FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:February 22, 2010 Contact: Kathryn Shehade/K4PRKathryn@K4inc.com

 MAGELLAN JETS RECEIVES AUTHORIZED BROKER CERTIFICATION FROM WYVERNNew Certification Assures Adherence to Highest Safety Intelligence  and Standards for All Jet Charter Flights.BOSTON - February 22, 2010: The new leading private jet company, Magellan Jets, announced that it has been named a Wyvern Authorized Broker by The Wyvern safety audit program. Wyvern is an industry leading third-party safety auditor that provides onsite safety audits, checking everything from maintenance records, DO85 and insurance certificates, to the infrastructure of the operator.Wyvern, aside from being well-known for its third party safety audits of air operators, conducted on site, has designed the Wyvern Authorized Broker , substantiating that qualified charter brokers, such as Magellan Jets,  are adhering to their Wyvern Pass qualifications, which maintains that pilots have sufficient experience, training, medicals and extensive knowledge of the equipment they are piloting.  This must be maintained and checked on each and every flight.“We are very proud to be the recipient of WYVERN’s Authorized Broker Certification”, says Joshua Hebert, CEO of Magellan Jets. “Any broker can say that they use WYVERN, but not every broker adheres to their very high standards of aviation safety. Our new certification endorsement will ensure that all of our trips are scheduled with an operator that holds safety standards to the highest level, and are comfortable having a 3^rd party substantiate their claim to a  steadfast commitment to safety.  With the Authorized Broker certification we have additional proof of our own commitment to the highest benchmark of safety, and require the same from our vendors”.Wyvern has a long standing reputation of promoting the importance of aviation safety and standards. Both companies are among the most highly-esteemed organizations in the general aviation industry and make certain that for every client trip, all of the jets, pilots, and crews they work with maintain current and impeccable training, certifications, op-specs, and safety standards.  MAGELLAN JETS is a leading private jet charter broker where clients not only have a fixed guaranteed rate, but find market-driven pricing on the jet type of their choice while enjoying high end service and security.  Members receive additional benefits including premium jet selection, availability within 10 hours notice, aircraft upgrades and no fuel surcharges.  All who travel through Magellan Jets  are assigned a dedicated Flight Support Team Manager and enjoy 24/7 Concierge Service.   For more information on Magellan Jets or to book your travel today, visit http://www.MagellanJets.com or call 1.877.550.JETS. 

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  WYVERN: The Wyvern Report is an online aviation safety information service that gives you direct access to the largest database of audited charter operators in the world. Use The Wyvern Report to gain access to standardized, in-depth information about operators who meet the rigorous requirements of The Wyvern Standard™. Wyvern performs the most on-site safety audits worldwide. Since 1991, Wyvern has conducted more than 1,700 charter audits worldwide, using the most experienced auditors in the industry. During an on-site audit, each charter operator is evaluated against The Wyvern Standard™. Audits are conducted using well-defined and consistent procedures, which ensure a thorough examination of all areas of the operation. 

After years of teases, the public will get its first complete look at world's only commercial spacecraft in a naming ceremony at the Mojave Air and Space Port in California.

The first SpaceShipTwo plane will be christened the V.S.S. Enterprise, short for Virgin Space Ship Enterprise, said Virgin Galactic President Will Whitehorn. Virgin Galactic chose "Enterprise" for its long tradition in maritime and aviation history. "It was the name of the first NASA space shuttle, and it has dominated science fiction as a kind of watchword for human spaceflight in the future," Whitehorn said. V.S.S. Enterprise is based on SpaceShipOne, a reusable manned spacecraft designed by aviation designer Burt Rutan, which won the U.S. $10-million Ansari X Prize in 2004. Whitehorn said the Enterprise had recently been "married" to EVE, the twin-fuselage mother ship that will ferry it to launch altitude, about 50,000 feet (15,200 meters)—the space shuttle, by contrast, separates from its booster rockets at about 150,000 feet (45,700 meters).

 

Enterprise is the first of five planned SpaceShipTwo planes. It measures 60 feet (18 meters) long and is intended to carry two pilots and six passengers, who will pay handsomely for two-and-a-half-hour flights into suborbital space, where they'll experience weightlessness and see the curvature of the Earth. Today's unveiling (with cocktails to follow) will be attended by some of the 300 or so potential passengers who have already put down at least a deposit in a U.S. $200,000 Virgin Galactic ticket. "We've all been patiently waiting to see exactly what the vehicle is going to look like," Virgin Galactic ticket holder Peter Cheney of Seattle said in a statement. "It would be nice to see it in the flesh."

