Volume 3, Number 14 — August 31, 2005

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

NBAA: EVALUATING HURRICANE KATRINA'S IMPACT ON NEW ORLEANS
News reports coming from New Orleans, La., yesterday describing the damage wreaked by Hurricane Katrina are painting a grim, bleak picture for one of America's most dynamic cities and -- most importantly -- for her residents. Sadly, those same reports indicate the worst of the storm's horrific damage is not yet known; it may be months before an accurate assessment of Katrina's impact on the region is fully understood. And Katrina could affect the business aviation industry as well: The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) plans to hold its 2005 Annual Meeting and Convention in New Orleans, Nov. 15 through 17. In a statement released yesterday, the association said it "intends to make every effort to try to move forward and assist in the economic recovery of the region" while it assesses the storm's impact. More...

GROB UPDATE: SPN JET COMPLETES FIRST FLIGHT...
Germany-based GROB Aerospace continues to develop its SPn Utility Jet after its public unveiling at this summer's Paris Air Show and recently announced the prototype's first flight, a 66-minute affair in which initial handling tests and system checks were performed. Capt. Gerard Guillaumaud and co-test pilot Tore Reimers commanded the aircraft, which now enters into the flight-test stage of its development program after a test airframe successfully passed a program of full strength testing on the fuselage and wing required for certification. According to Guillaumaud, the aircraft performed satisfactorily and he added, “During the flight, all systems and controls performed as expected. The aircraft was easy to handle and was a pleasure to fly.” The flight was the first of many; the company’s flight-test program is planned so that the aircraft's operating envelope is fully expanded by the fourth quarter of 2005. More...

...WHILE LONG-RANGE, HIGH-ALTITUDE VERSION CONSIDERED...
Even before GROB's SPn Utility Jet is certified, the company says it is considering a high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) version, for government and military surveillance applications. GROB, which has significant experience designing and building aerodynamically efficient sailplanes and motorgliders, has dubbed the proposed variant of the SPn as the "G 600." The company considers the G 600 a "next logical step," combining GROB´s experience with building high-altitude surveillance aircraft with the new SPn Utility Jet. According to GROB, the jet's design features, including a composite fuselage and existing titanium wing attachments, make adapting the aircraft for high-altitude missions "both feasible and practical." More...

...AND RANGER G 160 DEVELOPMENT CONTINUES
GROB is also putting the finishing touches on a new single-engine turboprop, the G 160. First announced at 2003's Paris Air Show, the all-composite, seven-seat G 160 made is first flight on March 29, 2004, and has progressed through flight testing -- including a series of more than 180 spins in 13 different configurations. As of April 2005, the GROB Ranger G 160 had logged some 60 flight hours in 105 test missions and accumulated 165 takeoffs and landings. A lone Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A-42A engine, flat-rated to 850 shp, powers this growth version of the company's G 120 and four-seat G 140TP singles. More...

ALL ECLIPSE TEST AIRCRAFT FLYING NOW...
Eclipse Aviation last week announced the first flight of its fifth and final flight-test aircraft, N506EA. The aircraft is the company's fifth conforming flight-test aircraft and the second of its two beta test jets under the Eclipse 500 very light jet (VLJ) development program, which the company says is still on track for certification next March, followed closely by customer deliveries. Eclipse says N506EA will be used extensively for function and reliability testing under accelerated usage conditions. “We now have all five of our FAA-conforming flight test aircraft in various stages of flight testing and will be building flight hours at an unprecedented rate over the coming months,” said Eclipse Aviation President and CEO Vern Raburn. More...

...WHILE ECLIPSE RAMPS UP MANUFACTURING CAPACITY
With all signs pointing to the company achieving its goal of obtaining FAA certification by March 2006, Eclipse Aviation is also starting to put the finishing touches on its manufacturing logistics. Earlier this month, the company announced a training partnership with Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell (ENMU-Roswell) and Albuquerque Technical Vocational Institute (TVI) designed to prepare a potential workforce for entry-level aviation manufacturing positions. Classes at the two facilities include assembly and installation techniques, tool usage, blueprint reading and theory of flight and safety. “We are on track to start delivering Eclipse 500s to customers early in 2006 and will need to increase our team with many qualified manufacturing employees over the coming years,” said Eclipse Aviation President and CEO Vern Raburn. More...

