Bombardier president and CEO Eric Martel underscored the company’s expansive plans for its defense segment in Wichita this week at Aero Montreal International Aerospace Innovation Forum, estimating it could become a $1 billion business.
While the number was characterized as hypothetical, Bombardier has long had a special-mission business. And it is well on its way to scaling that up under a U.S. Air Force contract awarded in 2021 for up to six Global 6000s with a potential value of nearly $465 million.
This work is beginning to fill space in Wichita that became available with the ending of Learjet production. After it delivered the final Learjet this year, Bombardier renamed its site in Wichita as its U.S. headquarters and rebranded what had been its Specialized Aircraft business there as Bombardier Defense.
Led by v-p Steven Patrick, the new defense unit occupies one of the former Learjet production hangars. But given the work already in the pipeline and possibilities on the horizon, Patrick outlined a vision to expand its footprint.
“We’re starting from this one hangar and we've got a couple of airplanes in modifications just now. If you come back here 12 months from now, you will see two hangars fully occupied. And, if you come back here in a couple of years, I'm hoping a lot more hangars will be fully occupied,” Patrick said. “We see great potential."
Business aircraft buyers regularly miss out on the potential tax, financial, and other advantages of leasing as an alternative to cash or financed purchases. Some owners may not know they need to lease their aircraft to comply with FARs, while others shun leasing as unnecessary or burdensome.
Yet many first-time and repeat aircraft purchasers use financing and leases or both for valid economic and regulatory reasons. The most significant leases used in business aviation consist of dry leases, wet leases, operating or “true” leases, tax leases, and financing leases. Amid these leases, one works like a loan.
A lease of a business aircraft under the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) generally means a transfer by a lessor to a lessee of the right to possess and use an aircraft for a term in return for consideration—usually hourly, fixed, or variable rent payments. The lessee is the party using the aircraft under the provisions of a lease, and the lessor is the party furnishing the aircraft under a lease. Most lessors pay 100 percent of the aircraft purchase price to buy and then lease the aircraft to a lessee.
A second production Gulfstream G700 has completed its first flight, the Savannah, Georgia-based aircraft manufacturer said yesterday. Fully outfitted, the long-range twinjet will serve as an additional testing platform for the G700 interior, including the maturity, durability, and comfort of cabin elements.
This second production G700 features a grand suite and newly designed lavatory with natural light, full vanity, and shower, as well as a six-place dining area with an expandable, self-contained table. The LED dynamic circadian lighting system—introduced with the aircraft’s launch in 2019—is designed to replicate sunlight and can be individually programmed for each of the aircraft’s five cabin zones.
“With its combination of cabin size and technological enhancements, the G700 interior presents an abundance of opportunity for customization,” said Gulfstream president Mark Burns. “As part of our goal to exceed customer expectations, we are testing even more G700 cabin elements to ensure interior comfort and reliability.”
In addition to two production test aircraft, there are five flight-test G700s. To date, 12 G700s are in some stage of manufacturing or completed, according to the FAA registry, which is unchanged from December. Certification and service entry of the G700 is expected in mid-May, about six months later than its intended completion by year-end 2021. The certification delay is related to a line-by-line software validation—a recently added requirement from the FAA.
Earlier today, a Guam federal district court jury found Hansen Helicopters and its CEO, John D. “Jon” Walker, guilty on all remaining 110 charged counts related to conspiracy; defrauding the FAA and the NTSB; bribery; aircraft parts fraud, causing serious bodily injury and death; falsification of aircraft registration; employing unlicensed mechanics and pilots; wire fraud; and money laundering.
Sentencing is scheduled for December 8, and a motion will be heard on Monday as to whether to remand Walker into custody. He has been free on bail since being initially charged in May 2018 and potentially faces life in prison. Additionally, the government is seeking forfeiture of all of Hansen’s and Walker’s assets related to what it charged is $400 million worth of fraud tied to the convictions.
The trial of Hansen, tried as an entity, and Walker, tried as an individual, was severed from that of other senior Hansen executives and suppliers. Proceedings began in February with a trial that were expected to last just three weeks but instead languished on a stop-and-start basis for eight months.
Garmin’s Smart Rudder Bias is now available for installation on Beechcraft B55/B55A Baron piston twins. The avionics manufacturer also announced fully coupled VNAV capability for B55s when equipped with GTN or GTN Xi touchscreen navigators and the G5 or GI 275 instruments or G500 TXi/G600 TXi or G500/G600 display.
