News

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AVweb‘s sister publications Aviation Consumer and IFR want to hear pilot’s experiences with non-jet fractional ownership companies. If you own, or have owned, a share in a piston-powered aircraft through a fractional ownership company and are interested in sharing your experiences, drop a note to ifr.editor@gmail.com.

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]

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 […]