics of each cabin to create the company’s signature MySound. The system can be controlled with Alto’s Cadence cabin switches or Alto Cabin Control App.
“Our system is truly unrivaled, achieving over 105 dB, equivalent to a rock concert, using less amplifier power,” said Steve Scarlata, v-p of engineering/R&D at the Massachusetts-based company. “The focus is on the sound output, not the power input. It’s the ultimate cinematic experience for business aircraft, truly love at first sound.”
Alto Soundstage and Alto Soundstage 25th anniversary Special Edition are available at select OEMs, and also for aftermarket installations on Gulfstream, Falcon, Citation, Boeing, and Challenger business jets.
The Air Charter Association (ACA) announced the 2022 winners of its Air Charter Excellence Awards on Thursday at a gala in Brighton, UK. Companies and individuals were nominated in nine categories and winners were chosen through a combination of member voting and an independent judging panel.
Categories and winners for the 2022 awards are Handling Agent/FBO of the Year, Farnborough Airport; Aircraft Manufacturer of the Year, Bombardier; Executive Passenger Charter Operator of the Year, Air Hamburg; Commercial Passenger Charter Operator of the Year, Air Alsie; Cargo Charter Operator of the Year, Antonov Airlines; Helicopter Charter Operator of the Year, SaxonAir; Charter Operators’ Broker of the Year, Hunt & Palmer; ACA NextGen Young Person of the Year, Charlotte Rees of Fly Wales; and the Sir Michael Marshall Award for Sustainability in Aviation, Nicola-Jane Sellers of Luxaviation.
“The Air Charter Excellence Awards is The ACA’s flagship annual event, and it gives us the opportunity to recognize and reward excellence in our industry,” said ACA chairman Kevin Ducksbury. “New for 2022 are the awards for the Helicopter Charter Operator of the Year and the Operators’ Charter Broker of the Year, an award voted on exclusively by operator members of the ACA to recognize our broker members who are at the core of the association.”
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