BIZAV ACTIVITY DECLINING, SAYS ANALYST
Bizjet manufacturers will ride a wave of record backlogs for a few years but the party might be winding down. David Strauss, an analyst for UBS, told the Toronto Globe and Mail that his research shows overall business flight activity is down 11 percent in the past year and that while that's mainly an indication of overall business trends, it's only a matter of time before it hits bizjet manufacturers. "Still strong order activity would appear to indicate a business jet market that is holding up well," Strauss told Globe business blogger David Berman. "However, as evidenced by our proprietary business jet survey and building used inventory levels, we believe the market has come off from its peak and is likely to fall further, although deliveries and earnings could continue to grow given unprecedented backlogs." More...

FAA FLIGHT PLAN SYSTEM CAUSES MASS DELAYS
Computer problems at one of the FAA's two flight plan processing facilities caused flight delays throughout the country on Tuesday. The FAA said flight planning for the eastern area of the U.S., normally handled at a facility in Hampton, Ga., just outside Atlanta, had to be shifted to a Salt Lake City facility that serves the West and that caused delays. The agency said there were no safety issues involved and radio contact and radar service has been maintained. It's not known how long it will take to fix the problem. Problems at the same Georgia facility in June of 2007 caused severe delays throughout the system. More...

GULFSTREAM OPENS NEW RESEARCH FACILITIES
Gulfstream Aerospace says it plans to continue to be on the cutting edge of business aviation technology and opened a massive new research and development center in Savannah last week. Two buildings encompassing almost 200,000 square feet and will accommodate about 700 employees. "The addition of these two buildings to our growing campus will allow us to maintain our competitive edge in research and development," said Gulfstream President Joe Lombardo. "Our engineers, using the many technologically advanced laboratories located here, will continue to change the future trajectory of business aviation." More...

EMBRY-RIDDLE TO OFFER AVIATION DOCTORATES
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University will offer two new doctoral degree programs in 2009, including the first Ph.D. in Aviation in the U.S., the school said this week. The new program will allow students to "pursue interests in aviation in a diverse, intellectually versatile and multidisciplinary environment and to affect a global impact on the aviation industry," the university said in a news release. The flexible, online program will require one week a year on campus and will take about three years to complete. The university is also offering a new Ph.D. program in Engineering Physics at its Florida campus at Daytona Beach, which covers topics in space physics, upper atmospheric physics, remote sensing, spacecraft instrumentation, spacecraft systems engineering, and control of aerospace systems. "These doctoral programs are designed to give both working professionals and research professionals the opportunity to pursue their intellectual interests through rigorous programs and meet their professional goals to prepare them to serve as our aviation, science, and engineering technology leaders of tomorrow," said Dr. John P. Johnson, Embry-Riddle president. More...

FIX FOR JT15D FLAMEOUTS
The FAA is following Transport Canada's guidance and has proposed an airworthiness directive to prevent flameouts on Pratt and Whitney Canada (P&WC) JT15D turbofans. The engines are installed on about 1,500 aircraft, including Mitsubishi, Beech and Cessna 500-series business jets. After a few dual flameouts of the engines, it was discovered that a fuel control hydro mechanical unit P3 servo can freeze up at high altitudes under certain weather conditions. More...

INSURER DOUBLES MOVE-YOUR-AIRPLANE COMPENSATION
When hurricanes threaten airplanes, all the choices for owners can look daunting. Forecasts are not exact, and moving the airplane out of harm's way takes time and money. But letting it sit and counting on insurance to cover the damage is also risky, and AVweb's Paul Bertorelli argues in a recent InsiderBlog post it's a bad choice for many reasons. Now, to make the choice to move the airplane a little easier, insurer AIG Aviation said this week it will double the amount of its hurricane relocation coverage on most light-aircraft policies from $500 to $1,000. "We understand that our policyholders' costs of protecting their aircraft have gone up; therefore, increasing this protective coverage was simply the right thing to do," said Will Lovett, president of AIG Aviation, North America. Avemco's Mike Adams told AVweb editor Russ Niles in a recent podcast that his company is in favor of relocating the airplane if that's an option, but added that Avemco bases its rates on the belief that in many cases that won't be possible or even safe. More...

AVWEB INSIDER BLOG: AIRPLANES AND HURRICANES
Why don't more owners move their airplanes out of a hurricane's path? One reason is that insurance companies don't expect them to. In the lastest installment of our AVweb Insider blog, Paul Bertorelli argues that this is short-sighted because it encourages victimhood and costs us all money. More...

AVWEB'S AIRVENTURE 2008 VIDEO ROUND-UP
This year at EAA AirVenture we brought you fourteen video reports over the course of seven days. We realize the news was flying fast and furious during the show, so just in case you missed any of our reports, you can catch them all here. (Click through to watch.) More...

AVWEB'S NEWSTIPS ADDRESS ...
Our best stories start with you. If you've heard something 200,000 pilots might want to know about, tell us. Submit news tips via email to newstips@avweb.com. What have you heard? More...

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...

MEET THE AVWEBBIZ TEAM

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

The AVwebBiz team is:

Publisher
Timothy Cole

Editorial Director, Aviation Publications
Paul Bertorelli

Editor-in-Chief
Russ Niles

Contributing Editors
Mary Grady
Glenn Pew

Features Editor
Kevin Lane-Cummings

Webmaster
Scott Simmons

Contributors
Mariano Rosales
Jeff van West

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