Italy Gives Green Light For Piaggio Sale

Piaggio Aerospace last week received the go-ahead from the Italian government to seek a buyer, following a nearly year-long restructuring process that officials claim has resulted in orders and commitments totaling $919 million for the beleaguered aircraft manufacturer. “We can now launch an international call for tenders and accelerate the process for the sale of the company assets,” said Vincenzo Nicastro, Piaggio Aerospace’s government-appointed extraordinary commissioner. “Our goal is to identify a new owner who is interested in taking over Piaggio Aerospace in its entirety, and to complete the process by the autumn of next year.” 

The manufacturer and its subsidiary engineering unit, Piaggio Aviation, entered the restructuring process in December 2018. Since then, it has worked to fill its order book, which includes nearly $300 million in contracts from its engine and customer-support units as well as orders for new aircraft, officials announced at last month’s NBAA-BACE 2019. It added that many of those contracts are primarily from the Italian government sector, although Saudi Arabia’s Al Saif Aviation has agreed to purchase at least 10 Evos from Piaggio, which also was announced at NBAA-BACE.

A progressive recall of Piaggio employees on temporary layoff that began in September will be accelerated once government contracts are signed, the company added.

House Panel Approves Controversial Foreign Mx Bill

Despite strong objections from industry, the U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure (T&I) Committee on Wednesday approved a bill 39-19 to mandate unscheduled inspections and additional standards at FAA-certified foreign repair stations. H.R.5119, the Safety Maintenance Standards Act, further calls for record-keeping requirements and would prevent the FAA from certifying new foreign repair stations until the agency complied with the bill’s mandates. T&I chairman Pete DeFazio (D-Oregon), who introduced the measure last week, said the bill establishes one standard, regardless of where an aircraft is maintained.

However, 11 aviation organizations this week wrote the T&I leadership, urging them to scrap the bill, saying it would threaten jobs, hurt small businesses, disrupt air travel, and weaken the competitiveness of the U.S. aerospace industry.

The Aeronautical Repair Station Association (ARSA) called H.R.5119 “policymaking at its worst.” Noting the bill was introduced without warning late last week and passed shortly afterward without hearings or opportunity to comment, ARSA v-p Christian Klein said it would disrupt both air carrier and general aviation operations, add to the burden of regulators, and undermine global aviation regulatory cooperation. 

Committee Republican leaders pointed to industry opposition and said the bill “unilaterally imposes U.S. law on FAA-certificated repair stations in foreign countries, regardless of their compatibility with foreign laws.” Aviation subcommittee ranking member Garret Graves (R-Louisiana) was unsuccessful in offering a substitute during the committee vote.

New Space-Wx Service Monitors Solar Activity

To help mitigate deleterious effects on aircraft communications, navigation, and crew and passenger health due to radiation levels from solar events, a new 24/7 service began operations earlier this month to provide realtime worldwide space weather updates for commercial and general aviation. According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), the service creates and shares space weather advisories that are provided to air transport area control centers, airport meteorological offices, international OPMET databanks, international NOTAM offices, and aeronautical fixed service internet-based services.

Those reports are created using data collected from dedicated space weather monitoring stations in 17 countries around the world. Furnished to operators as part of their standard meteorological information when route planning, the service also provides inflight updates.

“This new capability will permit flight crew and flight operations experts to make use of the most updated information possible on any solar events which could potentially impact aircraft systems or passenger health,” said ICAO secretary-general Fang Liu.

Aviation risks arise primarily from two types of solar activity. Large solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CME) generate magnetic storms that can play havoc with anything that relies on electromagnetic waves: such as satellites, electronic communications, and the aircraft in general. CMEs can also increase harmful atmospheric radiation levels at traditional aircraft cruising altitudes and even ground level depending on their intensity.

Comments Sought on Las Vegas Metroplex Redesign

The FAA is seeking public comment on the draft environmental assessment (Draft EA) for the Las Vegas metroplex airspace redesign. The project proposes to use satellite navigation to move air traffic more efficiently through Southern Nevada. The Draft EA indicates the project would not have any significant environmental impacts under federal environmental law. The public can submit comments through December 20.

Key elements of the plan include implementing new routes that are “more direct, automatically separated from each other, and have efficient climb and descent profiles,” the FAA said. “The potential benefits of these routes can include reductions in pilot-controller communications, miles flown, fuel burn, and CO₂ emissions.”

Also included in the Las Vegas Metroplex redesign are new and replacement arrival and departure routes for McCarran International Airport, Henderson Executive Airport, and North Las Vegas Airport. Additionally, flight procedures for the following airports are being developed and are included in the Draft EA: Boulder City Municipal Airport, Temple Bar Airport, Triangle Airpark, and Echo Bay Airport.

