BOMBARDIER DELIVERS 2005 RESULTS, 2006 OUTLOOK
It was a very good year for most companies in the aerospace industry. As this edition of AVweb's BizAvFlash notes, several companies recently delivered glowing reports of their successes in 2005 along with rosy predictions for the coming year. In no particular order, we'll start with Bombardier Aerospace, which last week said that it delivered 337 aircraft for its fiscal year ended Jan. 31, 2006, compared to 329 deliveries in the previous fiscal year. For business aircraft, the company delivered 186 units, compared to 128 for the same period last year, an increase of 45 percent. Ninety of the business aircraft delivered this fiscal year were of the latest Bombardier business jets: the Global Express XRS, Bombardier Global 5000, Challenger 300 and Learjet 40 XR. More...

CESSNA LOOKS BACK ON 2005, AHEAD TO 2006
Not to be outdone -- by a wide margin, in fact -- Cessna Aircraft Company also listed its 2005 results and looked ahead to 2006. Among the highlights at Cessna were delivery of 249 Citation business jets, 822 single-engine piston airplanes, and 86 Caravan single-engine turboprops. The company says it racked up total orders for 788 jets and 1,198 single-engine piston and turbine aircraft, worth a total of $6.3 billion. It also obtained FAA certification for two new jets -- the Citation CJ1+ and Citation CJ2+ -- and, in our gilding-the-lily department, type certification of the Garmin G1000-equipped Skyhawk. In 2005, Cessna announced the Citation Encore+ (first customer deliveries expected in February 2007), and continued developing its entry in the coming very light jet sweepstakes, the Citation Mustang. More...

DASSAULT EXPANDS MARKETS, SETS SALES RECORDS
If Dassault's 2005 sales success bears any relation to the quality of last year's French wine, we'll be laying in a few cases. The airframer last week announced 2005 was its "best year ever for Falcon business jets," with a total of 123 firm orders, the first time the company sold over 100 Falcons in one year. Making the achievement all the more remarkable is that Dassault says not a single one of the transactions involves multiple sales to a fractional operator. If our math is correct, all those French bizjets accounted for 1.632 billion Euros in sales. "The year 2005 represents a high mark in the history of the Falcon program," said company Chairman and CEO Charles Edelstenne. "And demand is strong worldwide. Traditionally, about 60% of our sales have come from the U.S. This year, that percentage will be about 50%. It's not a sign of a weakening market in the U.S, but a sign of strengthening demand globally." More...

DASSAULT BULKS UP FALCON 7X
Meanwhile, Dassault's Falcon 7X program is getting a lot of attention inside the company, in hopes the to-be-certified growth version of the company's venerable trijet will help lead the company to even better years of marketing. Announced last October at NBAA were design improvements for the 7X that could increase the range from 5,700 nm to 6,000 nm. Now, Dassault says it has boosted the new jet's payload by 50%. Additional fuel tanks have been installed in the plane's forward section and testing on the stronger landing gear and brakes needed, as well as the airframe itself, have been performed and validated. To accommodate the increased MTOW, thrust for the Pratt & Whitney Canada 307A engines has been increased. The initial flat-rated thrust was 6,100 lbs. per engine at ISA +18C; the new per-engine thrust will be set at 6,400 lbs. under identical conditions. Even better: engine performance targets will have no impact on the maintenance time between overhauls. More...

ADAM TOUTS 2005 ACHIEVEMENTS
It must be that time of year -- airframe manufacturers are coming out of the woodwork to deliver glowing reports of their achievements in the previous year and updates on their various development programs. Not to be left out, Adam Aircraft earlier this month reminded us that it received the FAA Type Certificate for its A500 push me/pull you piston twin in May, leading to the first two deliveries by year's end. As we reported earlier this month, however, the company still has a ways to go before removing some fairly significant operating restrictions on the A500. Nevertheless, Adam says it has developed many A500 upgrades, including a production interior, passive restraints and airbags, an STC (Supplemental Type Certificate) with the aircraft’s Avidyne Entegra avionics panel, and all maintenance and parts documentation. Also in 2005, Adam readied s/n 002 of its A700 Adam Jet, which will serve as the standard production and FAA certification aircraft. Presently, Adam says it has increased its backlog of orders from individual owners, fleet companies and air taxi operators from 222 aircraft worth $435 million on Dec. 31, 2004, to 358 aircraft valued at $730 million as of Dec. 31, 2005. More...

