Safran and Uber are displaying a cabin mockup of an urban air taxi concept vehicle this week at NBAA-BACE. Safran and Uber collaborated on the mockup to provide guidance to companies proposing entrants into the emerging eVTOL/urban air mobility/air-taxi market. The mockup was completed by Safran’s cabin products division’s advanced design studio (formerly Zodiac) in Huntington Beach, California, using off-the-shelf interior components in the four-passenger and optional pilot layout.
“Safran has no interest in doing a vehicle,” said Thomas Lee, Safran v-p of innovation trends. “This is a co-creation effort with Uber to develop a common look-and-feel industrial design and passenger experience. If everyone cooperated and agreed to do that, then you get some economies of scale to bring the production rates up and the costs down, so the whole industry benefits.”
“We embarked on this competitive design challenge to imagine from the inside out what is fundamentally correct for the passenger experience for aerial ridesharing,” said John Badalamenti, Uber Elevate head of design for advanced programs. “This mockup embodies everything we want to come out of the passenger experience and operations at a skyport.
“This is designed to inspire the industry,” he said. “The amount of detail that was put into this is remarkable, not only in terms of keeping the customer first, but recognizing the constraints of air travel.”
Industry data provider JetNet issued its latest 10-year forecast calling for deliveries of 7,050 business jets (excluding personal jets and bizliners) worth an approximate $241 billion. However, the Utica, New York-based company, which presented its annual JetNet iQ State of the Market Briefing on Tuesday at NBAA-BACE, sees a mixed bag when it looks at the current business aviation landscape.
Paul Cardarelli, the family-owned company’s v-p of sales, said OEMs have healthy book-to-bill ratios with a backlog of $32 billion, a 7 percent increase from 2018 and the first increase in several years, but added many post-recession challenges still remain. Among them, residual aircraft values for many models are still down by as much as 40 percent five years after delivery, a paradigm that has existed for the past several years. “That is a new normal that I think confronts our industry,” he stated.
Another area of note is utilization, with the current number of cycles equivalent to the levels seen in 2011 when the fleet, particularly in the U.S., was a third less than the present. “We simply don’t operate our business aircraft like we used to," Cardarelli commented.
Those concerns are still tied to the oversupply spawned in the late 2000s. In that span, the industry went from an average of 600 to 700 aircraft deliveries a year to more than 1,000 in the ramp-up to the global recession.
In early 2020, Honeywell will begin delivering new Aspire 150 satcom terminals and antennas for business jet customers to access the Iridium Certus satellite network. The Certus network will allow data speeds of up to 700 kbps, allowing flight deck and cabin connectivity for accessing the internet, flight-plan filing and updating, downloading graphical weather information, video chatting, and emailing with attachments.
The Certus airborne hardware will be “the easiest broadband system to install,” according to Honeywell, and the system weighs less and uses smaller antennas than earlier systems. An available standard service plan offers the potential to lower airtime costs “as much as 50 percent per megabyte compared with alternative satcom solutions,” the company said.
In other news, Honeywell announced that it is expanding the availability of Sky Connect services, with a new push-to-talk service that facilitates beyond-line-of-sight communications. The new service is available for operators that use the Tracker 3A Iridium satcom. Another service that Honeywell is offering is more flight data monitoring capability for meeting mandates for collection and observation of data, the company explained. The Tracker 3A system can offload collected data on the cellular network via an available new cellular radio.
Million Air Goes Live in Austin
Million Air expanded its network last week with the opening of its newest FBO at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport in Texas. This new location represents the FBO network's fourth in the state and its 31st globally.
The gala grand opening and ribbon-cutting in Austin was held last Thursday for hundreds of guests, featuring a private concert by country music star Aaron Tippin, as well as a mini static display that included one of the remaining few airworthy Beechcraft Starships, in addition to a King Air 350i, Citation M2, and Bell 505.
Groundbreaking on the $40 million, 20-acre facility began in 2018, and the company began providing service from a temporary facility earlier this summer. The spacious two-story terminal has a 14,500-sq-ft lobby with elegant seating groups, wood and granite features, a marble-framed fireplace, and wood-beam ceilings, as well as private sky lounge bar, complimentary Starbucks-trained barista and refreshment bars, pilot lounge with snooze rooms and shower facilities, wraparound ramp-side balcony, flight planning room, and a pair of conference rooms with available concierge fine service.
The newest of three service providers at the airport, it also includes a 6,750-sq-ft aircraft arrivals canopy, more than seven acres of ramp space, and seven hangars ranging in size from 15,600 sq ft to 19,950 sq ft, each a stand-alone facility with independent secure parking and entries.
