PURCHASE OF SUPERIOR AIR PARTS SHAKES UP ENGINE BUSINESS
Aviation insiders are abuzz about what may become one of the most significant developments in the U.S. aircraft engine industry in decades. German-based Thielert AG has announced it has taken over Superior Air Parts, of Coppell, Texas. The $10 million deal gives Thielert, which makes two Jet A-powered diesel engines, an instant manufacturing, distribution and service foothold in North America, something needed to support a sales campaign for the fuel-efficient mills in the world's largest aviation market. "With its outstanding products and established brand name, Superior Air Parts is the ideal acquisition to help us enhance our market position," said CEO Frank Thielert in a news release. "Our acquisition of Superior Air Parts marks our final step along the road into the U.S.-American market for engines and engine components and the expansion of our presence there." More...

DIAMOND DELIGHTED
The announcement came as Diamond Aircraft, of London, Ont., is getting ready to ramp up production and sales of its DA42 TwinStar, which is powered by Thielert 135-hp diesels. "Obviously, Diamond is delighted that [Thielert] is taking this very significant step," Diamond CEO Peter Maurer told AVweb. "The timing coincides perfectly with our ramp-up of deliveries of the DA42 Twin Star to our U.S. customers." Diamond delivered its first diesel twin in the U.S. last summer and interest has been strong in the innovative aircraft, which sips 12.5 gph at 172 knots TAS. And while support for the TwinStar and other aircraft that have supplementary type certificates for the diesel is crucial for the success of this Jet A engine, there is open speculation (as Lycoming retires active crankshafts) that the step might be only the beginning. More...

CHANGES AT SUPERIOR AIR PARTS
In an interview with AVweb, Thielert said the diesel engine training center will be established in Dallas and parts will be stocked there -- but there's no immediate intention to distribute diesel engines and parts through the existing Superior network. In the meantime, Diamond, which is basically the only current and sizeable North American customer for the engines, is creating its own service network among its 54 dealers, with support and parts from Thielert. Thielert also downplayed any speculation about going head to head with Lycoming and Continental. "This is not our core business. We like that Superior has the IO-360 and we support them by making parts for this engine, but we have not planned to make further models," he said. "They will absolutely continue with the certified engine and the experimental engines. Where we see the advantage is to support them on the manufacturing side." More...

ADIZ-BUSTING PILOT PLANS FLIGHT SCHOOL CHAIN
If you believe that it's best to learn from the mistakes of others, Troy Martin has a deal for you. If the name rings a bell it's because the 37-year-old was at the center of one of the most infamous navigational miscues in general aviation history. He was in the left seat of a Cessna 150 when he and Hayden L. "Jim" Scheaffer came within a mile or so of the White House in May 2005. Martin, a student pilot at the time, said the incident showed him that there are big holes in pilot training, holes his company, Martin Aviation Group, hopes to fill with what he says is his new approach to teaching people to fly. "There's just not a lot of structure today with how people learn to fly," he told the Lancaster, Penn., Sunday News, adding that there should be more government oversight to ensure pilots stay sharp. More...

ENVISIONS A CHAIN OF FRANCHISED OPERATIONS
Martin, a "business consultant" from Akron, Ohio, says the fundamental problem with flight training is that it's carried out independently by hundreds of "mom and pop" schools scattered at small airports all over the country. His answer is a chain of up to 250 franchised schools all teaching the same comprehensive curriculum. Martin claims that economies of scale will make his model more efficient and reduce instruction and insurance costs. In a nutshell, his plan is to give students 49 lessons over the course of a year as they simultaneously earn their private certificate and instrument rating. His plans came to light in Lancaster because he plans to build the company's $5 million "world headquarters" at the Lancaster Airport and he needs the approval of local authorities. More...