ECLIPSE, OURPLANE ANNOUNCE FRACTIONAL ORDER
All of which is a good thing, if the anticipated demand for Eclipse 500s materializes. Already, Eclipse boasts more than 2,200 orders, secured with non-refundable deposits. Most recently, OurPLANE Inc., a leading player in fractional ownership of general aviation aircraft -- as opposed to business jets and turboprops -- announced an order for as many as 20 Eclipse 500s. The agreement, which is the operator's largest since OurPLANE launched service in 1999, marks the only fractional fleet customer for Eclipse Aviation, according to the company. OurPLANE says it will offer the Eclipse 500 to both qualified individual pilots and to small/medium-sized businesses. OurPLANE, which operates 22 aircraft from 15 locations in both Canada and the United States, says its customers can buy a fractional share on a brand-new, fully loaded Eclipse 500 for a fraction of the whole aircraft ownership costs. More...

BILL WATTERS JOINS ADAM AIRCRAFT
Bill Watters, a veteran chief pilot and senior international captain at Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, this month joined Adam Aircraft as the airframer's vice president, flight operations. In his new position, Watters will handle all engineering flight test, all production flight test, customer flight training, demonstration flight department, and corporate air transportation. Colorado-based Adam Aircraft continues to develop two aircraft, the piston twin-engined A500 -- which received a limited type certificate in May -- and the jet A700, which continues in flight-testing. The two twin-boom aircraft share numerous components. “Bill Watters brings both intellect and experience to Adam Aircraft, and he will create superior flight operations programs for us and our customers,” stated Joe Walker, Adam Aircraft president and COO. More...

RAYTHEON AIRCRAFT SERVICES OFFERS CABIN ENTERTAINMENT UPGRADES
Raytheon Aircraft Services (RAS) last week announced its "MAX Entertainment System" program, a factory-approved and pre-engineered package of solutions designed to make it easier for customers to upgrade their aircraft’s entertainment system. According to RAS, the program covers Beechcraft King Air, Beechcraft Premier I,Beechjet, Diamond and all legacy and current Hawker series aircraft and involves tiered options that can be installed alongside routine maintenance and inspection work at a RAS facility. Operators can choose from among components such as XM Satellite Radio, JetMap II, Honeywell DVD player(s), flat-panel color monitor(s), Sennheiser wireless headset(s), wireless remote control and an optional speaker package More...

TRICKLE-DOWN: GULFSTREAM'S G150 COCKPIT GOES HIGHER-TECH
Gulfstream Aerospace announced yesterday it will add to the cockpit of its forthcoming G150 mid-size bizjet as standard equipment a cursor control device (CCD) for both pilots taken from its larger aircraft. Gulfstream says it designed and developed the CCD while developing its PlaneView flight deck aboard the ultra-long-range G550. Now, the CCD is standard equipment on all of Gulfstream’s large-cabin aircraft, including the G550, G500, G450 and G350. Gulfstream and Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) are developing the wide-cabin, high-speed G150. It is being built through its Certificate of Airworthiness at IAI’s facility in Tel Aviv, and then flown to Gulfstream’s Dallas completions facility for its final phase of manufacturing. The Gulfstream G150 is scheduled to enter service in the third quarter of 2006. More...

GULFSTREAM G550 SETS NEWARK-TO-TEL AVIV RECORD
Meanwhile, Gulfstream this week continued its "mine-is-bigger" sparring with other manufacturers, including Bombardier, by announcing that a Gulfstream G550 set another city-pair speed record: between Newark, N.J., and Tel Aviv, Israel. According to Gulfstream, the G550 flew the 5,031-nm route in 9 hours and 52 minutes, for an average cruise speed of Mach 0.86. Gulfstream says it is awaiting official recognition of this city-pair speed record by the National Aeronautic Association (NAA). If recognized, it would be the 15th city-pair speed record for the G550 since it first entered service nearly two years ago. The G550 took off from Newark International Airport at 8:16 p.m. local time on Aug. 28. It landed 09:52 later at 1:08 p.m. local time on Aug. 29 at Ben Gurion Airport. More...

CORRECTION SECTION
In our Aug. 17 issue of AVweb's BizAVflash, in an article about Bombardier's plans to open a service center in Moscow, Russia, we wrote, "NetJets operates a number of Bombardier's Global, Challenger and Learjet aircraft in its fleet." In fact, NetJets does not operate any Bombardier aircraft; its fleet consists of offerings from Cessna, Raytheon, Gulfstream, Dassault and Boeing. AVweb regrets the error. More...

WATCH YOUR INBOX...
...the next issue of AVweb's BizAVflash will be e-mailed to you on Sept. 14. More...

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

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Today's issue written by Joseph E. (Jeb) Burnside:
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