EPIC STAKES ITS CLAIM WITH VICTORY FLIGHT
Epic has now announced that a copy of its (currently experimental) Victory jet is destined for certification sporting a Garmin G1000 panel. Epic CEO Rick Schrameck on Sunday evening told AVweb that his company's freshly minted all carbon-composite four-plus-one seat Williams FJ33-4A-powered single-engine Victory jet had logged more than seven hours since its first flight last Friday, extending its flight test envelope to 14,000 feet. The Victory is the product of a seven-month incubation from design to first flight and follows the first flight of the company's other jet -- the Elite Jet twin-engine VLJ -- by only a month. Performance targets for the Victory include a full fuel payload of more than 900 lbs, "easily accommodating four to five passengers and their luggage," according to Epic. The aircraft should get those passengers to FL280 in 10 minutes. Industry watchers may be surprised by the company's promise "to deliver at least six of the new jets to customers before the end of 2007, each with a price tag of less than one million dollars." Schrameck added that's "not a promotional price or a price in 2002 dollars like we’ve seen with other jets. This is the Victory price today." However, this price is for the experimental version; a certified copy is more likely to be priced at about $1.5 million. More...

PER-SEAT AIR TAXI TO USE EXISTING BIZJET FLEET
Critics of the planned per-seat air taxi operators have long complained that if the concept was viable then why not use existing business jets instead of an unproven very light jet for the service. Alfred Rapetti, a former investor in fractional provider Avantair, has listened and is taking on that challenge. Last Thursday he formally launched BusinessJetSEATS to offer "by-the-seat private charter service" from community airports using the existing 2,000-strong jet charter fleet in partnership with CharterX. In an interview with AVweb, Rapetti said his per-seat, air-taxi service -- which is available now in 215 markets in the U.S. -- costs half as much as whole airplane charter and has all-inclusive pricing and no membership fees. BusinessJetSEATS has a licensing agreement with start-up very light jet air-taxi firm Earthjet to use its proprietary back-end scheduling and front-end flight-booking systems. More...

CONKLIN & DE DECKER SOFTWARE FOR AIRCRAFT COMPARISONS
Conklin & de Decker is calling its latest rendition of the Aircraft Performance Comparator (version 2.5.0) "the most comprehensive and easy to use aircraft performance comparison tool available." What that means to users, is a software program that now allows them to compare side-by-side or overlay and compare aircraft interiors and exteriors of 268 aircraft, supplemented with flight performance data reaped from each manufacturer's own manuals. Prices for the software range from $450 for the piston database, up to $595 for the turboprop or helicopter database and $695 for the jets database. Newly added to the aircraft database are Citation XLS+, Grob SPn, Hawker 750, TBM 850, Eurocopter AS355NP, and Cessnas 172S, 182T, 206H, T182T, T206H models. More...

LIQUID JETS SELLS SECOND-HAND JET CARDS, SHARES
Liquid Jets is offering a "bid and offer exchange" format for a wide range of fractional shares and jet cards that allows buyers and sellers a liquid market. For jet shareowners looking to sell their fractional shares, the program offers a marketplace alternative to simply turning the shares back to their management company for whatever price is offered. The benefits include potential discounts and flexibility for buyers and liquidity for sellers that extends beyond accepting whatever aircraft write-downs and penalties imposed by a management company. "You may even be allowed to lease your share to someone else for any portion or all of your contract term," according to the company. More...

AMSAFE COULD EXPAND BIZJET SEAT CAPACITY
The FAA's Civil Aerospace Medical Institute has tested safety for occupants seated in side-facing seats using AmSafe inflatable shoulder restraints with relatively positive results. Using a new test dummy, conclusions found significant reductions in the degree of injury inflicted on "occupants" and might support FAA efforts to create new regulations for side-facing seats. Translation: the day may be drawing closer when side-facing sofas (i.e. divans) on business jets will be certified for full occupancy during takeoff and landing. Currently, side-facing seats certification is performed on a case-by-case basis. According to CAMI's report, "the tests simulated three typical seating configurations: occupant in the middle seat, occupant seated next to a rigid wall and occupant seated next to an armrest end closure." More...

NATA: FAA EYES BIZJET "SCHEDULED SERVICE"
Operators that post alerts through brokers or any other method regarding empty-leg flights may find their operations deemed as "scheduled" by the FAA, according to NATA's interpretation of words spoken by Joe Conte, manager of the operations law branch within the FAA Chief Counsel’s office. Conte spoke at NATA's Air Charter Summit and warned that posting such notices might lead the FAA to redefine an operation as a scheduled flight that must be conducted under Part 121, as opposed to Part 135. According to NATA, there are two key elements affecting the FAA's determination. First, setting a timeframe within which the aircraft must leave satisfies the "departure time" element. And second, the shorter that timeframe, the more it will look to the FAA like it is a scheduled operation. More...

EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: AN INSIDE LOOK AT CESSNA'S CITATION MUSTANG
Take a quick tour of Cessna's introductory jet with AVweb Video Editor Glenn Pew. Some may refer to the Citation Mustang as a very light jet or "VLJ," but others are calling it a whole new breed of personal jet. (Click through to watch.) More...

LINEAR AIR TO LAUNCH ECLIPSE JET AIR-TAXI SERVICE
Linear Air of Bedford, Mass., has been proving for several years that its air-taxi concept is viable, flying a fleet of Cessna Grand Caravans while it waited for delivery of its Eclipse 500 very light jets. The wait is over, as the company's first Eclipse jet is scheduled to arrive later this week and enter service soon after. Linear Air said it will be the first company to operate an Eclipse 500 jet in an air-taxi service, though DayJet plans to start air-taxi service in Florida with the small jets this month, too. "The revolutionary nature of the Eclipse 500 clearly captures the imagination," said Linear President and CEO Air William Herp. "Our team couldn’t be more excited to be first to offer the Eclipse to the traveling public." The company has ordered 30 of the Pratt & Whitney Canada PW610F-powered twinjets, which are scheduled for delivery over the next two years. More...

HELI DOWNED BY TURBINE BLADE FAILURE
A Eurocopter AS3450BA that autorotated onto a canopy of trees in Maui lost power due to failure of a turbine blade, according to probable cause and factual reports released by the NTSB. All five aboard escaped serious injury, except the pilot, who broke his ankle. The NTSB reported that its investigation revealed "that the second stage turbine (T2) blade tips all exhibited fractures, and a single blade had separated at the blade platform flush with the disk circumference." Further, "a material laboratory analysis determined that the turbine blade failure was a result of a fatigue fracture that was initiated at a corrosion/oxidation pit." The engine involved was a Turbomeca Arriel 1B that had "operated for 9,593 hours since new, and 1,764 hours since the last overhaul." More...

TIPTON AIRPORT WANTS YOUR JETS
Central Maryland's Tipton Airport resides within the Washington, D.C. ADIZ, but the former military field nevertheless hopes to seduce coporate jet business through a proposal that would expand its 3,000-foot runway, add terminal space and improve ground transportation options. The airport hopes to serve the Fort Meade and Odenton area's expected economic expansion that could come if the airport sees favor from the base realignment and expansion process. Looking forward, supporters see Tipton as a reliever for BWI, with rail and bus service to satisfy the needs of the areas military workers and defense contractors. The program's opponents cite that Tipton's flight path rests within a mile of NSA headquarters, and that additional noise will upset residents of nearby communities. More...

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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.

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