SPECTRUM'S PLANS TO REDEFINE VLJS
For a company that came out of nowhere at last year's National Business Aviation Association convention, Spectrum Aeronautical LLC seems to be going places fast. Details are slowly starting to emerge about the company's all-composite Spectrum 33 prototype but the fundamental question of how the company can build a 400-knot, 45,000-foot-ceiling, eight-passenger airplane that weighs two and a half tons less than a CJ2 at maximum takeoff weight and gets off the ground in 800 feet (which we understand the prototype does without breaking a sweat) will remain unanswered for now. "It's a proprietary process," says Mark Jones, the jet's project manager, of the aircraft's construction. In a strange combination of circumspectness and unbridled enthusiasm, Jones says he's aware of the implications of this kind of technological achievement, assuming it comes true. "I know it can accomplish things that no other aircraft has ever achieved," Jones said. More...

NEW MATERIALS AND NEW PROCESSES
At the heart of Spectrum process is a composite material and fabrication process called fibeX. Rocky Mountain Composites (RMC), of Spanish Fork, Utah, has been developing the material for 15 years and all Jones will say is that it combines the attributes of hand lay-up with those of pre-impregnated materials and cancels most of their drawbacks. The result, according to Spectrum, has greater strength per pound than any material used for the main structure of any other airplane. "fibeX is a very remarkable material and it's taken an enormous amount of expertise to develop it," Jones said. Spectrum Aeronautical liked it so much they bought RMC (51 percent of it) and the development of the aircraft is very much a partnership between the two. More...

FAA LOOKING FOR TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT PARTNERS
The FAA is looking for private-sector partners to develop new avionics for use with satellite-based navigation, particularly the Wide Area Augmentation System. In a bid to spur interest from companies in developing the new devices, the agency is invoking a rarely used procurement method called other transaction authority (OTA). Under an OTA, the private company works hand-in-glove with the agency in developing new products and, once they're ready for use, the company retains all the intellectual property rights and can take the devices to market. The agency issued a request for information (RFI) targeting avionics manufacturers earlier this month. "The intent of the RFI is to solicit information from the targeted market to determine interest in partnering with the government to achieve these objectives," FAA spokesman Ted Urda told Federal Computer Week. More...

PILOT SAYS HE WAS A PASSENGER IN CRASH PLANE
An Ohio flight instructor says the NTSB is wrong to assume that just because he was the only one aboard a plane with the proper credentials that he was the pilot in command. Matthew Sullivan, 24, of Dublin, Ohio, was sitting in the right front seat of a Bonanza when it crashed a mile short of Rock Hill/York County Airport in South Carolina in July. "I was strictly a passenger," Sullivan told the Rock Hill Herald. There were two other pilots on board, including the owner of the plane, and both died in the crash. The owner, Dr. Bill Coulman, sat in the back and Eric Johnson, whom Sullivan understood to be an experienced ex-military pilot, was in the left seat. But it was an IFR flight and only Sullivan held the instrument rating. He's also an instructor. And the story could be much more complicated. More...

FSS OUTSOURCING A LESSON TO BUSINESS
If Lockheed Martin's experience is typical, don't expect private companies to be lining up in droves to take over any future government aviation work through the so-called A-76 outsourcing process. More than a year after winning the $1.9 billion contract to run the flight service station system, company spokesman Joe Cipriano said it's only recently cleared the bureaucratic, legislative and labor-relations hurdles that have dogged implementation of its administration of the system. "It was somewhat disappointing to have all the protests filed after the award," Cipriano told Washington Technology. "But it should not be unexpected, since this was the largest A-76 ever awarded by the government. It was a milestone." More...

KITPLANE BUILT IN 18 DAYS -- LEGALLY
Building an airplane is often a years-long commitment but Marc Cook took less than three weeks to take a Glasair Sportsman from the crate to the sky. The editor in chief of our sister publication Kitplanes was the prototype builder for Glasair's new "Two Weeks To Taxi" program that will be introduced at Sun 'n Fun next month. First customers will go through starting next fall. Cook, who took three years to build his last plane, a Pulsar, said the Sportsman process was "an eye-opener." Working eight hours a day, five days a week, Cook started on the four-place plane on Jan. 9, finished it Jan. 27 and flew it for the first time Jan. 31. "It flies beautifully," he told AVweb. Perhaps more important, Cook says he knows it's perfectly straight, properly built and safe. Cook will chronicle the building process in a series of stories in Kitplanes that starts in the August issue. More...