In the coming months Enterprise will undergo a battery of ground and flight tests designed to test the craft's safety. The exact date of the first suborbital passenger flight has not been set yet but is expected to occur sometime in 2011. "We're looking at a test program that will stretch for at least 18 months," Whitehorn said. "This is a unique project and we're not in a race with anyone. We're only in a race with safety."

by Ker Than

By Qiang Xiaoji

Shanghai Deer Jet Co, a subsidiary of HNA Group, China's fourth largest commercial aviation group, has won permission from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) to provide business aviation services, the Oriental Morning Post reported.

Business aviation service is attractive to high-end customers, as it allows them to decide their own routes and departure times and can cover remote areas, compared with general commercial flights. The service is still administered by a uniformed aviation safety system.

Deer Jet owns two Hawker 800XP jets, which it will use for high-end customers. The jets provide meeting areas, bars, restrooms, sound equipments, DVDs, satellite telephones and Internet access, which enable passengers to work during the flight.

In recent years, many airline companies have eyed the great potential in the business aviation market.

But China's business aviation industry is still in its infant stage. Only four domestic companies — Deer Jet, Air China Business Jet, Shanghai Airlines, and Shandong Rainbow Business Aircraft Co — operate business jet services with no more than 30 planes, mainly in Beijing and Shanghai, and over 80 percent of the flights are on international routes.

Most of the companies have mediocre performances and some have seen long-time losses.

Ma Xulun, general manager of Shanghai-based China Eastern Airlines, China's third largest carrier by fleet size, said they provide aviation services for other companies' jets, but have no plan to introduce their own business jets within the next two years.

China Eastern is set to increase its Shanghai market share to 50 percent from the current 35 percent after taking over Shanghai Airlines. Shareholders of both companies approved the proposed merger last month.

Hawker Beechcraft will close its Salina plant and move the work, the company is informing employees today.

“We were informed today that the decision has been made to close the Salina facility,” Machinists union District 70 president Steve Rooney said this morning. “The union will be in discussions with the company to see if there’s things we can do to help save and preserve jobs in Kansas.”

A timeline is not known, Rooney said.

The union wants to meet with the company to determine the possibility of moving a significant number of the jobs to Wichita, Rooney said.

Hawker Beechcraft employs about 240 people in Salina, down from about 500 a year ago. The plant builds wings, spar assemblies and other subassemblies.

Hawker Beechcraft CEO Bill Boisture said in an interview last month that the company likely would close the plant and move the work to Wichita.

A news conference has been scheduled at the Salina Airport Authority’s terminal building today at 1:30 p.m. Tim Rogers, the airport’s executive director will address the media on behalf of the City of Salina, Saline County, Salina Area Chamber of Commerce and the Salina Airport Authority.

 

by Molly McMillin

A 15-year, $120 million tax credit from Ohio will support General Electric Co.’s plan to invest more than $100 million in capital improvements during the next several years at its GE Aviation complex in suburban Cincinnati, including demolishing some buildings that date to around World War II, GE said Thursday, Nov. 5.

Company officials said they are also talking with the University of Cincinnati about having the university establish an aerospace research facility on GE Aviation’s 400-acre complex along Interstate 75 in Evendale, north of Cincinnati. The university and GE have collaborated for years on aerospace research projects, and UC co-op students have received job training during employment at GE Evendale.

Gov. Ted Strickland joined officials of GE and the university for the announcement Thursday afternoon.

In July, the Ohio Department of Development helped lay groundwork for the plan by granting GE a 50 percent job retention tax credit, valued at $120 million. Its terms require GE to retain at least 5,000 jobs in suburban Cincinnati for 18 years. GE officials said they expect to have a larger work force than that at the company’s modernized complex.

“Our goal is to transform our Evendale headquarters into a technology centerpiece for decades to come,” said David Joyce, president and chief executive officer of GE Aviation.

The village of Evendale, where GE is located, is providing a $1 million grant to support the modernization and building renovation. Demolishing old, energy-inefficient buildings, improving newer ones and investing in energy conservation projects there will help GE streamline its operations and reduce operating costs, company officials said.

In September, the governor designated Dayton a state-endorsed hub of aerospace innovation and technology.

GE, along with rival aviation engine manufacturer Rolls-Royce, is a partner with the Air Force Research Laboratory in a research and development project to develop military jet engines that will be more fuel-efficient and able to operate more effectively under differing atmospheric pressures.

- John Nolan

The Kansas City Aviation Department is nearing completion on a $70 million refurbishment program at Kansas City Downtown Airport. The effort, begun in 2005, includes a $28 million project to raze and resurface both airport runways; $20 million to bulldoze 40 old hangars and replace them with 96 new hangars; $17 million for runway safety projects; and construction of a $1 million general aviation terminal, which includes a pilots’ lounge and large waiting room capable of accommodating up to 66 people, a self-fueling facility, and an outdoor aircraft wash bay.

