September 27, 2007

Cessna’s Pelton proclaims LCC is ready for launch

By Chad Trautvetter

“Had the show been later in the year, we definitely would have launched the Large Cabin Concept [LCC] airplane here at the NBAA Convention,” Cessna chairman, president and CEO Jack Pelton told NBAA Convention News. “We’re ready to go.” The Wichita aircraft manufacturer unveiled the LCC cabin mockup and revealed basic details about the twinjet at last year’s NBAA show but has yet to officially gree more

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Kingfisher’s ties could give Epic boost from Airbus

By Mark Huber

Flush with a $200 million cash infusion from Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya and a $170 million order book, turboprop and VLJ maker Epic Aircraft announced that it is in initial talks with Airbus on a technology- and knowledge-sharing agreement. However, Epic CEO Rick Schrameck backed away from a statement he made on Tuesday that the value of the Airbus alliance would equal or exceed Mallya’s inve more

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Where will Piper land next?

By Matt Thurber

Asked if he has his house on the market as Piper grapples with the decision on whether to stay in Vero Beach, Fla., or move the entire company to Albuquerque, N.M., or Oklahoma City, Piper Aircraft president and CEO Jim Bass said, “No, I don’t,” and added, “We have no agenda or plan to leave Vero Beach. We have to see if it’s in Piper’s long-term best interest to move.”

Meanwhile, deve more

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Second Phenom 100 Makes Maiden Flight

The second Phenom 100 VLJ took flight yesterday, departing from Embraer headquarters in São José dos Campos, Brazil. Captains Marcio Brisolla Jordão and Antonio Bragança Silva were at the controls, assisted by flight engineer Carlos Roberto Silveira Filho. Phenom 100 number two, equipped with full flight-test instrumentation, is slated for systems testing, in-flight thrust determination and flutte more

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Congratulations are in order for the 5,000th Cessna Citation

Rolls-Royce and Cessna celebrated delivery of the 5,000th Citation here yesterday, a Citation X powered by two 6,442-pound-thrust Rolls-Royce AE3007C turbofans. Ian Aitken (right), president of Rolls-Royce Corporate & Regional Aircraft, presented an award to Cessna chairman, president and CEO Jack Pelton at the Rolls-Royce booth. Rolls-Royce is one of three engine manufacturers competing to po more

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Finding NBAA Convention cities has its headaches

By R. Randall Padfield

Why are all NBAA Conventions now on the East Coast? Why doesn’t NBAA use Las Vegas anymore? How about Chicago and Dallas?

In its effort to answer questions that members ask, NBAA held its second membership meeting yesterday here in Atlanta. Before the meeting, the association solicited questions from members, receiving about 300 responses. These were put into groups and NBAA staffers fi more

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GA community urged to stay engaged in user fee battle

Solid progress in the fight against user fees has been made, but the general aviation community has to stay involved for the battle to be won, according to leaders of the fight who took the dais at the User Fee Forum at NBAA’07 yesterday.

“We’re in terminal airspace but there’s convective weather ahead,” said Ed Bolen, president and CEO of the NBAA, likening the effort to a long-distanc more

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Entities unite under West Star banner

By Harry Weisberger

What’s in a name?

If it’s West Star Aviation, it includes the former Premier Air Center at St. Louis Regional Airport (ALN) in East Alton, Ill., and West Star Aviation in Grand Junction, Colo., along with its surplus avionics division in Hiawatha, Iowa. Those entities have been operating as Premier/West Star since December 2004 when Premier Air Center acquired West Star Aviation.
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CMC has third gen of SureSight EVS system

By James Wynbrandt

CMC Electronics (Booth No. 7433) unveiled the third generation of its SureSight enhanced-vision system (EVS) at a press conference on Monday. The CMA-2700 features next-generation digital signal processing, a high-resolution 640- by 512-pixel focal plane array and has level-B certification to DO-178B and DO-254, the highest level yet for an integrated sensor system. Rockwell Collins has selected t more

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NetJets Europe factoring carbon offsets into prices

By Charles Alcock

NetJets Europe is building carbon-offsetting costs into its fractional ownership prices in a bid to become a carbon-neutral operation by 2012. Beginning October 1, all new clients and existing clients who renew their contracts will purchase carbon credits that cancel out the carbon produced when they take flights. Current customers will be asked to sign up for the program voluntarily as part of th more

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