Marking one of the few large orders announced at NBAA’08, Brazil-based Lider Signatures, a Hawker Beechcraft dealer and authorized service center since 1996, has placed an order with the Wichita OEM for 23 aircraft worth approximately $200 million. Lider CEO Eduardo de Pereira Vaz signed and sealed the contract here yesterday with Brad Hatt, president of commercial sales for Hawker Beech.

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Bell/Agusta Aerospace Co. is showing a new six-place VIP interior in its BA609 tiltrotor mockup here in the Orange County Convention Center (Booth No. 5519). Featuring leather seats, two beverage consoles, a flat floor and foldaway tables, the tasteful interior brings “the comfort of a corporate jet to an aircraft that can go places where others cannot,” said Don Barbour, Bell/Agusta executive mar more

Viking Air of Sidney, British Columbia, flew its DHC-6 Twin Otter Series 400 prototype for the first time on October 1 from Victoria International Airport. Said Steve Stackhouse, pilot-in-command and Viking’s manager of flight operations, “The aircraft performed beautifully.” Michael Moore, co-captain and engineering test pilot, echoed, “The first flight went smoothly and the aircraft handled exac more

Acknowledging that Flight Options had strayed from its original vision, company founder Kenn Ricci and CEO Michael Silvestro, both of whom returned to the operation in recent months, have announced initiatives designed to “recapture the energy we had” at the beginning.

“I don’t blame the [previous] management [for the loss of energy],” Silvestro said. “The owner at the time thought it w more

Thales is demonstrating for the first time at an NBAA Convention its new iDeck “avionics prototyping, advanced system simulation tool.” The simulation platform lets airframers and their customers design, validate and test their future avionics suite configurations and functionality before entering full-scale development.

It is a “pilot-centric” design that maximizes the outcomes and ben more

AAI Acquisition (Booth No. 3383), which acquired the assets of bankrupt Adam Aircraft in April, now has about 200 employees and announced that design, manufacture and test activities have resumed for the A700 very light jet. Company CEO Jack Braly said that AAI is picking up where the former Adam Aircraft left off on the twinjet program, noting that the FAA has agreed to accept certification work more

Thales (Booth No. 789) has been selected by Bombardier to provide a fly-by-wire spoiler system for the Canadian OEM’s new Learjet 85. The Thales spoiler package consists of one digital flight control computer and an integrated spoiler control level and actuation system. Thales used its latest dual flight control computer architecture contained with robust packaging designed specifically for compos more

FlightSafety International (Booth Nos. 2678 and 2682) last week announced plans to add a 100,000-sq-ft extension to its Dallas/Fort Worth Learning Center, which offers training for Dassault and Gulfstream business jets. The addition will double the size of the facility and feature 24 full-flight simulators, a new aircraft maintenance training area and pilot and maintenance training classrooms. The more