Volume 2, Number 09 -- May 12, 2004

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

BULLISH ON BIZJETS?
It's the latest prognostication that business aviation -- and business aircraft manufacturers in particular -- are poised for greatness. "It" is a forecast from a Washington-based think tank/consulting firm, the Teal Group, which predicts substantial growth in demand for business aircraft through the next decade. But that's nothing new. Everyone from individual manufacturers, to the industry's trade association, GAMA, to the FAA is predicting growth. Put it another way: No one is predicting his or her job will be gone in ten years. The "news" is in some of the underlying reasons its authors use to justify their conclusions, as well as the differences between this year's predictions and those made just a year ago. Also, the organization making the predictions is supposedly more independent than the others. In essence, the Teal Group report says that demand for business jets could increase for a variety of reasons. Those reasons include an aging in-service fleet, high utilization rates among so-called "traditional" corporate flight departments and the explosive growth among fractional operators. Also of interest and impact will be the coming market entry of light-light, or micro, jets like the Cessna Mustang, the Eclipse 500, the Adam Aircraft A700 and offerings from other companies like Safire. The recently released report projects as many as 6400 bizjets worth as much as $92 billion in 2004 dollars will be produced over the next ten years. More...

TSA WATCH: STONE, ALPHABET SOUP MEET
In our last edition of AVweb's BizAVflash, we told you about the then-upcoming meeting between the Transportation Security Administration's acting head, David M. Stone, and the various organizations comprising the General Aviation Coalition. That meeting, held last Friday, was the latest in a series of more-or-less regular meetings between the security agency and industry. As such, neither its content nor results were earthshaking, but two items of interest to general and business aviation came from it. The first item has to do with a TSA plan to -- finally -- allow non-scheduled (i.e., general aviation) operations at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). The second involves release of the long-awaited set of voluntary recommendations the TSA and industry groups assembled last year. More...

NEW RAYTHEON STC COVERS BEECHJET, DIAMOND RVSM...
Raytheon Aircraft Services (RAS) last week announced it has obtained an FAA Supplemental Type Certificate (STC) providing a Reduced Vertical Separation Minimum (RVSM) solution for the Beechjet 400 and the MU-300 aircraft. The Raytheon STC upgrades existing height-keeping equipment to digital altimeters with data-acquisition units to meet RVSM requirements. Aircraft flying above 29,000 feet must meet domestic RVSM requirements by Jan. 20, 2005. “Our Beechjet and Diamond Jet solution offers a cost-effective approach to the FAA mandate,” said Skip Madsen, vice president of Raytheon Aircraft Services. More...

...WHILE FOURTH HAWKER HORIZON JOINS CERTIFICATION PROGRAM
Meanwhile, Raytheon Aircraft announced late last month that the fourth example of the forthcoming Hawker Horizon entered the company's certification test program. The latest Hawker Horizon flew for 90 minutes during the initial hop. At the controls were senior test pilot Tim Miller, co-pilot Ken Sasine and flight test engineer Amin Gulamhussein. The three conducted a series of functional tests with speeds ranging from 135 to 340 knots at 15,000 feet. More...

PRATT & WHITNEY CANADA RUNS ECLIPSE'S PW610F ENGINE
Pratt & Whitney Canada Corp. (P&WC) completed on May 4 the first run of its new PW610F turbine engine selected by Eclipse Aviation Corp. to power the twin-engine Eclipse 500 Very Light Jet (VLJ). The smallest member of P&WC's PW600 engine series achieved rated takeoff thrust (900 pounds) after only five hours of the test run. As a result, Vern Raburn, president and chief executive officer of Eclipse Aviation, said first flight of the production-conforming Eclipse 500 with the P&WC engines is on schedule to take place in late 2004. "We have a great partner in Pratt & Whitney Canada and are extremely pleased by the results of the PW610F development program to date -- the ability to achieve takeoff thrust during the first run is an example of how well the program is progressing." More...

DASSAULT FALCON JET -- WILMINGTON SETTLES WITH UAW
A new three-year contract between Dassault Falcon Jet -- Wilmington (Del.) and a local unit of the United Auto Workers labor union was ratified late last month, enabling both the company and its employees to get back to work. The settlement of a dispute resulting in the new contract ends a strike at the facility by roughly 170 workers. According to Todd McGahey, general manager of Dassault Falcon's East Coast Service Center, "It was unfortunate disagreements with negotiators led to many of the workers going on strike but we are glad to have this behind us. We can now fully focus on giving our customers the full range of services they have come to expect." More...

GULFSTREAM G450 DEVELOPMENT UPDATE
Gulfstream Aerospace late last month said development of its G450 business jet is "on schedule and on budget," one year after its first flight. The company added that its own flight test was complete and that tests leading to FAA certification -- scheduled for the third quarter of 2004 -- were well underway. Customer deliveries are expected in the second quarter of 2005. According to the company, four examples of the large-cabin, long-range business jet have accumulated more than 1250 flight hours during approximately 500 flights. By employing the four test aircraft, Gulfstream has been able to test and evaluate multiple aspects of the aircraft simultaneously in a relatively short amount of time. More...

SAFIRE RESTRUCTURES
Safire Aircraft Company last month announced a series of restructuring steps aimed at ensuring the completion and development of its Safire Jet prototype. The Miami, Fla.-based company said that it will reassign comes of the company's staff to new functions and create a new five-person sales organization. "We wish to focus on refining our sales strategy as well as continue to build our infrastructure, while concentrating our resources on first flight and certification," said Safire President and CEO Camilo Salomon. Safire Aircraft was founded in 1998 to meet the growing requirement for a new generation of light jets that will have far lower acquisition and operational costs than today's traditional light jets. More...

WATCH YOUR INBOX...
...the next issue of AVweb's BizAVflash will be e-mailed to you on May 26. More...

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

Have a comment or question? Send it to mailto:newsteam@avweb.com.

Today's issue written by Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside:
http://www.avweb.com/contact/authors.html#jburnside
AVweb's editorial team: http://avweb.com/contact/authors.html.

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Send it to AVweb's sales team: mailto:sales@avweb.com.

Let's all be careful out there, okay?