News

The business aviation event of the year kicked into full gear, as the NBAA’s 2003 and 56th Annual Meeting & Convention was held Oct. 7 to 9 at the Orlando/Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Fla. The event featured close to 30,000 attendees, more than 1,000 exhibitors, 75 informational sessions and 135 aircraft on static […]

The General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) voiced its opposition to the European Joint Aviation Authority (JAA) proposal to require all European corporate aviation operators to register with their National Aviation Authority (NAA). The Advance Notice of Proposed Amendment (A-NPA), designated JAR OPS-2, would require corporations with a European operating base to register with their NAA […]

August was known as a month of firsts, when Avocet Aircraft LLC and Israel Aircraft Industries LTD (IAI) announced their signed agreement to jointly develop and market the Avocet Professional Jet , a next-generation jet designed specifically for the requirements of the air-taxi and fractional-operator markets. The company claims the Avocet ProJet “will have an […]

OurPLANE Inc., a four-year-old company targeting the owner-flown fractional aircraft ownership market, announced it added two new aircraft to its North American fleet. A new Cirrus SR22 was positioned at John Wayne Airport (KSNA) in Orange County, Calif., while a new Cessna 182T was scheduled for arrival at Toronto’s Brampton Airport June 16. At the […]

The investigation into the May crash of a Sino Swearingen test aircraft continued in June, as additional details were publicly disclosed. The manufacturer lost its chief test pilot, Carroll Beeler, when the SJ30-2 twinjet he was flying crashed in rugged terrain north of Del Rio, Texas. Beeler, 59, had taken off from San Antonio, and […]

With the U.S. economy in the dumps and aircraft sales almost nil, several general aviation manufacturers hoped to turn the tide in May by showcasing their product lines overseas at the largest European business aircraft event. Held from May 7 to 9 in Geneva, Switzerland, the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition, or EBACE 2003, […]

Reacting to “uncertain worldwide economic conditions,” Cessna Aircraft announced a series of measures in late March to reduce production of its turbine-powered aircraft models and cut personnel costs through furloughs and layoffs. Acting to offset the effect of lower earnings, Cessna said it was also looking at outsourcing activities not related to building airframes. Aside […]

The first annual Latin American Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition (LABACE) was held in mid-March amid much fanfare. The exhibition featured nearly 80 exhibitors in 185 booth spaces at the Transamrica Expo Center in So Paulo, Brazil, and 16 aircraft on static display at the Congonhas Airport. [more] On March 6, Sino Swearingen Aircraft Corporation […]

In early February, in St. Cloud, France, Dassault performed the first simulated flight of the Falcon 7X, establishing a preliminary standard for its fly-by-wire controls. And on Jan. 29, at Dassault Aviation’s facility in Mrignac, France, 2000EX EASy serial number 6 took to the skies for the first time. Dassault’s EASy flight deck, a fully […]

On Jan. 9, Pratt and Whitney Canada announced it would build a new type of small, efficient turbofan to power Cessna’s new entry-level Mustang, which was introduced at last year’s NBAA Convention. Trying to beat Eclipse at its own game, Cessna heavily promoted its smallest jet ever and chose the PW615F to power the new […]