Smart Rudder Bias adjusts rudder force to help control sideslip after failure of one engine. It also works with Garmin’s Electronic Stability and Protection envelope protection system to help the pilot control bank and avoid flying too slow. Part of Garmin’s Autonomi family, Smart Rudder Bias is designed to reduce the pilot’s workload and give the pilot more time during an engine-failure event while the airplane remains fully in control. That time can be used to identify the failed engine, shut it down safely, run the emergency checklist, and plan for landing at a suitable airport.
To add Smart Rudder Bias, the airplane must have a G500 TXi or G600 TXi configured as a primary flight display with engine indication system and a GFC 600 autopilot with the yaw axis option.
Garmin also announced that its GFC 500 autopilot has been certified for the American Champion Scout. The autopilot integrates with the G5 or GI 275 instruments, a GI 275 or G5 interfaced with a G500 display, or a G3X Touch system.
A Daher TBM 700 that crashed near Lansing, Michigan, on Oct. 3, 2019, was low, slow, and overweight, in addition to having a c.g. (center of gravity) aft of the limit, according to a recently published NTSB final report. The crash killed the pilot and four passengers; a fifth passenger was seriously injured.
When the turboprop single took off about an hour before the accident on a Part 91 IFR business flight, it was some 232 pounds over mtow and about 2.53 inches beyond the aft c.g. limit. At impact, the airplane was estimated to be 126 pounds over the maximum landing weight and 2.95 inches past the aft c.g. limit while on an approach to Lansing Capital Region International Airport (KLAN).
According to ADS-B data, the airplane’s speed dropped from 166 knots at the final approach fix to 84 knots a half-mile out to 74 knots when it entered a shallow climb and left turn before stalling and impacting a field. “Based on the configuration of the airplane at the accident site, the pilot likely was retracting the landing gear and flaps for a go-around when the airplane stalled,” the NTSB concluded.
The NTSB determined that the aircraft's excessive weight and aft c.g. would have made it “unstable and difficult to recover” from a stall.
The Air Charter Association (ACA) announced on Twitter today that it is postponing the Air Charter Expo (ACE) to September 27 following the death Thursday of Queen Elizabeth II. Hosted by the ACA, Business Air News, and London Biggin Hill Airport, the event was originally set for September 13. Registration for the event remains open.
ACA said earlier this week that there are a record number of pre-registered attendees and exhibitors for this year’s ACE, with more than 80 booth exhibits and a selection of aircraft on static display. The conference program will feature sessions on the latest developments in charter operations, including passenger, cargo, and helicopter operations, as well as a presentation on safe single-engine turbine operations. Other sessions will focus on the ACA broker qualification, eVTOL developments, and the ACA’s guide to offsetting carbon emissions.
“ACE’22 offers fantastic business and networking opportunities, where ACA members can gather to meet each other and industry associates, step aboard the latest charter aircraft and enjoy invaluable conference sessions, all in one location,” said ACA chairman Kevin Ducksbury.
Walt Disney’s former Gulfstream I will go on display at California’s Palm Springs Air Museum following its exhibit in Anaheim at this weekend’s annual D23 Expo.
The twin turboprop that Disney acquired in 1963 flew 277,282 miles back and forth across the country, carrying Walt Disney and his staff before and during the 1964 New York World’s Fair. Additionally, it flew scouting missions to find a suitable location for his Florida theme park that would become Walt Disney World.
Known as The Mouse, the Gulfstream registered as N234MM was in use by the company for 28 years, racking up 20,000 flight hours before it landed in Orlando, Florida, on its final flight and became part of a backlot tour at Disney World. For its first return to California since 1992, the newly-repainted aircraft was recently trucked across the country to its D23 display at the Anaheim Convention Center.
“We are so happy to have Walt’s plane make a ‘landing’ at the Palm Springs Air Museum, just a few miles from where Walt and his family had vacation homes at Smoke Tree Ranch,” said Rebecca Cline, director of the Walt Disney Archives. On long-term loan, The Mouse will be the centerpiece of an exhibit that will open on December 5, Walt Disney’s birthday, highlighting its history and significance to the company.
Photo of the Week
Double take. Ken Mumford submitted this photo of a Bombardier Challenger 601 taken from inside an FBO in Calgary, Canada. A mirror on one wall made for a perfect “push me, pull you” photo, as Ken put it. It gave us all a double take. Thanks for sharing, Ken!
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