In September, the state of Missouri awarded $3.5 million in economic incentives for construction of a new terminal building, hangars, and other facilities for Hangar 10, an FBO that opened a temporary facility on the field in May.

“It is becoming increasingly rare to find large U.S. cities with serviceable airports in the heart of downtown,” said Missouri Gov. Jeremiah W. “Jay” Nixon at a groundbreaking event held at the airport Sept. 28. “As companies turn more and more to private aircraft and charters to do business, a significantly upgraded Downtown Airport will be perfectly situated to take advantage of an array of exciting economic opportunities, to the benefit of Kansas City and the state of Missouri.”

“Downtown Airport is less than five minutes from the heart of downtown Kansas City, which is in the midst of a major renaissance,” noted Kansas City Aviation Director Mark VanLoh.

When completed, Hangar 10 will include three aircraft hangars totaling 56,000 square feet and a 28,000-square-foot executive aviation terminal with office space, lounges, pilot rest area, overnight rooms, a fitness center, and meeting space.

Executive Beechcraft also operates an FBO at the airport, which it has operated since 1938. It recently completed an extensive refurbishment of its facility, including the pilots’ lounge, conference, and meeting rooms; the main reception and lounge areas got new carpeting, furniture, and countertops.

In August 1927, just months after his historic solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, Charles B. Lindbergh landed on a dusty strip of land along a bend in the Missouri River—dedicating what is now one of the nation’s great inner-city airports. Kansas City Downtown Airport has served as home to Howard Hughes’ Trans Western (and later Trans World) Airlines; it was the city’s primary commercial and GA airport until Kansas City International Airport opened in 1972. Since then it has become a major business aviation center because of its proximity to downtown Kansas City, Mo.

- Mike Collins

More than 100 people gathered inside an Atlantic City International Airport hangar Monday afternoon to celebrate the groundbreaking for a new aviation research and technology park down the road.

Gordon Dahl, one of the project organizers and president of the South Jersey Economic Development District, called the research park "a mammoth undertaking" that will lead to the "next generation" of building up southern New Jersey's economy for decades to come.

The Next Generation Aviation Research and Technology Park calls for creating seven buildings totalling 408,000 square feet of offices, laboratories and research facilities. The park will focus on developing new computer equipment that will transform the country's air-traffic control program into a satellite-based system.

If completed, the complex will likely create 2,000 engineering and other high-paying technology jobs, and their research will help improve air safety and travel.

Several other politicians, government and business officials spoke for an hour and a half extolling the benefits of the project. They then used bronze shovels to overturn a pile of mulch. The event symbolically launched the start of road building, electricity and sewer work for the proposed aviation research complex, which will be built on a 55-acre lot by Amelia Earhart Boulevard and Delilah Road. The ceremony also featured tours of a Bombardier Global 5000 business jet and a U.S. Coast Guard rescue helicopter.

The research facility is a collaborative project between the Federal Aviation Administration's William J. Hughes Technical Center, the South Jersey Economic Development District and The Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, with support from several state and county officials and agencies.

To fully develop the new research complex, the project will require aviation-related businesses to become tenants at the complex and about $300 million in private investments to develop all of the buildings, Dahl said in a prior interview with The Press of Atlantic City. The park currently has about $13.3 million in public funds and bank financing for support infrastructure and development of part of the first building.

Jerry Zaro, chief of the state Office of Economic Growth, said building the new research complex by the FAA's Technical Center and the Atlantic City International Airport represents an amazing economic and technological opportunity.

"We believe this three-corner piece can be to aviation what Houston is to NASA," Zaro said. "So, folks, the message here today is, 'New Jersey is alive and well and open for business.'"

Wilson Felder, director of the Technical Center, said building the research park will expand the FAA's mission to ensure the country's " air-transportation system remains second to none."

Felder noted that Atlantic County has been the site of many aviation accomplishments, from the world's first air show, which took place in Atlantic City back in 1910, and to the testing and development of the first radar and digital data-communication systems at the technical center.

The aviation research park would be a new partner in the evolution of aviation technology, Felder said, and it "will continue to serve as a powerful engine for U.S. economic growth, and of course, the park will also stimulate growth in Atlantic County and the greater South Jersey region."

Other guest speakers included Stockton College President Herman Saatkamp Jr.; U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J.; U.S. Rep Frank LoBiondo, R-2nd; William J. Hughes, a former U.S. representative and ambassador to Panama; Atlantic County Executive Dennis Levinson; and Tom Carver, executive director of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority.

The groundbreaking also drew folks like William Cheatham, an Atlantic City toll collector.

Cheatham skipped an Atlantic City library board meeting because he wanted to find out more about Next Generation technology and the research park. He was impressed with how many jobs the project might create and he hopes the library, which just opened a new teen center, could collaborate with the organizers.