GULFSTREAM TOTES UP EVS SCOREBOARD
It's been almost four years since Gulfstream Aerospace's Enhanced Vision System™ (EVS) was first placed into service as an FAA-certified synthetic flight visibility aid aboard a U.S. Air Force C-37A/Gulfstream V, in May 2002. This week, Gulfstream noted that its EVS is operating on 213 in-service Gulfstream business-jet aircraft, including some 92 copies of the company's G550 and G450 jets. “The Gulfstream EVS is a proven navigational safety system,” said Pres Henne, senior vice president, programs, engineering and test, Gulfstream. “We knew four years ago that this was a revolutionary system and decided then to seamlessly integrate it into the flight decks of our new aircraft models.” The EVS is standard equipment on the G550 and G450 and is a factory option on new G500 and G350 aircraft. It can be retrofitted to GV, GIV/GIV-SP, G400 and G300 business jets. To date, Gulfstream has retrofitted EVS into a total of 118 customer aircraft, including G500s, GVs, GIV-SPs, G400s, G350s and G300s. More...

BOMBARDIER AGAIN OFFERS TURBINE CONVERSION KITS FOR CL-215 AMPHIB
Bombardier Aerospace last week said it would again offer turbine conversion kits for its CL-215 amphibious aircraft after nine orders were placed by the two western Canada provinces, a private U.S. operator, and Buffalo Airways Ltd. of the Northwest Territories, Canada. The kits convert the piston-powered CL-215 into CL-215T aircraft, powered by two PW123AF Pratt & Whitney turboprop engines. Total value of the nine orders is approximately $85 million U.S. The converted aircraft will also feature improved and modernized structural components, electrical distribution system and engine fuel system, in addition to the replacement of manual flight controls by powered systems to benefit from added engine power and reduced pilot workload. Once modified, the aircraft will perform similarly to the renowned Bombardier 415 firefighting aircraft. More...

IS THE A380 READY FOR PRIME TIME?
We're fairly certain last week's failure of an Airbus A380 wing during a static load test conducted in France will have little impact on the type's certification and service entry. Still, it was an embarrassment for Airbus and its Wichita-based unit, Airbus North America Engineering, may have a little more work to do before placing paying passengers aboard what will eventually be the largest commercial airliner in the world. According to The Wichita Eagle newspaper, a static-load test of an example wing resulted in a fracture as it reached 145% of its limit load, or 3.3% short of its target. At that point, according to the newspaper, the wing had been deflected more than 24 feet at is tip. The fracture occurred in a portion of the wing, presumably the main spar, between the inner and outer engine mounting points. More...

NETJETS TO HIRE PILOTS
If the fractional industry's 800-lb. gorilla is bulking up by hiring new pilots, is that good or bad for the rest of the industry? No, we don't have the answer -- yet -- but we might by the end of the year. NetJets Aviation said last week that it plans to hire some 450 additional pilots in 2006 -- an increase of 19% over its current flight crew complement. According to the company, the new hires will meet the increased demands of the company's apparently growing fractional aircraft operation. Presently, the NetJets fleet consists of more 420 aircraft, which flew more than 300,000 flights to over 140 countries in 2005. More...

BOMBARDIER FLEXJET EXPANDS INTO ... CANADA
Flexjet, the fractional operation run by Canadian airframer Bombardier, said this week it is expanding its services into its home country. In essence, Flexjet is diverting three aircraft in its corporate fleet -- two Learjet 45s and a Challenger 604 -- to dedicated domestic service out of Montreal. Initially, ten pilots will crew the three jets. Bombardier said its new "Flexjet Canada" service will enable, for the first time, travel between locations within Canada for owners based there. Along with the new point-to-point service within Canada, the company hopes the additional capacity will improve service for customers traveling between Canada and the U.S. More...

INDUSTRY VETERAN REJOINS SIGNATURE LAS VEGAS
Signature Flight Support last week said it named Mike Conrad as general manager of its FBO at McCarran International Airport (LAS) in Las Vegas. Conrad had been with the Aircraft Service International Group (ASIG), a "sister" company of Signature's owned by parent BBA Aviation Services Group, where he served as regional vice president. Conrad has also served multiple posts within Signature, including regional vice president and general manager. His nearly 40 years of aviation experience include several positions at Hughes Aviation, Signature’s predecessor at LAS. Conrad also served as an infantryman in Vietnam for the US Army. More...

HAVE PISTON FRAX EXPERIENCE?
AVweb's sister publications Aviation Consumer and IFR want to hear pilot's experiences with non-jet fractional ownership companies. More...

WATCH YOUR INBOX...
the next issue of AVweb's BizAVflash will be e-mailed to you on Mar. 15. More...

AVwebBiz 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.

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

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