Signature Aviation has expanded its distribution of sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) to all 10 of its owned California FBOs, the company announced this week at NBAA-BACE. Signature began permanent supplies of Neste SAF at its San Francisco FBO through its Signature Renew program in 2020. It added several additional locations in the state—a hotbed of SAF production and use due to its favorable tax incentives—over the past two years.
The company is now stocking SAF supplies at its facilities at San Diego International, Santa Barbara Municipal, Fresno Yosemite International, and Palm Springs International airports, in addition to Los Angeles International, Long Beach International, Oakland International, Norman Y. Mineta San Jose International, and Van Nuys airports.
Signature’s 30 percent SAF blend offers a 25 percent reduction in lifecycle greenhouse gas emissions versus traditional jet-A. The existing agreement between Signature and Neste accounts for more than 29 million gallons of SAF over its lifespan. Currently, Signature distributes approximately 8 percent of the entire global production of SAF.
“Two years ago we announced our first permanent supply of [SAF] for private aircraft in San Francisco,” said Beatrice Batty, Signature’s director of fuel operations. “Since then we’ve maintained a sharp focus on investing in the supply chain, collaborating with our customers, and expanding availability with Neste.”
AINsight: Celebrating Milestones at NBAA 2022
More than 20,000 of us are resting our sore feet today, having walked countless miles in some of the dress shoes we haven’t worn since pre-Covid. But the blisters and soreness are worth it because we earned them attending yet another momentous NBAA-BACE—held this year in Orlando, Florida.
This was the first time BACE was held in the Sunshine State in four years, and it was great to be back. It was at this year’s convention that we celebrated so many milestones, including NBAA’s 75th anniversary and AIN’s 50th. Plus (and here comes the shameless plug), my own company, API, also celebrated its 50th year in business. And this week, my dear friend and API colleague, Debbi Laux, was honored with the coveted NBAA Silk Scarf award.
We can always count on NBAA-BACE to showcase new technology, along with the latest and greatest aircraft (hello, Dassault Falcon 6X and Gulfstream G800). And we also learn more about the critical topics of the day, such as sustainability, unmanned aircraft, and how to improve aviation operations.
But I was most pleased with just how many sessions represented the emotional intelligence side of aviation. Attendees had multiple sessions to choose from regarding diversity, communication, and leadership. There was even a topic on mental health!
It will likely be another six years before Daher is in a position to bring a hybrid-electric aircraft to market, according to the France-based company’s latest assessment of the EcoPulse research and development program it is conducting with Airbus and engine maker Safran. By the end of this year, the team expects to have started flight evaluations of the hybrid-electric powertrain using a converted TBM 900 and to have assessed all the lessons learned from this work in 2023.
Daher senior v-p aircraft Nicolas Chabbert said during NBAA-BACE 2022 that it could then be another five years to determine how a production version of the propulsion system could be integrated with either a new or existing aircraft. The technology demonstrator consists of six wing-mounted propellers, each driven by a 50-kW electric motor, as well as the standard nose-mounted Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprop. The electric motors will be used during cruise flight and the engine will be employed when more power is required and/or to recharge the batteries.
In addition, Daher also announced that it will now only use blended sustainable aviation fuel for flight operations out of its headquarters at Tarbes-Lourdes Airport in southwestern France.
Global industry fuel provider Avfuel is planning an overhaul for its Avtrip loyalty program, taking it into the digital age starting next year. For the more than three decades of the program’s existence, loyalty rewards were mailed to program members. That will change in the first quarter when Avtrip members can choose to cash out their accrued rewards either with a debit push to the recipient in real-time or by payout through PayPal.
Either method will remove the need for any physical form of payment such as a check or gift card. Aside from an initial account setup, award redemption will continue to be completely automatic for the rewards program, according to Avfuel.
“After exhaustive testing, we’re ready to make the industry’s most efficient and rewarding program even more efficient by leveraging modern technologies for annual payouts. We anticipate the extensive preparations we’ve undergone for this transition will result in a smooth process for our members and a successful update in time for the 2023 awards,” said Avfuel v-p of marketing Marci Ammerman.
Separately at NBAA-BACE this week, Avfuel and Sheltair announced the inaugural recipient class of their Future Takes Flight Scholarship Program, which was launched earlier this year. Six winners each received a $5,000 award. The window for next year’s round of $30,000 in scholarships opens again in December.
The relationship of technology and Corporate Flight Departments—Q&A
Join myairops for a question and answers session focused on US Corporate Flight Departments. Tim Ford, President of myairops, provides market insights in addition to providing a view on the challenges that corporate flight departments face and how a transition to a new platform could drive greater efficiencies.
With more than 1,250 business aircraft equipped with Inmarsat’s Jet ConneX broadband airborne connectivity system, the satellite network provider has been expanding its service options under the JX Evolution program. The first product under the JX Evolution banner is JX Edge, which went live earlier this month.