Bombardier Expanding Services in Teterboro, Van Nuys
On a mission to “bring our jets back home,” Bombardier is continuing to build up its support infrastructure, this time with line stations at the busy business aviation airports in Teterboro, New Jersey, and Van Nuys, California.
The new stations, which will bring the number of Bombardier’s line facilities worldwide to 11, initially will offer unscheduled maintenance services. Plans call for those centers to add scheduled capabilities in upcoming months. When fully up and running, they will offer services in areas frequently requested, including wheel and battery shops. Technicians will be onsite to support the suite of Learjet, Challenger, and Global series, including the new flagship Global 7500.
“This expansion is an integral part of our overall mission to enhance OEM support for our operators throughout the U.S. and around the globe,” said Jean-Christophe Gallagher, v-p and general manager of customer experience for Bombardier Business Aircraft. “These two new locations are part of an unprecedented acceleration of support offerings that include new mobile response trucks, aircraft, and more technicians across our network.”
Noting the Bombardier fleet is approaching 5,000 aircraft worldwide, Gallagher said the company has been investing heavily in capacity, customer experience, and parts availability as it strives to service as many of its jets as possible in house. “Our footprint is expanding rapidly.”
Thales Completes H145 Sim for New Texas Training Center
Thales has completed production of a new H145 Level D full-flight simulator for the Helisim simulation center currently being built at the Airbus Helicopters campus in Grand Prairie, Texas.
The $40 million, 23,000-square-foot Helisim helicopter pilot and maintenance crew training center is a joint venture of Thales and Airbus Helicopters. It will house new Thales Reality H level-D full-motion flight simulators for the Airbus H145 and H175 twin-engine helicopters, incorporate Airbus Helicopters’ existing training facility—including its H125/AS350 full-flight simulator and H135/H145 training device—and eventually include the simulator for the new H160 twin once that helicopter is certified and put into production.
After factory acceptance testing, the new H145 simulator will be disassembled and shipped to Texas. Simulation center construction, installation of the H145 simulator, and FAA certification are expected to be completed in the second quarter of 2020. Helisim is a joint venture between Airbus Helicopters, Thales, and DCI and is the main simulation center for Airbus Helicopters platforms. The facility operates 24/7 and has conducted more than 150,000 flight hours since it opened in 2000, training more than 2,600 pilots trained per year.
Western Aircraft Lining Up for Heavy Mx on PC-24
Western Aircraft is launching a program to provide heavy maintenance on the Pilatus PC-24 twinjet, the FBO and MRO provider announced at NBAA-BACE. The company has a long history of maintenance with the PC-12 turboprop single, with more than 145,000 work hours logged in the last five years.
Some 20 percent of big aircraft modifications (BAMs) on PC-24s have gone to Western, along with five 12-month inspections. As a full-service avionics mod center, Western is also currently installing the first-ever Gogo Avance L5 in-flight connectivity system in a PC-24.
“The amount of maintenance we perform on PC-24 aircraft directly correlates with our passion for the work,” said Kerry Heiss, Western’s director of MRO sales and marketing. “Our goal is to exceed the expectations of our PC-24 customers.”
Western currently has four factory-trained PC-24 technicians who regularly support AOG issues as well as handle work on the shop floor, and two more technicians are scheduled to begin training in the next 12 months, Heiss said. The charter fleet manager is now undergoing PC-24 training.
Also, Western Aircraft’s parts distribution center stocks thousands of parts, now including flight controls. The PC-12 has cable-driven flight controls and does not use spoilers for roll control. Western repairs flight controls either as needed or during regular maintenance events. Other parts in stock include FAA-approved line items, rotable components, and modification kits.
Hartzell Rolls Out Composite King Air Propeller
Hartzell's new, five-blade structural composite propeller is expected to improve performance for Beechcraft King Air 200 series turboprop twins. According to Hartzell, the swept propeller will be available from Raisbeck Engineering through its STC for King Air 200, B200, and B200GT. “This latest performance improvement for the King Air 200 series extends the longstanding and excellent relationship between Raisbeck and Hartzell,” said Hartzell executive v-p and general manager J.J. Frigge.
Constructed of structural carbon fiber composite with nickel cobalt leading edges to safeguard from foreign object damage, the propeller optimizes airfoil efficiency, allowing for a larger 96-inch diameter prop with less blade tip noise. It weighs 48 pounds less than OEM-installed propellers and boosts runway acceleration and engine-out climb scenarios with flaps up. Unlimited blade life is expected to lower maintenance and overhaul costs.
It is the first five-blade structural composite propeller certified on the King Air series. Deliveries of the propeller are expected to begin next month.
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