Leonardo's first production AW609 civil tiltrotor made its inaugural flight on October 13 at the company’s Philadelphia facility, it said today. Designated AC5, the aircraft was one of three customer aircraft on the production line and will join the other three prototype AW609s currently in flight test. To date, the AW609 program has logged nearly 1,900 flight hours in the U.S. and Italy. AC5 eventually will be delivered to the Bristow Group.
AC5’s first flight test card covered an initial in-flight evaluation of systems and general handling. Leonardo said the aircraft performed “as expected.”
“This amazing achievement adds to several milestones for the AW609 program over the last year through its technical progress and during its public appearances,” said Gian Piero Cutillo, managing director of Leonardo's helicopter division.
Leonardo Philadelphia has been gearing up for the AW609’s entry into service, building a new training academy that includes an AW609 full-flight simulator and pilot and maintenance training coursework. The company said the aircraft is in the “last stages” of testing prior to FAA certification.
Wheels Up announced Monday that it will receive net proceeds of $259 million by mortgaging its primary owned aircraft. “We created some runway,” CEO Kenny Dichter told AIN. “We are going to invest in our members, operations, and technology.”
Wheels Up has concurrently been buoyed by record and quickly-rising revenues. Against that backdrop, the company also has posted large losses, which have amounted to more than $180 million for the first half of this year, and a stock that has lost nearly 90 percent of its value since going public in July 2021.
Dichter said that part of the proceeds from the new capital raised will be used to build a new 34,000-sq-ft members operations center (MOC) in Atlanta that will employ 350 people and be fully operational by summer 2023. The new MOC will be managed by Dave Holtz, chairman of operations, who joined the company earlier this year after more than 40 years with Delta Air Lines. Currently, the MOC is located in Columbus, Ohio.
Categorized as an enhanced equipment trust certificates loan structure, the financing will have a maturity of seven years and a coupon rate of 12 percent. The new financing and MOC are just the latest developments in the fast-moving landscape at Wheels Up.
Owners and operators of the Learjet 55C have a new flight management system (FMS) option—the installation of dual Avidyne Atlas units that allow pilots to fly fully-coupled LPV approaches. Florida Jet Center worked with Avidyne on the project, which required reconfiguration of the center pedestal to accommodate the EFIS mode select controls and the Dzus-mounted Atlas FMSs.
The modern Atlas units add many capabilities in addition to LPV, LP, LNAV/VNAV, and LNAV-only approaches, including synthetic vision display and a moving map. Built-in Bluetooth connectivity allows for the transfer of information between the Atlas FMSs and iPads running ForeFlight Mobile and Avidyne’s IFD100 app. Other features of Atlas include flight planning, radar and video display, fuel flow information, ADS-B In (weather and traffic), and other pilot-configurable options.
Even in aircraft with legacy EFIS avionics such as the Learjet 55C, Avidyne’s GPS Legacy Avionics Support connects navigation information through the VOR localizer channel, making it possible for active flight plans to conclude with a GPS (RNAV) approach.
The Atlas FMSs are equipped with QWERTY keyboards and touchscreen displays and meet TSO C146c. The price for the dual Atlas system for the Learjet 55C is $90,880.
Fly Alliance placed an order for up to 20 new Cessna Citation midsize and super-midsize business jets—12 XLS Gen 2s, six Latitudes, and two Longitudes—at NBAA-BACE 2022 on Tuesday. Based on list prices, the deal—which calls for four firm aircraft and the remaining optional—has an estimated value of more than $360 million. Fly Alliance plans to receive the first aircraft from Textron Aviation, an XLS Gen2, in 2023.
Based in Orlando, the company specializes in private jet charter, jet card membership, maintenance, parts sales, and aircraft sales and management. Fly Alliance’s fleet includes six Hawker 800XPs and this order represents its first Citations. The company’s fleet is based in Orlando, Stuart, Palm Beach, and Miami, Florida.
“The Fly Alliance acquisition of up to 20 brand new aircraft from Textron Aviation expands our product offering to our members and customers,” said Alliance Aviation Group CEO Kevin Wargo. “This is an excellent path to building our fleet size to 100 aircraft in the years to come.”
Virtual Engine Training Sets FlightSafety Apart
FlightSafety, the aviation training leader, has pivoted into the cyberworld, offering a new way to interact with components—through virtual engine training. Working with Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC), FlightSafety has developed cutting-edge training technology to view the engine, interactively, and explore it down to the component level.
ACI Jet is expanding to Van Nuys Airport (KVNY) in California following the acquisition of the assets of a small aircraft maintenance operation, the company announced today at NBAA-BACE 2022. The deal allows the FBO operator—a Bombardier-authorized service facility and Cessna Citation repair station, and aircraft management and charter company—to gain a foothold at one of the nation’s largest business aviation airports.