JX Edge offers “greater performance, speeds, and value for money,” according to Inmarsat. “We recognize customers are doing a lot more [online],” said Kai Tang, Inmarsat head of business aviation, adding that this includes bandwidth-heavy video conference meetings, “which is quite demanding on forward and return links.” To improve the customer experience, Inmarsat effectively doubled the return or uplink speed, he added, “to allow them to have a much better experience using videoconference capabilities.” These improvements were done without changing customers’ connectivity plans.
“Evolution is thinking about what’s important to people,” said Tang. “It’s not always just about higher speeds. People always like to focus on speed, but Inmarsat likes to focus on the customer experience.”
JX Evolution continues improving as Inmarsat expands its satcom network from five Ka-band satellites in geostationary orbit to 12 during the next five years. Next year, Inmarsat expects to unveil SwiftJet, which will deliver up to six times faster service on its SwiftBroadband L-band satcom network. Inmarsat partnered with Honeywell to develop upgrades to SwiftBroadband airborne terminals using existing antennas for SwiftJet.
The Air Charter Safety Foundation (ACSF), in partnership with AirSync and CloudAhoy, is offering a low-cost flight data monitoring (FDM) program to the more than 300 small and medium Part 135 operators that are member companies, the organization announced this week at NBAA-BACE 2022. This move comes as the NTSB has called for the FAA to mandate FDM programs on all passenger-carrying operations.
Through the partnership, operators will have access to AirSync’s hardware—a device the size of a smartphone—and CloudAhoy’s software at an annual cost of just under $4,000, ACSF president Bryan Burns told AIN. “[With] flight data monitoring you’re taking parameters, data points off the airplane,” he said. “So if you extended the flaps, overspeed, or did something, there’s several parameters you could be monitoring.”
FDM documents an entire flight on what occurred and allows users to set parameters that an operator exceeds. In such instances, a parameter that’s been exceeded shows up as a red flag. “A lot of charter owners, operators, and presidents ask the question, ‘How do you know what the pilot is doing?,’” Burns remarked. “This captures the data.” Three companies completed a year-long beta test of ACSF’s FDM program, he added.
Burns emphasized that the information derived from FDM is not meant to be punitive. “This is all about coaching. This is all about educating,” he said.
GE Honda Aero Engines has successfully completed the testing of its HF120 engine using 100 percent sustainable aviation fuel (SAF). The engine that powers the HondaJet has thus far been approved to run on SAF blends of up to 50 percent.
Ground testing was conducted on the engine over several days at GE’s Peebles, Ohio test operations center using HEFA-SPK, the most widely available SAF, produced from a feedstock of plant-based used cooking oil, waste fats, and greases. The results of the test were “very favorable,” with performance equivalent to that of conventional jet-A.
“We are excited to share one of the steps GE Honda Aero Engines is taking toward carbon neutrality based on our belief that reducing our impact on the environment is not just an initiative but an obligation,” explained Shinji Tsukiyama, the powerplant manufacturer’s executive v-p. “In addition to HF120’s best-in-class fuel efficiency, future use of 100 percent SAF on HF120 will further contribute to environmental sustainability."
GE Honda is a 50/50 joint venture between GE and Honda. Both companies are part of international efforts that seek to standardize industry specifications and ensure the safety of SAF.
The advanced air mobility (AAM) sector’s drive to exploit new technologies such as electric power and simplified vehicle operations presents huge challenges. At the same time, it offers great opportunities to companies such as Parker Aerospace to let their decades-long experience in complex aviation programs bear fruit.
One of the main challenges Parker wants to resolve is thermal management, dealing with the heat from electric batteries and motors to avoid dangerous thermal runaways. Through its Parker Lord division, the company has been doing this with existing civil and military aircraft. Now, it is looking to reduce the weight and size of the systems to ensure they will be compatible with the scaled-down architectures.
Eviation is one of Parker's first declared partners in the AAM space; Parker is providing electro-mechanical actuators for the secondary flap systems on the Alice electric aircraft. “We’re at the development phase, and it’s a great collaboration to design the safest and most efficient systems,” said Chris Frazer, Parker’s v-p for business, regional, and the AAM sector.
The newly acquired Meggitt business unit is developing fire-suppression technology. It also has expertise in lithium batteries that could be expanded and experience in producing electric brakes that could be adapted for new aircraft.
There might be more to come as Frazer said Parker has been talking to 10 eVTOL developers and two companies working on eSTOL models.
Packed parking lot. NBAA-BACE 2022 drew aircraft big and small, from the first-timers G800 and Tecnam P2012 to the AW609. More than 70 aircraft were on the static display at Orlando Executive Airport this week in tandem with NBAA’s annual convention that also drew more than 800 exhibitors and crowds to the Central Florida city. With special permission, AIN photographer (and FAA commercial sUAS licensed pilot) Cy Cyr took this photo among others, providing a drone's view of the static display. Thanks for going the extra mile to get these images, Cy!
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