News

One day before Eclipse earned its full type certificate, Adam Aircraft received an amended FAA type certificate for its all-composite A500 pressurized centerline-thrust piston twin. The six-seat Adam A500 was originally type certificated in May 2005, but that approval came with several limitations. Now, those limitations have been removed and the A500 becomes the first […]

There were some 460 attendees at last week’s 10th annual Bombardier Learjet Safety Standdown 2006, held at the Wichita (Kan.) Hyatt Regency Oct. 2-5 and, if all of them were as positive about the experience as those with whom AVweb spoke, the event was an unqualified success. As one attendee told us, “Somehow, Bombardier continues […]

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 […]