Volume 11, Number 45b — November 10, 2005

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The Top Headlines From AVweb's Expanded, Illustrated News Coverage At AVweb's NewsWire.

THE FUTURE OF BIZJETS -- BEST YEAR EVER IN 2006...
Next year, over 800 business jets are expected to ship, a new record, according to a report by Honeywell that was released on Tuesday. "The industry is in great shape right now," Charles Park, Honeywell Aerospace's director of market analysis, told The Wichita Eagle. By 2013, bizjet deliveries should reach 1,000 a year, Park said. By 2015, the industry will have added 9,900 new jets worth $156 billion. That's in addition to sales of 4,500 to 5,500 very light jets, such as the Eclipse 500 and Adam 700, over the next 10 years. Robust sales are expected at this week's National Business Aviation Association conference in Florida, Park added. More...

...SINO SWEARINGEN'S NEW BIZJET SELLING...
Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corporation (SSAC), manufacturer of the newly FAA-certified SJ30-2 twinjet, already has piled up 295 sales, the company said last week. The orders add up to $1.5 billion. "Orders are accelerating into the stratosphere," said company spokesman Gene Comfort. The jet cruises at 487 knots and has a range of 2,512 nm. SSAC promises to have "exciting and spectacular announcements" to come this week at the NBAA show in Florida. The FAA officially handed over the Type Certification for the SJ30-2 yesterday. A full-size SJ30-2 is on display along with a full-size cockpit and interior. More...

...AVWEB'S SPECIAL NBAA COVERAGE STARTS TOMORROW
Despite an 11th-hour diversion from its planned locale -- New Orleans -- to Orlando, NBAA's 2005 annual meeting will be in full swing by the time you read this. The association is expecting more than 1,100 exhibitors, 110 aircraft on static display and thousands of attendees to descend on the Orange County Convention Center for the three-day event. And AVweb is there, too. An exclusive issue of our BizAvFlash will arrive in e-mailboxes tomorrow, with expanded NewsWire coverage coming this weekend. If you're going to Orlando, be sure to check the NOTAM. More...

ATC, WHO SHOULD PAY...
With the National Business Aviation Association's convention now underway in Orlando, the head of the Air Transport Association (ATA), which represents U.S. airlines, told a Canadian audience of airline industry executives last Monday that business aircraft should pay as much as airliners to use the National Airspace System. Further, slower aircraft should be segregated to make the system more efficient. Speaking to the Air Transport Association of Canada (ATAC) annual meeting in Montreal, ATA President Jim May said airlines shouldn't be expected to shoulder an unfair burden of the FAA's funding load in the new financial formula that would result from the reauthorization of the Airport and Airways Trust Fund in 2007. More...

...ATA: USER FEES THE BEST METHOD...
May said a system of user fees is the most equitable way to assess ATC charges. "The best proxy for use of the system itself is user fees," he said. Five days earlier, at AOPA Expo in Tampa, Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta said he didn't favor user fees for general aviation. However, he didn't define GA and that's where he and May might find some common ground. May said he doesn't believe non-business flights should be assessed the ATC fees his group is proposing. "Somewhere you have to draw the line," he said, suggesting that personal use of aircraft would be exempt from the fees. More...

..."INDEPENDENCE" FOR ATC NEEDED
May also said the air traffic control system needs operational and funding independence from the FAA and that likely means some form of privatization. "We need to establish a level of independence for the ATC system," he said, citing Canada's transfer of ATC to NAV CANADA, a private company, as an example. "It's got to have independence of action and thought," May told AVweb in a later interview. Jim Gouk, a Canadian member of Parliament, told the meeting Canada would be happy to help the U.S. make the transition. May also said the U.S. system needs to be financially independent. More...

RUMORS OF THE NEXT CESSNA
AVweb has learned that those in attendance at a recent Cessna dealer's meeting were encouraged to pore over Columbia and Cirrus aircraft -- but also were introduced to renderings of what could become Cessna's new aircraft. We're told attendees learned that the aircraft's basic design would incorporate a strutless high-wing planform built of composite material. Attendees were told the craft would be pulled by a 350-hp powerplant with speed, comfort and ... speed ... as high priorities. Rear-door entry was included in the design, as was fixed gear -- which would cut down on complexity and cater to the aerodynamic reality that, while at cruising altitudes, retractable gear offers precious little advantage over properly faired fixed gear. Plus, fixed gear generally incurs lower maintenance, insurance, production cost and weight penalties. More...

CIRCUMPOLAR FLIGHT ON HOLD, AGAIN
Aviator Gus McLeod had hoped to launch from Maryland this month and circumnavigate the earth via both poles in his single-engine Firefly -- but the effort is now on hold at least until spring. A landing-gear glitch had already caused delays, but now there's a problem with a thick yellow fluid contaminating the fuel system. "As of now, I do not know what the contaminant is, nor how it got there," McLeod said last week. "But its presence in the fuel system and engine requires that I partially disassemble the aircraft to correct the damage. Although this process is not difficult, it is very time consuming ... Fortunately, the Poles are not going anywhere and they will be there this spring." McLeod made a similar attempt last year and was turned back over Antarctica by weather and icing problems. More...

THE FUTURE OF ASIA ... BOEING PLANS TO DOMINATE
Boeing said on Monday it expects that customers in the Asia-Pacific region will buy 7,200 new aircraft over the next 20 years, at a cost of $770 billion. "The airlines will continue meeting passenger's demands for more direct nonstop flights to destinations around the world with longer-range, efficient and comfortable airplanes," said Boeing spokesman Randy Tinseth. The trends, at least as Boeing sees them, seem to favor Boeing's new products rather than large-capacity behemoths like the Airbus A380. Tinseth said the region will require aircraft in the 200- to-400 seat capacity category, "with only a few very large ones being needed." More...

