On Friday, Bell Helicopter’s 429 team froze the final exterior profile of its light twin-engine helicopter after months of development flight testing. Since introducing the Bell 429 GlobalRanger at Heli-Expo 2005, Bell has flown two prototypes for more than 400 hours of flight testing. One aircraft is now in Colorado performing high-altitude testing and the other is in Arizona for high-temperature trials.
AINalerts » October 30, 2007
October 30, 2007 - 11:18am
When Sentient Flight Group announced last week that it plans to buy TAG Aviation USA, it didn’t clarify whether this included AMI Jet Charter, 49 percent of which is owned by TAG Aviation USA. The FAA revoked AMI’s charter operating certificate on October 12.
October 30, 2007 - 11:17am
According to statistics compiled by Boca Raton, Fla.-based safety analyst Robert E. Breiling Associates, turbine-powered business airplanes were involved in 12 fatal accidents that killed 33 people in the first nine months of this year, compared with 15 accidents and 30 fatalities in the same period last year.
October 30, 2007 - 11:15am
The third prototype of the Grob SPn flew for the first time yesterday, lifting off the runway at 9:28 a.m. from the company’s airfield at Tussenhausen-Mattsies, Germany. S/N 003’s first flight lasted 1 hour and 44 minutes and followed extensive ground testing of systems such as fuel, engines, hydraulics, landing gear and avionics. At the controls were chief test pilot Tore Reimers and test pilot Peter Weger.
October 30, 2007 - 11:14am
The Transportation Security Administration plans soon to release changes to the voluntary general aviation security guidelines, and is looking at ways to “positively identify” pilots before and in flight. To find out more about what the TSA is doing, and how it views GA security in general, AIN spoke with Michal Morgan, the TSA’s general manager for general aviation.
October 30, 2007 - 11:13am
Bombardier Aerospace this morning launched the clean-sheet Learjet NXT to fill the gap between its midsize $13.3 million Learjet 60XR and $21 million super-midsize Challenger 300.
