News

Even while it was basking in the commendable glow of finally earning full FAA type certification for its Eclipse 500 VLJ on Sept. 30, Eclipse Aviation faced the daunting prospect of transforming itself from a product development company into one that actually has to manufacture that product. The company, saying it used “technologies and business […]

The coming horde of very light jets (VLJs) will clog the skies, crowd runways, overtax the ATC system, increase the risk of airline delays and curdle fresh milk. Or it won’t. That — except for the curdled milk part — pretty much sums up the arguments for and against what many are saying will be […]

Landmark Aviation this month said it named Jim McNeill as its new regional vice president, FBO Operations. McNeill previously was general manager at Landmark Aviations flagship FBO facility at Dulles, Va., and now will manage several key FBOs in the Landmark network. Those include company facilities at Toronto; Dulles; Leesburg, Va.; Fayetteville, N.C.; and Raleigh […]

Pratt & Whitney Canada earlier this month announced it named John Saabas as executive vice president and Benot Brossoit as senior vice president, Service Centres and Operations. Mr. Saabas will be responsible for engineering, operations, quality, service centers, customer support and marketing. Previously senior vice president, engineering and operations, Mr. Saabas has been with the […]

Pilatus Switzerland this month announced the newly formed Pilatus PC-12 Centre Southern Africa is the new exclusive factory-authorized sales and service center for Southern Africa. The new company was started by well-known South African aviation professionals Tim Webster (acting CEO) and Gerry Wyss (director). All partners have extensive aviation and aircraft sales experience, and have […]

Bombardier last week said its Learjet 60 midsize jet set a world speed record for its class, flying a roundtrip between from Cape Town, South Africa, to Johannesburg and back in two hours, 59 minutes. The flight was fully sanctioned by the Federation Aronautique Internationale (FAI), the international body responsible for recognizing such records. The […]

Rockwell Collins last week introduced two pieces of avionics equipment for the business aviation market, including a new traffic surveillance system and a new WAAS-capable GPS receiver. According to the company, the TSS-4100 Traffic Surveillance System is a highly integrated system combining TCAS II and Mode S transponder functionality — as well as emerging ADS-B […]

Swiss-based business aviation company Executive Jet Investments (EJI) last week announced it has acquired the controlling share in German aircraft manufacturer Grob Aerospace. No details or terms of the acquisition were announced, although EJI did say its future operations would be conducted under the Grob Aerospace banner. The deal makes a multinational corporation out of […]

Last week’s award of an FAA production certification to Adam Aircraft for its A500 piston twin — along with a recently announced infusion of cash — will give the young company enough breathing room to move forward on delivering the new aircraft to customers while it accelerates development of its A700 AdamJet. The FAA gave […]

Mooney Airplane Co. Chief Executive Gretchen L. Jahn resigned her position yesterday, effective Oct. 1, formally saying only that she wished to pursue other opportunities. The Kerrville, Tex.-based company’s board of directors immediately named Dennis Ferguson as her replacement. Perhaps reflecting on the fact that deliveries of Mooney aircraft under her management more than doubled […]