Gulfstream Aerospace unveiled the G700 as its newest flagship last night at its NBAA-BACE static display at Las Vegas Henderson Executive Airport. Qatar Executive is the announced launch customer, while Flexjet is the first North American fleet customer.
Its latest offering combines the best features of its G650ER and recently certified G500/600, resulting in a $75 million twinjet with an NBAA IFR range of at least 7,500 nm. The G700 has a five-living-area cabin.
The two first-test aircraft (T1 and T2) have already rolled off the company's G650 production line in Savannah, Georgia, and are now undergoing several months of ground tests before a planned first flight in the first half of next year. Service entry of the G700 is expected to follow in 2022.
Though touted as an all-new airplane, the fly-by-wire G700 is actually a 10-foot stretched derivative of the G650, with which it also shares the same nose and wing. The jet also borrows the G500/600’s Symmetry flight deck, while adding a redesigned tail with lower height for easier hangar access, swoopy winglets, and new Rolls-Royce Pearl 700 engines.
The G700 will have a maximum takeoff weight of 107,600 pounds and a maximum fuel load of 49,400. Balanced field length at mtow is 6,250 feet, while the landing distance is 2,500 feet at an as-yet-unspecified “typical landing weight.”
For the third iteration to its venerable PC-12 single-engine turboprop (SETP), Swiss airframer Pilatus Aircraft unveiled a new variant that includes a complete redesign of the cabin, new avionics, and a new variant of the Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) PT6A powerplant found on the first two generations of the airplane, in addition to a single power lever. Pilatus introduced the PC-12 NGX at a ceremony last night at its NBAA static display at Henderson Executive Airport.
Under development for more than three years, the NGX began flight testing in December 2017 and is expected to receive FAA and European Union Aviation Safety Agency certification in December. Deliveries of the $4.39 million airplane ($5.37 million for the executive configuration) are expected to begin in the second quarter of next year.
Powering the NGX is the new P&WC PT6E-67XP, which features a dual-channel integrated electronic propeller- and engine-control system that provides full digital envelope protection, precise and intuitive engine control, reduced pilot workload, and optimized power.
On the flight deck, PC-12 NGX pilots will find what Pilatus is calling an Advanced Cockpit Environment (ACE) with Honeywell Epic 2.0 avionics and a new touchscreen avionics controller with integrated bezel contour grips intended to stabilize the pilot’s hand in turbulence. ACE’s standard safety features are a new emergency descent mode and tactile feedback aimed at helping pilots avoid unintentional excessive bank angles.
Jet Aviation is investing heavily in its global FBO network, which now totals 35 locations. Earlier this month, the company officially opened its latest hangar at its Teterboro Airport facility in New Jersey. The 40,000-sq-ft structure features 30-ft-high doors and can accommodate aircraft up to a Bombardier Global 7500. It brings the location up to approximately 270,000 sq ft of hangar space overall at the nation’s busiest business aviation gateway.
Across the country, the Zurich-based company expects to debut its new-build facility at Van Nuys Airport in California by the end of the year. It will consist of a 10,000-sq-ft terminal and a 43,000-sq-ft hangar also with 30-foot-high doors, and 8,000 sq ft of office space.
The Van Nuys location will be the first of the company’s facilities to offer sustainable fuel, via a blended fuel option, in a program that will evolve as additional supply becomes available.
Jet Aviation also has hangar expansion projects underway at its San Juan, Puerto Rico and West Palm Beach, Florida locations and plans to begin significant renovations at its Dallas-area FBO. Lastly, construction is set to begin on a new facility in Scottsdale, Arizona, after the company acquired a share in the Scottsdale Jet Center. This year the company also plans to establish FBO services from a newly refurbished 6,500-sq-ft, two-story facility at King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh Saudi Arabia.
Saab is at NBAA-BACE highlighting its commitment to business and commercial aviation avionics with a trio of new technologies that will change the way pilots fly and improve operational reliability.
The first technology promises to make Saab’s wide field of view head-up display (HUD) more useful by allowing pilots to land while viewing the runway from two miles or farther away. The technology is a new passive dual EFVS sensor that facilitates takeoff into low-visibility conditions and landing regardless of the weather, according to Jan Widerström, head of Avionics Systems at Saab.
In its first-ever NBAA-BACE press conference, the company also highlighted its new overheat detection system, which will soon enter service as factory-installed equipment on the Airbus A350. The fiber-optical system provides real-time monitoring of bleed air ducts with high spatial accuracy fault isolation capability. Widerström explained the technology, which can also sense pressure changes and vibration, can also be applied to fire detection.
Lastly, the company is debuting a new High-Resolution 3D Global Terrain Database for Aviation, which it has developed in partnership with MAXAR through its jointly-owned Vricon subsidiary. With a photo-realistic resolution of .5 meters all the way down to the ground, it claims to be the industry’s most advanced 3D database available. The product can also be optimized to work with legacy systems at lower resolutions if required.