KID "WITH NOTHING" PLANS ROUND-THE-WORLD FLIGHT
Growing up poor on the streets of Miami, Barrington Irving had no reason to expect to set an aviation record. Later this year, however, he hopes to be the youngest pilot to fly solo around the world. ''A part of me is like there's no way I'm about to do this -- a kid with nothing, on an airplane worth $600,000,'' he told the Miami Herald. "Then a part of me feels like you waited long enough, you busted your butt. I've paid the price for this.'' For a couple of years Irving, who paid for his private certificate by washing airplanes and mowing lawns, has been hitting up anyone and everyone he could think of in aviation to fund his record bid, which he estimates will cost $1 million (including a brand-new Columbia 400 being supplied by Columbia at a "significant discount." More...

BACK TO WORK, BUSHPLANE STYLE
Ever see a plane on standard floats at an airport and wonder how it got there? Or, even better, how it's going to leave? Well, it takes a combination of common sense and air show bravado but, as the video shows, getting a water-equipped Beaver back to work in the spring is a fact of life for bush pilots. Hill Aviation, of Prince George, British Columbia, shot the sequence of the Beaver heading back to its natural habitat. When lakes start to freeze over in the winter, many operators want their planes hangared for the duration of winter -- for maintenance and to keep them out of the weather. The alternative to disassembling the planes and trucking them to their winter home is a visually compelling but relatively common practice. (See NewsWire for the video.) More...

ON THE FLY...
Game show host died in Angel Flight operation...
Parents died, kids survive New Jersey crash...
Blast ejects roof of ejection seat company...
China urged to encourage GA. More...

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
What have you heard? There might be something to it. If you've heard something that 130,000 pilots might want to know about, don't be shy. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. Our best stories start with you. More...

NEW ARTICLES AND FEATURES ON AVWEB
COLUMNS
The Savvy Aviator #29: Fix It Now!
If something isn't quite right with your aircraft, don't just live with it; fix it now. Deferred maintenance often winds up being more expensive, and sometimes it's downright dangerous.

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...

QUESTION OF THE WEEK
This week, AVweb wants to know how much maintenance you're willing to do yourself. Do you take advantage of provisions that allow pilots to peform certain maintenance tasks on their own aircraft? PLUS: Results of last week's hot-topic question on unions in the aviation industry. More...

PICTURE OF THE WEEK
Wow! Last week, we mentioned that photo submissions had dropped a bit — to less that 50 submissions for the first time in many months — and you responded with a deluge of new photos! We haven't had time to run an official check, but this is the first time we can remember "POTW" submissions tripling from one week to the next! We're so excited about this influx of new pictures that we're going to run a couple more photos than usual. So settle into your most comfortable chair and break out the reading glasses. This week's winning photo is from Carl B. Jordan of Port Charlotte, Florida. Carl's photo transports us back in time to 1927 for a 90-year-old lady's first flight. Good job, Carl — you (and your dad's photo collection) have managed to top a very significant stack of entries this week. As a reward, we're sending you one of our official AVweb baseball caps. Watch your mailbox! More...

AVwebFlash is a twice-weekly summary of the latest news, articles, products, features, and events featured on AVweb, the internet's aviation magazine and news service.

Today's issue was written by news writer Russ Niles (bio).

Click here to send a letter to the editor. (Please let us know if your letter is not intended for publication.)

Comments or questions about the news should be sent here.

Have a product or service to advertise on AVweb? A question on marketing? Send it to AVweb's sales team.

If you're having trouble reading this newsletter in its HTML-rich format (or if you'd prefer a lighter, simpler format for your PDA or handheld device), there's also a text-only version of AVwebFlash. For complete instructions on making the switch, click here.

Freedom, independence, responsibility.