ECLIPSE HOPES TO BUILD USAF TRAINERS
The U.S. Air Force may be looking for a fleet of new very-light jets to replace its current fleet of basic training aircraft, and Eclipse Aerospace said this week it wants to build them. The jets would be used by about 700 students per year in the USAF Specialized Undergraduate Pilot Training Multi-place Training Track. "Our solution would save the Air Force over a billion dollars over the next 10 years, in fuel, maintenance and training costs," Eclipse CEO Mason Holland told AVweb on Monday. Holland said he has met with senior Air Force leaders and the company's proposal is "fully responsive to the Air Force's request." More...

'BONUS' DEPRECIATION BACK FOR 2013
The "fiscal cliff" act that was signed into law last week will extend 50-percent bonus depreciation through the end of this year for buyers of new business aircraft, the National Business Aviation Association said. "Accelerated depreciation has consistently proven to stimulate sales in difficult economic conditions," said NBAA President Ed Bolen. "Given the current marketing environment, we view the continuation of accelerated depreciation as an effective sales incentive." The provision doesn't provide any extra depreciation for aircraft owners, but allows them to capitalize on the tax benefits more quickly by writing off 50 percent of the cost of the airplane in the first year of ownership. More...

HAWKER BEECH REACHES PENSION AGREEMENT
Hawker Beechcraft has reached an agreement with the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. to take over two underfunded pension plans covering existing non-union and already-retired employees. Under the deal, the company, which hopes to exit bankruptcy protection in the next few months, will continue to fund the pension plan for its current and former unionized employees. As part of the deal, the International Association of Machinist and Aerospace Workers agreed to allow the company to freeze the pension plan but details of the freeze were not immediately released. The deal will have to be approved by the bankruptcy court and is scheduled to be considered Jan. 17. More...

CHINESE 787s DELAYED
China has still not certified the Boeing 787 and it's delaying delivery of aircraft to Chinese airlines. According to Reuters the Chinese government says the approval process is going "smoothly" but at least one airline has had its delivery date pushed back. China Southern Airlines was supposed to get the first of 10 Dreamliners in 2012 and Hainan Airlines was expecting five planes last year. Chinese airlines have ordered a total of 35 Dreamliners and there's a tentative deal for another six. More...

787 FIRE TRACED TO APU BATTERY
A smoky fire in a Boeing 787 parked at Logan Airport in Boston Monday morning started with a battery in the almost-new aircraft's auxiliary power unit, local fire officials said. The Japan Airlines 787 had been in service less than a month. Passengers disembarked after the nonstop flight from Tokyo arrived at about 10 a.m., and a mechanic reported smoke in the cabin about 15 minutes later. When airport fire crews arrived they found heavy smoke in the cabin and flames in the battery compartment. The fire was extinguished and nobody was hurt. The FAA said it will "look into" the event, and the NTSB has dispatched an investigator to the site. More...

NICHOLS PROMOTED AT AERION

Doug Nichols

Doug Nichols has been named CEO and board member of Aerion Corporation. He was previously the COO and before that worked for Boeing in a variety of senior management positions.
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KLABER HIRED AT AERO CHARTER

Chris Klaber

Chris Klaber has been taken on as a pilot at Aero Charter in St. Louis. He's captain on their Beech Baron and TBM aircraft and first officer on King Airs and Citations.
More...

THRASH TAKES OVER AIR ZOO

Troy Thrash

Air Zoo, the aviation museum at Kalamazoo, Michigan, has hired Troy Thrash as president and CEO. He replaces long-time CEO Bob Ellis, who is retiring after 35 years. Thrash is now the executive director of the Da Vinci Science Center in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
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WHO'S WHERE? YOU TELL US
Get a promotion or a new job? Your colleagues want to know about it, and AVwebBiz can get the word out. Drop us a line about the staff appointment, with a nice recent photo, and we'll do our best to include it in our new section, "Who's Where." The items will be permanently archived on AVweb for future reference, too. More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: SHOULD WE HAVE PUBLISHED THE DORNIER SKYDIVE VIDEO?
At AVweb, we publish all kinds of videos and stories about aviation events that might be outside the norm. Sometimes way outside the norm. Says Paul Bertorelli on the AVweb Insider blog, the one of the hair-on-fire descent in the skydiving Dornier twin deserved reproach, not awe. But that doesn't mean AVweb viewers shouldn't see it. Read more and join the conversation. More...

BRAINTEASERS QUIZ #179: A LITTLE THIS, A LITTLE THAT
FAROS, RWSL, RAIM, GNSS, NOTAM -- these words are not in Hobbit language or some weird FAA anagram that, when unscrambled, portends the end of over-priced avgas. Instead, they are samplings of what well-traveled pilots encounter daily and what -- now -- you must identify. (Includes results of last month's reader survey about the dumbest things in aviation.)

Take the quiz. More...

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
Our best stories start with you. If you've heard something 255,000 pilots might want to know about, tell us. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. What have you heard? More...

VIDEO: MEET MID-CONTINENT'S SAM
As much as we love them, iron gyros are on their way to the scrap heap of history. They're even losing their value as backup instruments to glass panels now that glass itself has become more reliable and affordable enough to replace even analog backup devices. In this new video from AVweb, Aviation Consumer's Larry Anglisano examines a new product from Mid-Continent Instruments and Avonics called the SAM. It fits into a small space on the panel and can be backed up with its own lithium-ion battery. Installation considerations are mimimal, but here's a close look at how the instrument looks and performs. More...

MEET THE AVWEBBIZ TEAM

AVwebBiz is a weekly summary of the latest business aviation news, articles, products, features, and events featured on AVweb, the world's premier independent aviation news resource.

The AVwebBiz team is:

Publisher
Tom Bliss

Editorial Director, Aviation Publications
Paul Bertorelli

Editor-in-Chief
Russ Niles

Webmaster
Scott Simmons

Contributing Editors
Mary Grady
Glenn Pew

Contributors
Kevin Lane-Cummings

Ad Coordinator
Karen Lund

Avionics Editor
Larry Anglisano

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