With five development engines assembled and more than 1,600 hours of combined operation between engine test hours, GE Aviation’s new Catalyst turboprop engine is progressing toward a flying testbed for the launch application, the Textron Aviation Denali. However, the engine maker won’t deliver the first Denali flight-test engine to Textron Aviation until sometime in 2020, GE officials confirmed on the eve of NBAA-BACE.
Textron, which plans to use the Catalyst on its clean-sheet Cessna Denali turboprop single, had earlier planned to fly its first test aircraft by year-end. “Given the delay in the engine delivery, we are not putting a timeline on first flight of the Denali,” the Wichita airframer said. “Textron Aviation is pleased with the performance of the engine, and Catalyst development testing has met or exceeded the program requirements.”
Catalyst testing milestones include more than 1,000 engine cycles with hot starts and cold starts in temperatures between -65 and 125 degrees Fahrenheit. It also reached FL410 in an altitude chamber, and the first engine certification test—PT loss of load—was completed earlier this month. Two component certification tests have also been completed: GGT overspeed and HPC overspeed.
The Denali iron bird ground-test article continues to test Fadec and engine connectivity, avionics functionality, and aircraft handling characteristics.
All told, the company has three flight test and three ground test articles.
IBAC Expands IS-BAO for Small Ops, Building Database
As the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC) honors participants for reaching key milestones in their participation with the International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO) program, the Montreal-based organization is introducing a new option at NBAA-BACE to simplify IS-BAO registration for small operators.
Called FlightPlan Stage1, the program is an “an all-inclusive accelerated” pathway for operators with one aircraft and one base to gain Stage 1 IS-BAO in 90 to 180 days, said IBAC director general Kurt Edwards. Under the option, a credentialed program support affiliate will help streamline the pre-audit process for the operator. Once that is accomplished, the operator will undergo a one-day independent audit and continue with post-registration validations every six months over a two-year period.
FlightPlan Stage 1 will include access to the IBAC General Company Operations Manual (GCOM). IBAC formed a partnership with Washington, D.C.-based operations manuals specialist AviationManuals to maintain the GCOM in line with the latest IS-BAO update.
As the FlightPlan Stage 1 program strives to bring in new operations, IBAC is honoring more than 50 operators and auditors who have reached five-year, 10-year, and 15-year anniversaries with either IS-BAO or the International Standard for Business Aircraft Handling. IBAC also has teamed up with Baldwin Safety and Compliance on the development of a business aviation-specific safety database based on operators participating in the IS-BAO Progressive Stage 3 group.
Avinode is integrating its Schedaero flight operations system with the company's FlightBridge travel management platform. The company said the move will allow FBOs, corporate flight departments, operators, and pilots to seamlessly manage trip services—including reservations for hotels, cars, and catering—in one place.
According to Avinode, the integration of the two platforms will reduce the time it takes operators to copy data from one system to another by auto-populating trip information, streamlining workflows, and reducing the potential for human error. “This industry relies heavily on emails, and when last-minute schedule changes happen it’s a real challenge to keep all parties on the same page,” said Schedaero executive v-p Johan Sjöberg. “Our vision is to streamline this process and allow users to update their data in one place [so that] the rest happens automatically.”
Charter operator Latitude 33 Aviation has been beta-testing the new Schedaero/FlightBridge combination. “In FlightBridge, we love that we can find and compare different rental car companies with prices in just two minutes,” commented charter sales manager Shana Hoernke. “We can choose the best option at the best price quickly and then all the information gets pushed back to Schedaero immediately. During the beta-testing phase of this new integration, we have been saving at least three hours a week in time due to the reduction in duplicate data entry.”
World Fuel ‘Kinects’ on Sustainability
World Fuel Services launched a new service this week at NBAA-BACE that will help flight departments and FBOs minimize their climate impact. Developed in conjunction with sister company Kinect Energy Group, it will offer a variety of sustainability solutions, including the ability to purchase carbon offsets and competitively access renewable power and fuel, enabling customers to better respond to rapidly developing global emissions standards and their own sustainability initiatives. Kinect has worked with several airports in the area of carbon neutrality and renewable energy solutions.
Under the European Union’s Emission Trading Scheme (EU-ETS), Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation (CORSIA), jet emissions tracking is required and World Fuel can integrate Kinect’s expertise into its existing emissions reporting service, helping flight departments navigate existing and integrate new emission requirements cost-effectively.
For FBOs and airports, World Fuel can offer the ability to combine bulk fuel with carbon offset purchases and provide sustainability consulting and solar project management services.
“Kinect Energy Group’s deep experience in energy management and sustainability will enable us to create targeted solutions for our business aviation customers,” said Darren Fuller, World Fuel’s v-p of business development for business aviation. “We can quickly explore and deliver solutions designed to help our customers achieve their sustainability goals.”
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