The FAA will host five public workshops on the Draft EA scheduled between Monday, December 9 and Friday, December 13 to be held at various venues in the Las Vegas area. The workshops will feature informational videos and other visual aids that show existing and proposed routes and explain the inefficiencies in the current system. Agency representatives will be available to answer questions.

EASA Pushing for Recorders on Small Helicopters

The European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is recommending the installation of flight recorders on Part 27 helicopters, those with mtows of 7,000 pounds or less and nine or fewer passenger seats. In a recent EASA safety information bulletin (SIB), EASA said that although the recommendation falls short of a mandate, the agency “recognizes the potential safety enhancement that can be achieved through this equipment.”

EASA noted that light-weight flight recorders are available that meet less demanding requirements than crash-protected flight recorders. In addition, the agency has previously published standards for recorders. For recording equipment that does not entirely meet these standards, the recommendations of this SIB can also apply.

According to EASA, flight recorder data (e.g. time, flight parameters, attitude, alarms, pilot control input, audio, inertial acceleration) is “highly beneficial for the following safety aspects: operational fleet management, training, troubleshooting, data analysis, and risk assessment, and accident/incident investigation.”

The SIB concludes with EASA asking “all owners and operators of small rotorcraft, registered in the EASA member states, consider installing a flight data recorder.” Additionally, EASA recommends “affected TC and STC holders to include installation of a flight recorder as part of the basic rotorcraft configuration or as an option for in-service retrofit."

Russia Eyes Nighttime Airport Restrictions

Russian aviation authorities are considering imposing restrictions on nighttime operations at some of its largest domestic airports, according to recent statements made by senior Russian Ministry of Transport officials and local analysts. In addition, “noisy” aircraft may also be banned, particularly those of Russian origin.

An official spokesman of Evgeniy Ditrich, the Russian Minister of Transport, told AIN that nighttime airport operations already are limited in the majority of EU countries, and similar measures should be considered at Russian airports. In fact, the latest state initiative is in response to recent complaints from Moscow-area residents. Most of these complaints came after the opening of a third runway at Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport about three weeks ago.

The potential restrictions have already been criticized by representatives of three of Russia’s largest Moscow-area airports: Vnukovo, Sheremetyevo, and Domodedovo, which fear that this may lead to a significant decline of their traffic. Russian Ministry of Transport analysts told AIN that the new initiative may have the biggest negative impact on traffic at Sheremetyevo Airport. They estimated night restrictions could lead to a 35 percent to 40 percent decline in flights there.

Aviation Manuals Introduces SAFA Compliance Binder

To help operators flying in and out of EASA countries prepare for the possibility of safety assessment of foreign aircraft (SAFA) checks, industry manual and safety management system software provider Aviation Manuals has created a SAFA binder.

It describes the SAFA inspection process and lists more than 50 items that can potentially be examined when flying into or out of any of the countries with which EASA has signed a working agreement on SAFA. Non-compliance with many of those items could delay or even ground an aircraft. 

“Tire wear, hydraulic fluid or oil leaks, missing safety equipment for the cabin or cockpit, as well as licenses, updated manuals, and cargo manifests, are typical inspection items,” said company CEO Mark Baier. “We address each item, with evidence in the form of pictures and excerpts from manuals for instance, so operators can easily identify and demonstrate compliance.”

In 2017, more than 13,000 SAFA ramp inspections took place, affecting more than 7,500 aircraft. Aviation Manuals said incorrect fuel calculations and flight plans, operators not having a mimimum equipment list (MEL), and the cabin not being secure upon arrival are some of the main violations reported by its customers.

Honeywell Invests in AI Specialist Daedalean

Honeywell this week boosted its stake in the electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft sector with an investment in artificial intelligence specialist Daedalean. The U.S. aircraft systems group will work with the Swiss-based start-up to develop an AI-based system that will support autonomous takeoff and landings, as well as vision-based navigation and collision avoidance capability for light fixed-wing and eVTOL aircraft that does not depend on GPS.

Honeywell Ventures is making an undisclosed investment in Daedalean, which as of July 2019 had raised $12 million in funding. “Developing flight control software requires lots of flight data,” commented Daedalean CEO Luuk van Dijk. “That’s why the collaboration with prominent industry partners such as Honeywell is critical for us to speed up the development of our technology. We are preparing for the joint flight testing of our solutions for various types of aircraft and are excited to carry out flight trials on the planes we haven’t tried before.”

As well as supporting the operation of fully autonomous eVTOL aircraft in controlled airspace, Daedalean believes its technology could also benefit piloted aircraft. 

This story comes from the new FutureFlight.aero resource developed by AIN to provide objective, independent coverage of new aviation technology, including electric aircraft developments. For more information, go to FutureFlight.aero.

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