ACI’s initial plan is to base two mobile maintenance vehicles there for unscheduled maintenance along with full-time technicians who will cover KVNY and nearby airports in Burbank, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Camarillo, and Santa Barbara. The San Luis Obispo-based Part 145 repair station expects to add more mobile maintenance vehicles and technicians at KVNY later this year and next. The KVNY location also puts ACI Jet fewer than three hours away from additional parts, staffing, tools, and other resources, as well as its facility at John Wayne Airport in Orange County.
“A lot of our customers, including large fleet operators with whom we have long-standing relationships, have asked specifically for ACI Jet’s support in Van Nuys and we want to deliver on their needs,” said ACI senior v-p of maintenance Dave Jensen. “Basing vehicles and technicians locally will reduce our response times to virtually zero while bringing our repair station capabilities.”
Comlux Aviation, the completions specialist selected to complete the first 16 ACJ TwoTwentys, is now approved to provide maintenance on the bizliner. The ACJ TwoTwenty, which Airbus is marketing as a new category of aircraft called “Xtra Large Bizjet,” is scheduled to enter service at the beginning of next year, with the first delivery going to Dubai’s Five Hotels and Resorts.
Daron Dyer, CEO of Comlux Completion in Indianapolis, Indiana, said, “Our team here in Indy knows the ACJ TwoTwenty product type. We have been involved since day one and have accumulated technical expertise that will allow us to support the business jet.”
Comlux has been an authorized service center for other members of the ACJ family—both narrow- and widebody models—since 2015. The company also offers Comlux Tech, an aftersales support organization that will assist future owners and operators of the ACJ TwoTwenty with operational, technical, and crew-related matters that crop up during travels.
Just 2.5 years after receiving supplemental type certificate (STC) approval for the XP67A engine on Beechcraft King Air 300s and 350s, Blackhawk Aerospace has delivered its 100th pair of the higher-performance engine upgrade. “Our engineering team got this STC done in about 12 to 13 months,” Blackhawk president and CEO Jim Allmon told AIN. “For most companies that do a major STC of this size, it’s a three-year process.”
The recipient of the engine pair is the Red Bull Air Force, whose recently delivered King Air 300LW is undergoing several modifications and other work in Germany at Augsburg Air Service (AAS), which has been a Blackhawk dealer and installer since 1999. AAS managing director Florian Kohlmann said that Red Bull’s King Air also will receive Garmin G1000 avionics, winglets, a new interior, and additions such as LED annunciator panels and advanced exhaust stacks.
“Our goal is to make it the fastest King Air 300LW in the world,” Kohlmann said. “And it’s such an honor to work with this incredible team at Blackhawk Aerospace and Red Bull, who are supporting business aviation, sports, and passion for aviation around the world.”
The backbone of the XP67A upgrade is Pratt & Whitney Canada’s PT6A-67A engine, which after Blackhawk’s upgrades provides for a 60 percent increased climb rate, more than 332-knot maximum cruise speed, and 62 percent greater payload.
Aviation intelligence firm JetNet has announced that it has agreed to acquire aviation valuation firm Asset Insight, creator of the eValues real-time valuation tool.
JetNet said the acquisition is likely one of several upcoming transactions that will leverage a recent majority investment led by Silversmith Capital Partners, a Boston-based private equity firm with $3.3 billion under management. “We’ve had the opportunity to work with Asset Insight as a partner over the course of many years and know how strategic the company’s valuation and cost-of-ownership products are to our customer base,” said JetNet CEO Greg Fell.
“Asset Insight and JetNet share a vision to simplify and improve the overall aircraft ownership experience for customers,” said Tony Kioussis, Asset Insight president and CEO. “Decision-makers in the aviation industry use JetNet’s data and market intelligence as an essential part of their daily operations. We look forward to joining the JetNet team to help bolster its product offerings and provide even more value to our shared customer base.”
Requires a one-time inspection of the power return and chassis grounding cable attachment point at frame 37 and the attachment parts, and the modification of the Vapour Cycle Cooling System (VCCS) installation. The AD stems from reports of a burning smell coming from the air conditioning vents during the climb phase of a PC-12/47E airplane. Troubleshooting identified insufficient grounding of the VCCS compressor/condenser at frame 37, resulting in severe heat damage to the baseplate and adjacent metal support structure. It has been determined that this condition may occur on airplanes equipped in production with large oxygen bottle installation on the right-hand side of the rear fuselage. This condition could lead to an uncontrolled fire and consequent damage to the airplane.
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