News

Another first flight in recent weeks took place in France. No, not the Airbus A380. Instead, Dassault Aviation’s facility in Bordeaux Mrignac, France, was the site when Falcon 7X s/n 01 took off for the first time. Test pilots Yves “Bill” Kerherve and Philippe Deleume were aboard for the 01:36 flight. “The first flight of […]

Meanwhile, Eclipse is not letting any grass grow under its feet. The company last month announced the first flight of its third Eclipse 500 VLJ. The aircraft, N504EA, is the second to join the company’s flight-test fleet in the same month. With three VLJs now in active flight testing, Eclipse says it “continues to demonstrate […]

When is a scheduled airline not a scheduled airline? When it’s operating as an on-demand carrier along pre-determined routes and selling its transportation services on a per-seat basis, that’s when. That basic idea, known as a “public charter” at the Department of Transportation, is what’s behind DayJet, a per-seat charter operation announced last month in […]

Stating the U.S. industry is “under attack from a variety of directions, both internal and external,” a lengthy study on aerospace research released earlier this month highlights what its authors think the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) should be doing in basic aviation research. The $5 million study — dubbed Responding to the Call: […]

…the next issue of AVweb‘s BizAVflash will be e-mailed to you on May 11. See you then…

April marks 20 years since Cessna delivered its first Model 208 Caravan, a workhorse turboprop single popular in bush, utility and cargo operations throughout the world. Some 1500 examples of the “Skylane on steroids” have been delivered since and the company is celebrating with a worldwide demonstration tour featuring well-equipped versions of the airplane. Numerous […]

Gulfstream Aerospace this month announced it had received a third FAA Supplemental Type Certificate (STC), enabling the installation of its new Broad Band Multi-Link (BBML) data system in its large-cabin G550 and G500 bizjets. The company’s BBML system uses ARINC’s SKYLink broadband satellite service, enabling in-flight Internet surfing, sending and receiving e-mail or any other […]

Meanwhile, Cessna received the certification paperwork from both the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) for its new midsize, long-range Citation Sovereign business jet. The certification enables the Citation Sovereign to be registered within all 25 European countries adhering to EASA regulations and 10 European countries following JAA regulations. The type […]

Also making a first flight of a new jet this month was Cessna, whose new Citation CJ2+ prototype took to the air on April 2. Piloted by test pilots Don Alexander and Jon Cooper, the conforming CJ2+ prototype flew from Mid-Continent Airport for a 02:06 test flight, which, according to Cessna, included an “aggressive flight […]

Swearingen Aircraft Corp. yesterday announced successful completion of cold soak testing as required for FAA certification of the company’s new SJ30-2 twinjet. The testing was conducted at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., in a facility that lowers temperatures to -40 degrees C. Testing conducted at that temperature includes avionics performance, pre-start, engine start and operation, […]