AVIATION WOMEN MEET IN CHINA
"Aviation in China is, of course, growing by leaps and bounds," spokeswoman Abby Bried of the International Aviation Women's Association (IAWA) told AVweb on Tuesday. That's why the group met in Shanghai last week for its 17th annual conference. "They are in the midst of creating their aviation markets, from A to Z. And women are very much a part of it, holding very high-level positions in all aspects of China's aviation industry," Bried said. About 100 Chinese women attended the event, together with about 100 IAWA members from around the world. Speakers at the meeting included FAA Administrator Marion Blakey, Patti Grace Smith of the FAA's Commercial Space Transportation office, and many other industry leaders from Russia, Hong Kong, Europe and China. More...

"CSI-STYLE" LESSON TO HELP PILOTS AVOID FATAL MISTAKES
Pilots in Melbourne, Australia, will undertake a special "Crash Scene Investigation (CSI) style" training session this Saturday, aimed at teaching them to avoid aircraft accidents caused by bad weather. "The whole day is one long whodunit and why," said David Pattie, a safety expert with Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA). The lesson will re-create the investigation of a real accident that killed three people -- the crash of a Piper Warrior in 1999, which was caused by deteriorating weather conditions. "Pilots will unravel what went wrong and how the fatal accident could have been avoided," Pattie said. More...

TWO ON THE GROUND HIT BY AIRCRAFT
Bystanders are rarely hurt in GA accidents, but recently, two non-flying women were injured when airplanes crashed into them. Early Sunday morning, veterinarian Laura Pratt was driving to work near Houston, Texas, when a Piper PA-34 Seneca trying to land at an airport hit power lines, then crashed in the road, hitting Pratt's car. The pilot and his 10-year-old grandson were killed. Pratt was knocked out by the impact and is recovering from minor injuries. Last Wednesday afternoon, in Blue Hill, Neb., an ultralight pilot (now criminally charged) was flying above a high-school football game when he crashed into the field. Bystander Kathy Seeman suffered a broken shoulder blade when she was hit by a wing as the aircraft rolled to a stop. More...

HOLIDAY WISH LIST: 65 MIGS, PLEASE
For those in need of holiday gift ideas, a surplus MiG fighter could be just the thing. Albania has decided to sell off its aging fleet of 65 Soviet-era jets and resupply with modern helicopters. You can choose a MiG-15, MiG-17, MiG-19 or MiG-2, in various states of repair -- or disrepair -- some of them in flight condition. Military use is banned, but if you want to turn yours into a weekend toy, or a bar or lawn decoration, no problem. "If anyone wants to buy them, they are welcome," Gen. Pellumb Qazimi told Reuters. No prices were made public, but inquiries are invited. Meanwhile, a California woman is buying a defunct 747 fuselage and turning it into a house. More...

ON THE FLY...
A small cargo aircraft crashed into a Wal-Mart in Manchester, N.H...
A V-22 Osprey last month was damaged in a thunderstorm...
An ultralight pilot filmed migrating monarch butterflies....
A bird hit a Cessna bizjet at Austin, forcing an emergency landing...
DARPA gave $6 million to Groen Brothers for VTOL prototype...
NASA to help industry provide access to low-Earth orbit and ISS...
$10,000 reward for return of stolen Cessna T210, N210WX. More...

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
Drop us a line. Heard something that 130,000 pilots might want to know about? If it caught your eye, it will probably interest someone else, too. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. You're a part of our team ... often, the best part. More...

NEW ARTICLES AND FEATURES ON AVWEB
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COLUMNS
Say Again? #56: The More Things Change
There is a lot of new technology coming to aviation and -- amazingly -- to air traffic control. But that doesn't mean things will get better; nor does it mean things that already work OK won't get corrupted by the latest and greatest. AVweb's Don Brown steps back from the bleeding edge of high-tech in this month's Say Again? column.

More...

AVWEB'S BUSINESS AVFLASH
HAVE YOU SIGNED UP yet for AVweb's NO-COST twice monthly Business AVflash? Reporting on breaking news, Business AVflash also focuses on the companies, the products and the industry leaders that make headlines in the Business of Aviation. Business AVflash is a must read. Watch for a Business AVflash regular feature, TSA WATCH: GA IN THE "SPOTLIGHT". Sign up today at http://www.avweb.com/profile/ More...

AVWEB'S QUESTION OF THE WEEK ...
The lure of the airlines. Recent times have put the spotlight on some of the downsides of professional big-jet piloting. Do you still want to fly the heavy iron, or have you been won over by the dark side? PLUS: Results of last week's question on the closing of Potomac Airfield. More...

AVWEB'S PICTURE OF THE WEEK ...
Hmmm — "Picture of the Week" returns to familiar territory this week, with low submission numbers but extremely high quality. We received only sixty submissions this week, but many were Top Three contenders. After much deliberation, we decided to award top honors — and an official AVweb baseball cap — to Phillip Salter of Beaumont, Texas. But our runners-up are nothing to sneeze at this week. In fact, this is the first week in a long time where five of the six photos went into our desktop wallpaper rotation. Strap in and enjoy! More...

AVflash is a twice-weekly summary of the latest aviation news, articles, products, features and events featured on AVweb, the Internet's Aviation Magazine and News Service. http://www.avweb.com

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Today's issue written by News Writer Mary Grady:
http://www.avweb.com/contact/authors.html#mgrady
AVweb's editorial team: http://avweb.com/contact/authors.html.

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