"Oh my goodness, this is wonderful," Cheatham said while wandering around the hangar. "This is what the young people need. The technology is our future."

 

- Michelle Lee

by Jennifer Anderson

The pilots of Northwest Airlines Flight 188 overshot their destination airport, Minneapolis, by 150 miles on October 21. They blamed a distraction, but there is speculation they had nodded off. The near miss prompted transportation authorities to recommend screening operators for sleep apnea, a respiratory condition that can leave a person fatigued even after a full night’s sleep. The recommendation sidesteps a more common factor in accidents and near misses:  pilots, drivers and workers in general are often sleep deprived because of over-long work hours and poor shift design.

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) advised screening commercial truck and bus drivers and merchant ship pilots for sleep apnea, after making similar recommendations for airline pilots and train operators earlier in 2009.

USA Today notes that NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System, which collects anonymous safety reports from pilots, outlines several dozen cases of pilots falling asleep. In August 2006 one captain reported falling asleep along with the co-pilot while preparing to land at Dulles International Airport near Washington DC.

The crash in February 2009 of a Continental Connection flight near Buffalo in New York state, which killed all 49 onboard and one person on the ground, is linked to sleep-deprived operators. One of the two pilots is believed to have been awake all night before the flight, and the other was known to sleep occasionally in the crew lounge at Newark Liberty Airport.

KCAU-TV, an ABC affiliate in Iowa, listed other factors responsible for sleepy pilots in its report about the Flight 188 overshoot. These included little rest and low quality sleep in cheap, noisy motels, poor diets, and dehydration because of a stream of coffee refills and the dry atmosphere of the cockpit. KCAU-TV noted that with the poor economy, more airlines are trying to squeeze in more flights with fewer pilots.

Certain shift patterns increase the odds that an employee will be dozy on the job. Reshaping these patterns to enhance sleep quality represents an ergonomic way to reduce the safety risks from fatigue-impaired operators.

The FAA is expected to release new regulations on pilot work limits in 2010. "I don't think many regular company employees would be able to work 16 hours a day, five days in a row," David Zwegers, director of aviation safety at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Florida told Time Magazine.  "The more [airlines] cut on personnel, the more of a burden they put on crew members." However, Zwegers is reluctant to speculate on whether sleepiness accounts for the Northwest pilots’ overshoot. "They have the cockpit recorders, so everything will come to light soon."

Experts quoted in Time say that even without a sleep disorder there are many reasons why one or both of the Northwest pilots might have nodded off.  Bill Voss, president of the Flight Safety Foundation, a nonprofit group working to lower aviation accidents, explained that modern aircraft give flight crews very little to do during the straight-and-level portions of flight. According to Voss, US airlines should consider allowing a technique common in some parts of Europe called "controlled cockpit rest," during which one pilot can take a brief nap to stay alert after notifying the rest of the crew.

The "controlled cockpit rest" represents another ergonomic measure to improve the alertness of pilots, and could be modified to fit in many workplaces where dangers lurk when operators become drowsy.

by Brendan Sobie

Panasonic Avionics has entered the business aviation sector by offering its new Global Communications Suite (GCS) on over a dozen types of VIP aircraft.

The company is now offering GCS, which provides a combination of in-flight broadband, mobile telephone and live television solutions, on business aircraft. Panasonic vice-president global communication services David Bruner says it has already secured contracts from three business aircraft customers covering 14 VIP aircraft types.

The first installation is planned for next month on a Boeing BBJ with most of the other aircraft 13 types to follow over the next 18-24 months.

All 14 types of business aircraft due to be outfitted with Panasonic GCS are VIP derivatives of commercial aircraft including the Airbus A320, Boeing 747 and Boeing 777. Bruner says business aviation is essentially piggybacking on certification work Panasonic already was planning to pursue for its airline customers. Lufthansa earlier this month was announced as the launch customer for GCS and Bruner says several additional airline customer announcements are planned.

Bruner says Panasonic also plans to eventually offer GCS on purpose-built business jets.

He says Panasonic will have to go down in bandwidth to accommodate smaller aircraft, but "best in class" services can still be provided. Panasonic is now talking to Bombardier, Gulfstream and Dassault Falcon about offering GCS on their higher-end business jets. Bruner says there are no technical challenges as the antennas can be easily modified to fit on large business jets but the manufacturers will need to decide whether to locate the antenna on the fuselage or tail. Bruner expects GCS will be available as a retrofit on some large business jets from next year and eventually the suite will also be offered on new aircraft.

Until now Panasonic has not made any moves into business aviation. Bruner says there is some demand for Panasonic to offer in-flight entertainment to business jet operators but for now there are no such plans.