News

Another milestone: Eclipse Aviation this week put its fourth certification prototype in the air, one the company is calling the first of two of its “beta test jets.” The aircraft, N505EA, powered by two Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC) PW610F turbofan engines, took off from the Albuquerque International Sunport for a 43-minute flight. While aloft, […]

Dassault Falcon Jet’s 7X program last week also passed a major milestone as the second prototype made its first flight from the company’s facility at Bordeaux-Merignac, France. Test pilots Philippe Deleume and Jean-Louis Dumas were at the controls for the maiden flight, which lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes. Typical for a first flight, the […]

If all continues to go as well as the company is saying, San Antonio, Texas-based Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corp. (SSAC) may soon have an FAA-certified bizjet on its hands. The company announced last month that the FAA had issued two additional Type Inspection Authorizations (TIAs) for the company’s SJ30-2 jet, which it hopes to finally […]

Each season, the FAA considers adopting a reservation system for IFR operations into such popular destinations as Nantucket, Mass., Aspen, Colo., and other airports with limited facilities and acceptance rates but with high demand. Those restrictions have rarely, if ever, been implemented to restrict or prohibit VFR-only flights. And it appears they won’t again, even […]

…the next issue of AVweb‘s BizAVflash will be e-mailed to you on July 13. See you then…

Bombardier this month confirmed the first sale from its recently announced corporate shuttle program, a Challenger 850 corporate shuttle, to a customer in Eastern Europe. As designed, the new aircraft will move the company’s employees between operation sites within Europe. “The Challenger corporate shuttle family has been generating serious market interest and we are particularly […]

Fractional operator NetJets recently recognized Raytheon Aircraft Company’s Little Rock, Ark., facility for outstanding performance, Raytheon said last week. The facility, which performs scheduled maintenance on NetJets’ fleet of Hawker 400XP, Hawker 800XP and Hawker 1000 aircraft, consistently achieved top-level results from NetJets management and operations teams, according to the company. The NetJets award was […]

Bombardier Flexjet, the fractional ownership program of Bombardier Aerospace, last week said it had earned the FAA’s Diamond Award — the agency’s highest award for excellence in aviation maintenance training — for the seventh consecutive year. The FAA awards program was established to encourage and recognize the highest standards of maintenance training. “We are delighted […]

Pratt & Whitney Canada (PWC) and Cessna this month announced an agreement to offer the engine manufacturer’s PowerAdvantage Plus (PA+) program, an expanded by-the-hour maintenance program, for Cessna Citation operators. The joint program is designed to provide Cessna Citation operators a cost-effective way to cover and insure against the cost of parts, rental engines and […]

What do you get for the business-jet owner who has everything? The world’s longest airliner, completed in a VIP configuration, of course. So it is for Jeddah-based National Air Services, a private non-governmental business group in Saudi Arabia, which Airbus this month said had acquired an Airbus A340-600. Delivery of the green jet is planned […]